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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

commercial kitchen

Female-Founded Commerical Kitchen Nimbus to Open in NYC

Nimbus, a commercial kitchen space for food businesses of all types, is set to officially open on January 11 in New York City. With it, the company’s founders, entrepreneurs Camilla Opperman and Samantha Slager, aim to provide a space for restaurants struggling from both the pandemic and high cost of rent in NYC.

To learn more about Nimbus and its upcoming launch, I spoke with Opperman and Slager this week. The two said they were inspired to provide an “on-demand” kitchen space to support restaurants and start-ups in their city, but also wanted to go above and beyond the standard ghost kitchen concept.

Nimbus offers a variety of flexible lease and rental options that allow food businesses to control how much they are spending on rent per month. A restaurant or food entrepreneur can rent space at Nimbus for a range of different time periods, from a few months to just a few hours. They can also choose a longer-term lease if desired. Space in the facility costs $20/hour for the prep-only kitchen and $35/hour for the shift-kitchens with a 20-hour minimum per month for both. The Nimbus model also allows businesses to use a convenient online dashboard to book kitchen time, rent storage space, pay invoices, and store permit and insurance information. The kitchen spaces are fully stocked with appliances, saving the food businesses money in start-up costs.

Since ghost kitchens are very much a “back-of-house” operation, what goes on inside them is never really witnessed by customers. To deviate from this and provide more transparency into its operations, the Nimbus facility will also include a front-of-house community space and show-kitchen. These spaces can be used for cooking demonstrations, community events, and workshops, Nimbus said.

The first Nimbus location will host a variety of both existing restaurants and food startups. Roberta’s Pizza (wood-fired pizza), Quinn (a meal delivery service), Alchemista (offers catering and food locker services), Brooklyn Batched Cocktails (pre-made batch cocktails), and Munch Hours Inc (a catering company) are just a few of the businesses that will start using the commercial kitchen space on January 11. Businesses using the space will partner will existing food delivery companies such as DoorDash and Caviar.

As ghost kitchens become more popular — Euromonitor predicted last year the market could be worth $1 trillion by 2030 — different types are emerging that deviate from the traditional commissary a la Kitchen United or Zuul. Nimbus’ concept provides not just an opportunity for restaurants looking for shorter-term leases, but also a way for non-restaurant food businesses to take advantage of the growing ghost kitchen concept.

Nimbus’ cofounders said they are currently looking into opening two new locations in different areas of New York City. The company also has plans to expand nationwide in the next five years, starting in major cities such as Los Angeles and Miami.

Will California’s AB-626 Bill Serve Home Cooks, Entrepreneurs, or Tech Giants?

When AB-626 (also known as the 2018 Homemade Food Operations Act) passed in California last year it ushered in the start of what we at The Spoon have started calling the Home Cook Economy. Now, home cooks in the Sunshine State are allowed to sell up to 60 meals a week and make up to $50,000 in annual revenue.

Yesterday the L.A. Times ran a story on the Home Food Economy in which author Frank Shyong argued that AB-626 is not, in fact, helping the immigrant and low-income cooks that it promised it would.

Shyong certainly makes some valid points — especially when it comes to immigrants and immigration officials — but I finished the piece feeling that we had some very differing views on what exactly AB-626 would look like.

First of all, Shyong seems to think that most home cooks who will take advantage of AB-626 are trying to start their own food business. To that end, he argues that the bill is too vague in its language about what constitutes a “meal,” and the 60 meals per week/ $50,000 annual revenue caps make it too difficult for entrepreneurs to actually make a living off of sales from homemade goods.

True. But the way I understood it, AB-626 was never meant to facilitate full-fledged cottage food businesses. Instead, it was intended to offer economic empowerment through supplementary income via home-cooked foods.

To confirm this I called up Ani Torosyan, founder of DishDivvy, a Glendale, CA-based company with a mobile app that connects consumers with pre-approved home cooks in their area. She also had a few issues with the L.A. Times article. “If you get anywhere close to $50,000 gross revenue… you really should be going to an industrialized kitchen,” she said.

In short, AB-626 is not for people who are looking to start a full-fledged food production business. It’s for home cooks that are looking for a little bit of extra money, or maybe want to dip their toe in the food business before they decide to ramp up production and rent out a commercial kitchen space.

Reading the piece, I was a little surprised by Shyong’s argument that more than any other party, AB-626 would end up benefiting tech giants. He predicts that the home-cook economy will quickly be dominated by tech giants like Uber who will step in to help home cooks — many of whom have no entrepreneurial experience of their own — do things like manage payments, market their product, and ensure last-mile delivery. In exchange for a percentage of their profits, of course.

I agree that tech companies will play a role in shaping the home-cooking industry — this day and age, it’s inevitable. In fact, it was a tech company who first paved the way for the home-cook economy. C.O.O.K. Alliance, a group founded by the now-defunct startup Josephine which was one of the first to give home cooks a platform from which to sell their food, was one of the primary advocates for AB-626. Even without an official marketplace, sites like Craigslist, Facebook, and even Nextdoor have served as platforms on which people can buy and sell homemade food.

