Community Kitchen?

How much demand would there be if the possiblity arose for a community kitchen to open for rental to anyone on an hourly basis? What would be considered a fair price per hour for rental? This would be a certified kitchen adhereing to all Health Dept. regs. Would the rental of secured cold, freezer or dry storage be of interest?

After doing a lot of homework, this may come to fruition if found to be economiclly feasible.

Thoughts or comments are welcome.

[Robin Garr]

Thoughts or comments are welcome.

Check with Clifton Center. I believe they are already doing this.

There are many establishments that are doing this, they just aren't advertising it so nobody knows about it. I know there is quite a high demand for it. I get asked about about it frequently. I used to cook out of a vfw lodge before I opened my business. The clifton center does it, Mellwood arts center might also along with many churches and community centers. I'd say go for it.

Hey Dan, you probably have access to hundreds of kitchens all over the city!!! A lot of the food truck guys (and gals ) need HD certified kitchens to do a lot of their work. There might be some interest in the catering community, if there was a school nearby they would not have to transport everything pre-cooked ,sometimes long distances, and would be able to fry things up, a la minute, almost. At least closer. The worst case scenario is they blow your kitchen to bits, and you get new equipment. The possibilities are endless for clients, but how to "attract" them, is another story. If it would help pay some of those triple-digit salaries JCPS has , then I am all for it! (sorry ,but I could not resist) You have tons of equipment sitting idle anytime "after school", if you can rent it out, I say do so!!!! Tim

This wont be happening at any school's kitchen because JCPS and USDA rules absolutely forbid that sort of thing. With the prevalence of gluten and peanut allergies in students these days, all we would need is for someone to "borrow" a school kitchen and not clean up properly after they make something like peanut butter cookies and several kids get sick from contact with a tainted surface or utensil. As a matter of fact, If there is an after hours school function where they may be using the kitchen, whomever (PTA, sports functions, etc.) it is, must pay for one of the schools certified food handlers to be there for the event.
There really isn't much to a school kitchen these days anyway. They yanked out all the fryers years ago. Pretty much all they have now are holding cabinets, convection and combi ovens. Most don't even have stoves as everything is made here at the Nutrition Service Center to just be re-heated in the combi oven.

What I'm proposing will be a free standing operation for anyone without access to a kitchen who may need a certified commercial kitchen space to prepare or store food for any operation for a nominal usage fee.

Clifton Center has a decent facillity- I produced a 21-dish buffet for 250 out of there a while back. Real comfy space, if I do say so myself, with good equipment, that kept temp, started clean, etc... They also assign you a liason that helps make sure that you turn off the lights and facillity integrity is kept. Pretty cool.

Great ideal, Dan, I think your two core focii should be location and marketing. I already know you'll have the gear on hand.

Location: I'm sure you have thought about this, but it should be close to a place where the expressways conjoin. I hate to say this, but Downtown is a nightmare atm. What about Lyndon/St Matt's? Right here at the malls, you have access to 264, 64, 71 and a fairly close ride to 265. I'm scratching my head thinking about locs you could drop into, turnkey, though...

Marketing: I have a bunch of ideas, but none that I feel so strongly about to put to print. LHB and catering to caterers and food truck folk seems to be a great start. You could always pick up where Sandy Nixon left off with the community incubator, as well. Get with PPPatch? Mr Weikel seems to be the man for that sorta thing, as well...

Oh! The insurance should be thoroughly explored. Get with me and I'll get you the contact of my uncle who deals almost exclusively in this sort of work. He'll hook you up.

You of course know that some state/city-run facillities require special permits that amount to nothing more than paying a $45 fee before (x) Like Farnsley-Mormon.

Wishing you the best, brother!