Turning their liability into an asset puts former corporate couple in the gravy

Lisa Hake, a marketing manager in 3M's dental division, and her husband, Jason, an equity analyst with Piper Jaffray, were typical entrants in the corporate rat race.

They worked 50 hours a week or more, traveled way too much -- and had little time to spend with their two preschool children, much less to prepare meals that were both nutritious and toothsome.

"We thought about hiring a personal chef," Lisa said, but they were deterred by the cost -- about $600 a month.

Instead, that notion sparked a decision to start their own business in a new and burgeoning corner of the food industry.

Early in 2004 they opened Sociale Inc., an Eagan-based make-and-take gourmet entrée-assembly operation that allows customers to choose among 14 different ready-to-cook entrées and related side dishes to be taken home and frozen for later use.

The Hakes, both 34, had no trouble identifying their market: busy professionals who work long hours and are strapped for time to spend with their families.

"We truly were our target market," Lisa said.

It's a market that has lofted Sociale Inc. -- which does business as Sociale Make & Take Gourmet -- to sales of $600,000 in 2004 and $1 million in 2005, with the gross on track to reach $1.5 million in 2006.

Now, with the business having turned profitable earlier this year, the Hakes are busy adding both a new store in Edina and a franchising operation they figure will become the backbone of the company.

Sociale is not alone in the market: At least three other companies have opened make-and-take locations in the Twin Cities in recent years. For example, Let's Dish, the Eden Prairie-based take-and-bake firm founded in 2003, raised $4 million private equity in 2005.

The Hakes have sought to differentiate themselves in a couple of ways. First, they've focused on a gourmet menu prepped by three chefs trained at Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Institute at Brown College and changed monthly to ensure customer interest. Working out of a 100-square-foot kitchen in the company's flagship Eagan store, the chefs blend the sauces, dice the vegetables, mix the spices and in some cases brown the meat.

For customers this means no planning, no need for culinary expertise and no cleanup.

The menus for May and June provide a taste of the food being offered. There's a Greek chicken recipe that includes feta cheese, red onions and a savory sauce. And a seared, seasoned strip steak with carmelized onions and spinach ravioli filled with gorgonzola cheese. Not to mention a mahi mahi recipe that uses shredded coconuts and fresh-sliced bananas to enhance the dish.

Oh yes -- and for the kids, there's a meatball sub sandwich topped by marinara sauce and melted mozzarella cheese.

The cost: $3 to $4 per entrée if the customers assemble the meals themselves, $4 to $5 if the food is prepared and frozen for pickup at the Hakes' flagship Eagan store or one of two satellite shops opened in July in downtown and southwest Minneapolis.

The other element in the Hakes' effort to distinguish the business is found at the front of the 2,000-square-foot Eagan shop, where a significant amount of space is devoted to a boutique offering gourmet cooking items. It was a natural choice for Jason, whose family owns a small chain of stores that sell gourmet kitchenware.

The combination is complementary, Lisa said: "The boutique is a small part of sales, but an important part of the marketing package ... because it attracts customers to the make-and-take section who might otherwise never consider it." Meanwhile, the make-and-take section generates interest in the boutique.

The Hakes tapped their savings, their 401(k)s and their home equity to fund the start-up and the expansion into the smaller satellite shops, where boutique items and frozen meals are offered. The satellites are a key element of the strategy, Jason said, because they offer an outlet for leftovers, which are frozen for later sale at the end of each day.

"It's turning leftovers into a value-added revenue generator," he said. "That's the beauty of this model."

Later this year, they plan to open a 2,400-square-foot store in Edina that will include a retail shop and a make-and-take assembly line supplied by the Eagan kitchen. More important, it will include a training facility for the franchising business, which was launched last August with the signing of a franchisee in Charleston, S.C.

By the end of 2006, they figure to have five more franchises open and 10 more in development. Beyond that, Jason is making no estimates: "We're so busy, our horizon is sort of a rolling six months," he said.

Which raises the key question: How has starting a business affected their quest for more time with the family?

"At first it was all work and no play," Lisa said. But beginning in January, she began spending two days during the work week at home.

Dick Youngblood • 612-673-4439 • yblood@startribune.com