![]() In many ways, we started ID Company with the idea of continuing to do creative services for clients, but also to develop brands of our own. We still do all of those things, with a bit more focus on communication and content strategy on behalf of our clients. What services did ID Company provide when you first started it, and what has that expanded to now?īU: ID Company started out as a fairly straightforward creative services firm, mostly focused on developing brand identities, website design and print collateral. UVA Today caught up with the trio to learn more about how they got started, their approach to business and how their time at UVA shaped them. On the surface, the businesses don’t seem as if they would be related, but, interestingly, they have all been designed to work in tandem with each other.Īt UVA, Wooten, a 2004 grad from Waynesboro, majored in religious studies and minored in architecture Uhl, a 2007 grad from West Chester, Pennsylvania, majored in economics and religious studies prior to earning his MBA at the Darden School of Business and FitzHenry is an alumnus of The College of William and Mary, who worked at the Department of Defense before earning his MBA from Darden. Today, their portfolio includes six Grit Coffee locations and The Wool Factory, a newly opened hospitality destination in Charlottesville’s newly renovated Woolen Mills, a property once owned by Thomas Jefferson that featured working mills they later produced military uniforms for the Confederate States of America before being torched by Union forces. Ten years ago, the alumni founded a design firm in Charlottesville called “ID Company” - a business designed to help other businesses via a wide range of services, including web development, marketing and rebranding. Wooten, Uhl and FitzHenry certainly seem to have the founding spirit thing down pat. The coffee’s flavors include toasted almond, vanilla and a “subtle hint” of black cherry that, according to its website, is “great for sipping on The Lawn or cheering on the Hoos” - a blend that is a “celebration of the founding spirit and the pursuit of excellence.” The medium roast blend that they created at Charlottesville’s Grit Coffee is called “1819” - an homage to the year UVA was founded. Grit stops serving food at 2pm, which has caught me several times (I’m a late lunch sort), but serves drinks until 5.The love that entrepreneurs Brandon Wooten, Brad Uhl (EMBA ’15) and Dan FitzHenry (EMBA ’18) have for the University of Virginia is pretty obvious – just check out their coffee. ![]() They will often go out of their way to take care of customers. The staff are wonderful – friendly and helpful. Flame’s drink of choice is an almond milk latte. If you don’t drink milk, Grit makes its own almond milk, sweetened with dates. They offer a number of breads (no gluten-free option yet), or Flame orders the “sandwich” without bread and gets extra lettuce. Flame generally puts her breakfast together from side dishes (she doesn’t eat wheat or dairy or sugar or…), scrambled eggs, vegetables and one of their salsas (fresca or tomatilla). My current favorite breakfast is their Huevos Buenos – eggs and salsa with ham and potatoes. Their breakfasts include standard American fare – French toast, omelets (hmm, both of which are actually French, no?), with several Cuban-South American choices (they were Cafe Cubano, after all). Cafe Cubano had a strong commitment to using local foods, and Grit seems to be carrying on this commitment.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |