NEREJ

Project of the Month: Haynes Group and Joe The Architect, LLC complete build-out of Eva’s Little Kitchen

October 1, 2021 - Owners Developers & Managers

Bedford, MA Need a quick, delicious, no-stress meal for you and the family? Or a quick dessert to satisfy your sweet tooth? Eva’s Little Kitchen has you covered with thoughtful and nourishing meals, and a charming boutique storefront.

Proprietor and culinary creative, Eva Badra, discovered her love for cooking at an early age, and quickly realized that this was the path she wanted to take.

“I started as a personal chef and grew tired of cooking for only one to two families who had specific dietary needs,” Badra said. “I didn’t want to be unhappy in my job, so I started the meal delivery service to feed more people and be creative with the food I wanted to make.”

Over time, the business scaled to a physical location. And with that, she discovered a town that had a need for a unique experience. “There’s nothing around here like this, everything is diner style,” she said. “Bedford is a small town but a good community. It’s also central to a lot of larger towns like Lexington, Concord, and Burlington.”

Joe the Architect (JtA), a collective of architectural, interior and brand designers, were the visionaries behind the design.

“We love working on a wide range of projects, and a wide range of projects within the food and service industry,” said Chris Milne, creative director at JtA. “Each of them has its own unique style, goals, and challenges, and we love to thoughtfully design around all three. Eva’s Little Kitchen was especially unique because we had to combine a big, very functional, very operationally important kitchen with an inviting, customer-facing café space. That juxtaposition is pretty stark, but we were excited at the chance to marry the two together.”

Bringing the design to life was the Haynes Group, a full-service commercial construction company who believes in delivering projects that enhance the lives of people and their communities.

“Our first job is to listen to our client’s vision, from there it’s important to have a good team,” said Jeff Benevides, project executive at Haynes Group. “We had a solid team and that’s what made this project so great. Working with Joe the Architect and Eva through the challenges of the project and finding solutions wouldn’t have been so smooth otherwise.”

“I’m an intuitive person, so from the first walkthrough during the estimating phase, I knew Haynes Group would be the one,” Badra said.

Having a cohesive team minimizes challenges and creates a fun experience. “Weekly meetings were fun, I enjoyed giving Dan, the Site Supervisor projects I thought were fun, he probably didn’t think they were that fun, but I did,” said Badra. “Post construction was a bit more stressful, but it’s all about learning to let go of things and understanding that there’s only so much you can control kept me levelheaded. Everyone at Haynes Group has always been so awesome, Jeff and Christine dealt with things, so I didn’t have to worry.”

“We always love partnering and collaborating with Haynes Group. Aside from being great people, things go very smoothly, and the job gets done effectively and efficiently,” Milne said. “For this particular project Jeff was a pleasure to work with. He was always in good communication with us, and he was great at coming up with solutions for things that popped up. In addition, Eva always had a direct connection with Haynes, whether it be Jeff or someone else, that she could talk directly with and ask questions. That’s important, especially for someone as busy as Eva.”

For both Joe the Architect and the Haynes Group, the most exciting part of this project was witnessing the excitement of the client.

“What made this project fun was seeing the excitement in Eva’s eyes at weekly meetings when she got to see progress week after week. Knowing that we were able to make her dreams become a reality,” said Christine Medeiros, Assistant Project Manager at Haynes Group.”

“My favorite part of this project was helping Eva fulfill a lifelong dream to create a kitchen and space that she can call her own,” Milne said. “She works incredibly hard and has worked hard to get to this point, so we wanted to make sure we delivered on that hard work. From the kitchen to the café space, and creating her logo and branding, she trusted us to bring all of it to life and make it a reality. That’s a big deal and something we’re immensely honored to be a part of.”

Haynes Group and Joe the Architect have a history of working together and delivering on their goal of bringing their clients vision to life. The result was a stylish 2,620 s/f boutique meal delivery and takeout restaurant.

“Eva has worked extremely hard to get her business to where it is and we were honored to be a small part of her next big chapter,” said Benevides.

The project team included: