Who we are

A forge in the heart of Antwerp. Run on its own work.

AI Smith works from Simone's Kitchen, Breughelstraat 32: more than thirty repositories for organisations of different kinds, built and run from here on one pattern. The first Hub was built for this kitchen, and it still runs the place every day: the rota, the bookings, the stock, the menus. Walk in, and it is running.

The building is more than an office. By day the ground floor is the forge, where the people we work with come to meet and work; by night it is the restaurant, and the rooms above are where they stay. Meet, work, eat, sleep. Full circle.

The front door of Simone's Kitchen at Breughelstraat 32, Antwerp, with its wooden sign.

The people

The team that runs Simone's Kitchen runs the forge.

Simone's Kitchen is a restaurant, a training kitchen and a bed and breakfast, a non-profit community that has taught more than 350 volunteers from 45 nationalities to cook since 2016. The people who run it are the people behind AI Smith, each on their own part of the work, and they are introduced where they work.

The smith

Alistair Smith builds and runs the Hubs. He started as a systems engineer (Busch Consulting, Honolulu; MCSE, Cisco and CompTIA A+), spent some years as a financial advisor at Lloyds TSB in London, and has run venues and wholefood businesses in London, Amsterdam and Antwerp since. Six countries and several industries taught him the same thing each time: the back office is where the time goes. The Hubs are what he built to give some of it back.

The first users

The chefs, the general manager and the volunteers of Simone's Kitchen were the first users of what the forge makes, and still are: the kitchen is where a part is tried before it ships to anyone else.

Meet the team at Simone's Kitchen

Case studies

Two organisations, one pattern.

Simone's Kitchen

A restaurant, training kitchen and B&B in Antwerp: rota, bookings, stock, menus, social. The first Hub, and the one we live in.

Zuidgeluid

A children's music organisation in Flanders: programmes, agenda, parents, supporters, funding paperwork. Dutch, day to day.

A restaurant and a music school share no customers, no revenue model and no regulator. Underneath, they run on the same machine. That is the whole claim.

The Academy

The Forge Academy runs from here.

Every Hub comes with the Forge Academy for the client's team. It is taught from the same building the first Hub runs in, by the people who run it.

Come and see it running.

A short call, or a table at Simone's Kitchen. Either way you will see the Hub doing the work.

Ask for a call Book a table