Eight years ago, Matt Keating was getting ready to graduate from Cazenovia High School. Today, he’s an owner of a Washington, D.C. grocery store and sandwich shop that has had exposure in the Washington Post and has served scores of George Washington University students and State Department employees.
But Keating hasn’t forgotten about his Upstate New York roots.
“We have Dinosaur BBQ sauce, and I’m pretty sure you can’t find that anywhere else down here,” Keating said.
The store had a soft opening in March, with a grand opening Friday May 7. The grocery store, known as Foggy Bottom Grocery since 1946, is located in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of D.C.
“When I was in college, me and my friend Chris used to shop here at this kind of run-down grocery store, and we always called it FoBoGro,” Keating said.
Two years ago, his friend came to him and said that the owner was looking forward to retiring, and asked if they could put together a business plan.
“So I quit my job and basically spent about a year and a half planning the whole business,” Keating said.
Another idea inspired by Upstate New York grocery stores, FoBoGro’s bulk candy section has been pretty popular with college students, especially during finals week.
The store is two floors of groceries, with a sandwich shop on the bottom floor — a sandwich shop that sells a sub called the “Cazenovia.”
“To be honest, we just needed some names,” Keating said, and the name worked well for the Italian cold cut sub with provolone. “I think Cazenovia sounds kind of Italian.”
The sandwich shop uses freshly baked bread delivered seven days a week from a local bakery.
“We use really nice ingredients,” Keating said. The store employs a lot of students, who aren’t professional chefs, so “as long as we use really high quality ingredients, it’s going to taste good at the end,” he said. “We’re not gourmet, we just try to do it right.”
A recent article in the Washington Post helped business.
“I was really impressed from the response we got from that article, quite frankly,” Keating said. “One day we had a line full of students and the next couple days, it was a line of grown-ups.”
Keating said a number of State Department employees frequented the shop after the article was published.
Keating graduated from George Washington University in 2006 with a Bachelor’s in Business Administration.
When Keating lived in Cazenovia, he was the student council president at Cazenovia High School from 2001-02 and served on the Madison County Youth Bureau.
His propensity for dedication and hard work was reflected in one particular honor.
“I was gym class hero four years back to back to back to back I guess that’s my legacy.”
Eight years later, he finds reward in 17-hour workdays and the challenges of starting your own business.
“I’m working my tail off here,” Keating said.
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