But I don’t think that tech companies will destroy the heart and soul of the home-cook economy. And neither does The Spoon’s Michael Wolf.

Back in June he wrote a piece responding to a different L.A. Times article which took a similarly worried view about the opportunistic role that tech giants could play in the emerging home cook economy. Wolf argued that even if Uber or Airbnb did enter the home meal sharing market and charge 15 percent fees (which is what DishDivvy currently charges), so what? As long as legislation is in place to ensure food safety and third party fee transparency — both of which are clearly outlined in AB-626 — why not open up a new, flexible market opportunity to budding food entrepreneurs?

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the home cooking marketplace is another example of how complicated it is doing business in a tech-filled world. Yes, the home meal sharing economy is a ripe target for hungry tech businesses to take advantage of people. Which is especially dangerous when the target beneficiaries would be immigrants, people of color, and women.

But in the end, it boils down to what the home cooks want. If tech giants can give them access to an instant audience, providing a marketplace that new food entrepreneurs can easily plug into, then I say bring it on. But for now, it’s smaller tech startups like DishDivvy that are paving the way in the home food sharing economy.

Sure, Big Tech players will likely enter the home-cook economy in order to grab a piece of the (homemade) pie. In fact, AirBnB has already done so: Shyong references how the company sponsored the passage of AB 626, likely because homemade food preparation is a key part of some of its “experiences.” But there’s also a future where tech companies can help grow the home cook economy without destroying it.

Chew Abandons Plans to Save Former Pilotworks Brooklyn Location

The poor former tenants of Pilotworks’ Brooklyn just cannot catch a break.

This October their commercial kitchen space, which many depended on for their entire business operations, shut down with no warning. A supportive community rose up to support these stranded entrepreneurs, 175 of which had been working out of the Brooklyn Pilotworks location, but many struggled with the challenge of relocating their business.

Then a ray of sunshine seemed to peek out through the clouds. A few weeks ago Boston-based food research lab Chew announced that it was taking over the former Pilotworks Brooklyn location and turning it into a new food & beverage incubator called The Nursery. All previous tenants were invited to return and restart their businesses. The space, under new management, was set to reopen in mid-December, pending permit approval.

But all budding hopes were dashed when The Nursery tenants received an email from Chew founder Adam Melonas on December 18th with the headline “Unfortunate News” (hat tip to Edible Brooklyn). Melonas went on to write that “our plans to open Nursery at the former Pilotworks Brooklyn site will unfortunately not be moving forward.” According to Eater, the Chew team found issues during pre-inspection and came to the conclusion the former Pilotworks location wasn’t up to par with the company’s standards.

While I don’t know details about the facility or Chew’s exact motivations for shutting down this project, I do know it’s a major bummer. Pilotworks’ tenants — most of whom are budding food entrepreneurs hustling hard to turn their business from dream into reality — have been jerked around a lot of late, and it seems like Chew should have maybe figured this all out before they promised to revive the space.

Gripes aside, this news shows just how tough it can be to make the commercial kitchen business sustainable. Thankfully tools like the Food Corridor and Cookitoo exist to help connect small-scale food producers with local shared kitchen spaces. But even so, those resources can’t guarantee that the commercial kitchen spaces on their list won’t also run into issues and shut their doors.

It’s not all darkness and despair, though. Last week Hudson Kitchen signed a lease to open a shared-use commercial kitchen space in South Kearny, New Jersey, not far from Pilotworks’ former Newark location. This may seem like relatively small news, but it’s still a sign that the demand for food business incubators is still very much there — and that companies are working to meet it.

Stranded by Pilotworks? Here are Some Alternatives to Check Out

It sucks when any startup abruptly shuts down, but when a company like Pilotworks closes its doors, there’s a huge ripple effect that impacts more than just its own employees. Food entrepreneurs who were tenants at Pilotworks locations now must scramble for kitchen space to keep their own businesses alive.

From what commenters on our original story and people on our Slack channel are telling us, Pilotworks’s abrupt closure came as a surprise to those food entrepreneurs working at the Brooklyn location.

If you were impacted by Pilotworks’ closure, here are some things you can do (if are local to these areas and have more/better tips, please leave a comment to help others out):

A good first step is to visit The Kitchen Door from The Food Corridor, an online platform that connects food businesses and commercial production spaces. I did a quick search on its site and found results in the following Pilotworks locations (click each link for the full list):

Brooklyn – City Saucery, Hot Bread Kitchen
Chicago – River Forest Kitchen, Fig and Olive
Dallas – Perfect Temper, The Craft Kitchen
Newark, NJ – BAO Food and Drink Incubator, Academy of Elizabethtown Kitchen

Despite Pilotworks crashing, there is still a lot of activity and investment in the shared commercial kitchen space around the country. Kitchen United, which works with both established restaurants and food entrepreneurs, just raised $10 million to boost its expansion into twelve new markets beyond Pasadena, CA. Elsewhere in LA, Fulton Kitchens is looking for mid-level food entrepreneurs. Up in San Francisco, Tinker Kitchen is less about business, but still offers its members a place to experiment with food.

