A one on one conversation with Mindy Rohr, experience manager for the Pizitz Food Hall.
A native of Lexington, Ken., Mindy Rohr was already a local social-media darling when Bayer Properties came to town to build The Summit at Fritz Farm, a lifestyle center similar to The Summit Birmingham. The Bayer team took note of Rohr’s popular blog and Instagram page—which promote people, places and events in Lexington—and invited her to their pre-groundbreaking party.
A relationship was born. When Rohr and husband Jesse moved to Birmingham two years later, she learned there was an opening for marketing manager at The Summit. Along with her success in social media, Rohr also had retail and event-management experience, making the job a perfect fit for growing her knowledge of the industry. When Bayer Properties opened The Pizitz Food Hall in 2017, Rohr fell in love with the concept and its community of charismatic entrepreneurs in downtown Birmingham. This summer she started a new position as experience manager for The Pizitz Food Hall and found herself at a dreamy intersection of great food, endless possibilities for social engagements, and a way to make the most of her social-media savvy.
B-Metro: What got you so excited about The Pizitz Food Hall?
Rohr: I love this project 100 percent, so when they approached me about it, I thought, ‘Are you serious? Have you guys been reading my journal?’ I’m a foodie, so I love to be over something that’s more food focused. I’m also helping to do marketing events and run the social media, as well as helping some of the local operators figure out how to do that for themselves too. During my time at The Summit, I was able to establish a lot of great community connections that will be extremely beneficial for propelling The Pizitz Food Hall and its up-and-coming restaurateurs to the next level of greatness.
B-Metro: Tell me about deciding to move to
Birmingham.
Rohr: When I came to Birmingham to interview with Bayer, we stayed at The Redmont Hotel and wandered around the streets of downtown past the Alabama Theatre and the Lyric. We visited Five Points South, Homewood, Mountain Brook, etc., and did a few touristy things like Vulcan and Sloss Furnaces. And we ate our way around Birmingham.
From the 72-hour trip, we knew we wanted to be a part of this city. We knew it was about to have its moment. It’s crazy to look back and see how so much has changed since that trip in March of 2016! I’m beyond excited to now be a part of the downtown family and be a part of that growth in my role at The Pizitz.
B-Metro: Do you live inside the city?
Rohr: We recently moved to Glen Iris. As we transitioned from Lexington to Birmingham, we always knew we wanted to be close to downtown. Our house was built in 1925, the first ‘old’ house we’ve ever owned. All of our houses in Kentucky were brand-new-development type homes, so we’d walk through the streets of downtown Lexington and dream about owning an old home one day, which is exactly what we have now. The interior was all updated but in a manner that kept the history of the house. It’s also very ‘Instagrammable’ with lots of natural light, which made me instantly fall in love!
B-Metro: What are you doing on social media now?
Rohr: I’m managing The Pizitz, and my own Instagram account that started as an account all about Lexington but has transitioned into a lifestyle page (‘Love, Lexington’). My husband manages the Instagram account ‘Badass B’ham.’ We secured the name and the account the first weekend that we were here. We knew this was going to be a place where we wanted to do what we were doing in Lexington.
B-Metro: You’ve been pretty successful at it, too. What’s the secret to a great Instagram account?
Rohr: If you have the eye for it and the talent for it, you’ll figure it out as you go. And I love to do a lot of research on it. I’m constantly reading different blogs about social media, following different influencers to see what they’re doing, listening to podcasts about it, just trying to figure out where this world is going as it evolves and changes daily.
B-Metro: So you stay busy…
Rohr: Every hour is something. I like that. It gives me energy and helps me be creative. When I’m not doing anything I’m less creative than when I’m running in all different directions. •
