Mi Kitchen es su Kitchen® has been in the forefront of the incubator movement since 1996. Here are the kitchens we have helped to create:
Food Venture Center in Brooklyn, NY 1996-1999
This was an 800-sq. ft. kitchen enabling one client to work per shift. This incubator was created by transforming a closed culinary job training site, run by LEAP. It was the winner of the 1998 Lucent Technologies and Working Woman Award, and it received a $5000 grant plus a Lucent Technologies telephone system valued at $1500. Started in October 1996, the kitchen served a total of 37 clients, and the kitchen was profitable after only eight months. When the nonprofit changed its mission's focus, the kitchen was sold in 1999 to a client who had used the kitchen extensively. She is still in operation there.
La Amistad's The H.O.P.E (Helping Others Pursue Enterprises) Project in Queens, NY 1999-2000
It was a 900-sq. ft. kitchen, part of the St. Albans Congregational Church, created May 1999. The kitchen closed one year later due to planned church construction which rendered the kitchen unsanitary for food manufacturing. The kitchen served 11 budding foodpreneurs in addition to the already existing church caterers and other church-run food programs.
Urban Horizons in Bronx, NY 2001-2005
It is a 3,000-sq. ft. kitchen with four kitchen areas enabling them to accommodate a job training program and a kitchen specifically used by a day care facility. The kitchen is run by WHEDco (Women's Housing and Economic Development) in their huge residential living building. It was repurposed from the old Morrisana Hospital to include subsidized housing for single parent families. The incubator and clients hired staff from the job training program. The incubator is still in operation and is currently known as Bronx Cook Space.
Detour Jazz Kitchen Incubator in Manhattan, NY 2005-2006
This was an unused, 400-sq. ft. basement kitchen in a jazz club. The owners thought that creating an incubator would add to the club's profits. The kitchen was available during day hours and weekends, which was the club's non-operating time. The kitchen closed when the owners could not merge day to day club and kitchen operations.
Artisan Baking Center Incubator Kitchen in Queens, NY 2005-March 2010
Run by Consortium of Workers Education, this was a 6,000-sq ft. kitchen facility which was run as a part-time incubator around the hours of the artisanal bread baking culinary program. The kitchen was available to rent in the evenings from 6pm onwards and all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Graduates from the baking program were hired by both the incubator and incubator clients.
This incubator is currently in operation under different management as The Entrepreneur Space: A Food and Business Incubator (see below: The Entrepreneur Space).
DRM Baking Center Incubator in Manhattan, NY 2008-2010
This 1,200-sq. ft. baking specific incubator was run as an additional revenue-generating program by the owner of a cookie company. It was available nights and weekends. Only one client could use it at a time. It closed when the owner of the cookie company closed his business.
The Entrepreneur Space: A Food and Business incubator in Queens, NY 2010-current This is a 12,500-sq. ft. facility encompassing 6000-sq. ft. of kitchen space and 6000-sq. ft. of offices and classrooms space. The Entrepreneur Space, as of October 2016, has supported over 550 budding entrepreneurs as clients, with a current client roster of approximately 125 active manufacturers, generating about $550,000 annually in revenues.
Brick City Development Corporation (BCDC) in Newark, NJ 2012-2014
BCDC formulated a concept for a kitchen incubator and created a floor plan in the Third Ward of Newark, NJ., which would accommodate three foodpreneurs per shift being run 24/7. A site was selected, a floor plan and budget were formulated, and entrepreneurial seminars were run with a potential client base of 40 foodpreneurs ready to use to the future facility. Due to a change in Newark Administration, funding was cut and the project was cancelled.
Paterson Food Hub in Paterson NJ 2014-2016
Run by Paterson Restoration Group, this was to be a bottling and USDA certified incubator program for economic development in Paterson. The incubator concept was changed to a commercial kitchen with permanent tenants. Projected Opening: TBD
Hardesty Renaissance Food Hub in Kansas City, MO 2014-2016
A 6-building complex with the main building of 20,000-sq. ft. housing the incubator kitchen,
a food hall, gourmet store, and farmer's market operated by Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE). In addition, the second and third floors would contain offices for food related businesses. The site, a former World War 2 munitions factory is undergoing EPA approved construction. Project opening: TBD