Cooking Up New Ideas in a Rented Kitchen
by Sandy Ikeda
Sun, 1 Jun 2008 at 1:30 AM
Seems I had to travel to Arizona to find out about a small Brooklyn-based company, called Kitchen for Hire, Inc. (Hat tip to Laurie Kagiyama.) You can also read about it here.
Priscilla Maddox and Joan Reid began renting a commercial kitchen to start-up businesses, like Brooklyn Fudge, in 2000 after they couldn't find commercial kitchen space for their own cookie business. Commercial cooking in residential areas and apartments can create a nuisance and is often illegal. Small businesses (and I suppose religious groups or large families between homes) can avoid big start-up costs by hiring these kitchens by the hour (for about $20-25) or month. These not only include the cost of commercial cooking and baking equipment but also the cost of meeting local health and sanitary codes.
This is apparently a cottage industry across the country, although I think it would have particular advantages in dense urban areas, where space is at a premium but where you can also find a variety of inputs as well as a diversity of tastes. A few years ago some friends of mine had the great idea opening a boutique sushi shop specializing in out-of-the-ordinary items but couldn't manage it out of their apartment. They might have made a go of it had they known of this place.
Here's a good example of how urban entrepreneurs can create spaces that themselves incubate new ideas. I wonder why more restaurants don't hire out their kitchens after hours? It would seem to be a cheap way of boosting revenue. Or is the risk of damage to décor, plates, etc. too great?
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