Hey Noodlers,

We’re excited to announce the Noodleriffic design contest for all Detroiters and beyond! This weekend Neighborhood Noodle participated in Lansing Startup Weekend, where we assembled the awesomest (yea, we said it) team ever. It was there that we started thinking through ways that the Noodle could help meet the demand for locally sourced, healthy, and damn delicious food in Detroit.  Our fearless leader, Jess, has been hacking away day in and out, serving up delicious South East Asian noodles to our customers for the past few months, and now we’re ready to start growing!

But, we need your help.  As you know, Neighborhood Noodle is committed to the Detroit community, and we have some really exciting plans to expand over the next few months and even years. So, to get things rolling we’re pumped up and proud to announce the Noodleriffic logo design contest!

What: Logo for Neighborhood Noodle (see below for full submission guidelines)
Who: Designers, creatives, artists, and noodle-lovers
When: Deadline is Dec 31, 2010, midnight EST
Where: Must live within 50 miles of Detroit
Why: You’ve got mad skillz, you love Noodle and want to do something cool! Oh yea, and there’s a…

Prize: Cooking class for up to five people in your home with the noodle girl (three-course meal, all ingredients and instruction included — $375 value) and bragging rights.

Submission: Two images, one with image only and one including the text, “Neighborhood Noodle.” Both must be in EPS and JPG format (four files total) — must be able to register as a service mark.

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We’ll post all the designs on our Facebook page and here on the website for noodle-lovers to provide feedback. The final design will be chosen by NN and may be used on other promotional material (e.g., t-shirts). Designs should be in line with the business, mission and culture of NN All designs become property of NN.

Click here to download a PDF with the official contest rules & legalese.

Love,

the Startup Weekend Lansing Neighborhood Noodle Team — Aliya, Brett B, Brett K, Sean, and Jess

PS. Isn’t that a beautiful logo for the contest announcement? It was hatched in no time at all by the brilliant Brett Belock of Belock Designs. His focus is on product design, exhibit design and 3-D modeling, but he’s also a kick-ass graphics guy. Check out his portfolio here.

Now we’re looking to partner with an up-and-coming chef who shares both our love for Detroit and our vision to deliver healthy, affordable, locally sourced, delicious Asian food to the folks of Detroit. We’re not talking soggy chow mein or overcooked broccoli drenched in sauce. Think stir-fried rice noodles with garden-fresh basil, and fresh rolls with Detroit-grown greens and peaches.

In the short term, we’re working on opening a small café or stationary truck in Midtown Detroit. Our dream is to eventually support a fleet of food trucks and healthy snack carts in the metro area.

Who you are: A chef with lots of energy, a sense of humor, experience in a restaurant kitchen, love for SE Asian cuisine, experience or willingness to learn about local food sourcing and menu development.

We will figure out the financing, licenses, and all that nitty-gritty. You’d be the tzar in charge of sourcing quality ingredients, coming up with a menu that makes sense, everyday kitchen operations, and training kitchen staff…

What you’ll get: For now, we can negotiate compensation depending on experience and your schedule. In the long term, you’ll get equity in the company and the opportunity to build something amazing that will contribute to an incredible city and hopefully inspire lots of other up and coming food entrepreneurs.

If this whole thing has got your noodle buzzing and you think you might be just the person we’re looking for, drop us a line at neighborhoodnoodle(at)gmail.com with your resume, including relevant cooking experience, a letter explaining your goals and passion and how that might fit in with the noodle, and times you’re available to meet up in the next month.

The basic gist of the event:

• folks get together and pitch project ideas — these span the gamut…  super vague to well developed, many of them are web-based apps and services, but some are real-life businesses like the Noodle!
• attendees vote on ideas and then form teams
• teams of developers, marketers, designers, and jacks-of-all-trades work together over the course of the weekend to develop the product. Along the way, they get advice from experts, feedback from other groups, and lots of good food to fuel their creativity
• on Sunday evening, teams present to one another and panel of business experts who provide feedback

We didn’t plan to pitch an idea… but it’s easy to get swept up in the excitement.

Turns out, we got the second highest number of balloon votes for our idea, hooray! Hence, the Noodle Team was born.

Saturday morning, Aliya and I kicked things off with a brainstorm of the goals and long-term vision.

Now we’re working on working out concrete next steps for the next 9 months.