Based in Boston, Commonwealth Kitchen is a non-profit that provides kitchen space as well as help with licensing and permitting.

Union Kitchen in D.C. has a food accelerator and membership-based communal kitchen.

While this will be a tough time for those impacted by Pilotworks, it’s also an opportunity for the community to come together. If you have other suggestions for people, leave a comment or send us a tip to include in this story.

UPDATE: We received the following this morning (Keep sending them to us!)

The Cookline
We are a large shared kitchen in north Dallas and have plenty of room for new clients. 469 209 4919
2011 west spring creek pkwy, suite 2000
plano, tx 75023

Hot Bread Kitchen in NYC sent us the following:
Wanted to share a bit more information. Hot Bread Kitchen, in partnership with organizations around the city, has stepped in to be a one-stop-shop to provide matching services to displaced businesses. Hot Bread will connect businesses to available kitchens, including our Incubator in East Harlem, as well as our partner kitchens throughout NYC (such as Bronx Cookspace, Entrepreneur Space in Queens, Organic Food Incubator, The Hudson Kitchen, and Evergreen Exchange.) We also encourage organizations with available kitchen space to reach out.

Email: incubateshotline@hotbreadkitchen.org
Matching form for businesses: hotbreadkitchen.org/incubateshotline
Phone hotline: (774) 364-8532 (open 8am–9pm this week)

Hope & Main in Warren Rhode Island told us “We are standing by to assist anyone in the food entrepreneurship community that may need resources, advice or kitchens.”

Also a Slack Channel has been set up to connect people impacted with those who might be able to help.

There is Hall Street Storage, a cold storage facility located in Downtown Brooklyn outside the Navy Yard. We do not have shared kitchen space, but we can accommodate needs for cold and dry storage, as well as fulfillment.

In Dallas The Mix Kitchen can help those that are scrambling to find a kitchen to use.

I am the new kitchen manager at the Neighborworks Millrace Kitchen in Woonsocket, RI. We are an incubator kitchen and still have space available for new members. Feel free to share my contact information for anyone interested. Tracey Belliveau, tbelliveau [at] neighborworksbrv [dot] org, (401)257-6152.

We would like to offer Cherry Street Kitchen as another option for people who can no longer produce at Pilotworks, especially the Newark location. We are in Trenton, easy loading and in/out to Route 1 or Route 95. We have storage space as well. Temporary use while getting something more permanent is fine. http://www.cherrystreetkitchen.com. Thank you.

CLiCK Willimantic is a commercially licensed kitchen run on cooperative values in Windham, CT, and is open to new members. Here is our website: https://clickwillimantic.com/

Fulton Kitchens Opens Shared Kitchen Space in L.A. for Food Entrepreneurs

Los Angeles is a hot spot for commercial kitchen spaces (like Kitchen United and Travis Kalanick’s cloud kitchen startup) which can help restaurants expand their virtual delivery operations. But a new facility is opening up in North Hollywood next week that forsakes the restaurant biz; instead, it provides a space for food entrepreneurs to expand their packaged goods businesses.

Fulton Kitchens is an 11,000 square foot building with 20 private kitchen spaces available for rent. “It’s essentially a blank canvas,” Yossi Reinstein, Partner at Fulton Kitchens LLC told me by phone. Each space comes with the necessary infrastructure (water, electricity, vent hoods), and is approved by the health inspector — but clients must bring all their own equipment.

These spartan offerings are a direct result of Reinstein’s experience at Fulton Kitchens’ first facility, which opened across town three years ago and is still operational. Originally, Fulton provided a variety of kitchen equipment there — but soon learned that their clientele often needed specialized machines for making artisanal pickles, sauerkraut or fresh-squeezed juice. In the end, it was just easier to have clients install their own machines.

There are also no real amenities offered by Fulton Kitchens. Unlike Kitchen United, Fulton has no support staff on hand to clean up or wash dishes for everyone; and it doesn’t provide guidance for food entrepreneurs to navigate permits, FDA approvals and such, as does Commonwealth Kitchen. 

Reinstein said that his company is really looking for mid-level entrepreneurs: people who have moved beyond the step of making cottage food in their kitchen, but haven’t yet graduated to a full-on dedicated production facility. In other words: people who know what they’re doing and don’t need handholding. Many of Fulton’s clients already sell into Whole Foods and other locations across Southern California.

Though Fulton Kitchens’ N. Hollywood building won’t open until next week, Reinstein said that it’s already half rented out, and while he didn’t want to provide specifics, rents vary by size (250 sq. ft. on the small end to 550 sq. ft. for the largest), and require at least a year-long lease.

Fulton Kitchens is part of wave of new workspaces — including the aforementioned Commonwealth, PilotWorks and the soon-to-open Tinker Kitchen in SF — that are helping transform the food entrepreneur landscape and serving as a launch pad for them to build a business. The trick now will be to see how many of those food dreams turn into reality.