Industry City celebrates Cinco de Mayo with Feel Good Foods, Avocaderia and Be Mixed

It was a very happy Cinco de Mayo at Sunset Park’s Industry City.

Feel Good Foods, a company that offers chef-inspired gluten-free nourishing frozen foods, hosted a Facebook Live event on Friday, May 5 to celebrate the holiday, in partnership with a number of Industry City neighbors. Inside the company’s test kitchen, located at 254 36th Street, Feel Good Foods collaborated with Industry City’s Avocaderia, a new eatery that focuses on avocado, and Be Mixed, a Manhattan based company that specializes in unique margaritas, for a fun and festive cooking demo and party.

Filippo Brachetti of Avocaderia, which was founded by his brother Francesco, was just one neighbor on hand to give some demonstrations.

“[Francesco] opened this place after being in Mexico for three years, where he fell in love with avocado because it was very healthy and delicious,” said Brachetti of Avocaderia’s origin. “We focus on avocado. Many other people do other things, but our thing is avocado. There are so many places that just do pizza or tacos so why not do avocado?”

The eatery, he said, is as good for your wallet as it is for your body.

“We came up with a healthy and affordable place for everybody,” Brachetti said. “And it’s quick. It’s something you can have every day. We want to master one ingredient so we focus on it and sometimes limitations help creativity.”

So far the eatery, located at 238 36th Street, which opened around Easter, has been a success. “It’s been very amazing. It’s overwhelming. Lots of people have been coming.”

Its location, he said, has helped tremendously.

“[Sunset Park] has been amazing and I love it,” Brachetti added. “We live here and people have been very nice to us. Many of the people that work are from the neighborhood. We are happy to be here.”

During the live demonstration, the cook went for something different, going the fresh route, adding ingredients like celery and cucumbers to his plate instead of typical Cinco de Mayo add-ons such as onions and nachos. The result was a unique and delicious spread.

Tryg Siverson, co-founder of Feel Good Foods, spoke of the event’s conception and of the company’s test kitchen. “I think you need time to do collaborative events,” he explained. “It’s great because it exposes us to other brands and it allows us to collaborate more which is important for small businesses especially here in Industry City.”

For the shindig, Siverson made the company’s boxed taquitos and turned them into different — and flavorful — enchiladas. “We invested a fair amount of money in our office space here and into this test kitchen with the idea of allowing a space for collaboration so that was a purpose of building this test kitchen, to host these events,” he said. “Cinco de Mayo is a great time to do that. We planned to do something with margaritas and guacamole so we figured, how can we plan companies that we can collaborate with. We’re in a similar industry [as Avocaderia and Be Mixed] in that we’re healthy and better for you, all-natural type brands.”

Co-founder of Be Mixed Jennifer Ross also discussed the significance of her company, founded in 2015, and participating in events of this kind. “I am a type 1 diabetic so I’ve always been looking for delicious cocktails without sugar and calories,” she said as she made a jalapeño margarita during the event. “There’s no sugar inhem . . . and they’re really very easy to make.”

As for the collaboration, she said, “It was fun. A great party needs great food so it’s fun to partner on the food side of things.”

For more information or to watch the stream, visit www.facebook.com/feelgoodfoods.

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