Downtown Market's incubator kitchen a space to cook up a food entrepreneur's dream

The incubator kitchen at the Grand Rapids Downtown Market is quiet and immaculately clean. The west-facing window wall, two stories above the ground, is nearly level with the south extremity of Grand Rapids' famous "S" curve on US-131 and floods the space with daylight. This is where the kitchen's first five food entrepreneurs cook up their dreams of owning a food business.

The purpose of the incubator kitchen, 435 Ionia Ave. SW, is more than just providing a licensed commercial kitchen for lease to start-up food businesses. It's also about creating a network of food entrepreneurs, a means for entrepreneurs to become ServSafe certified, a resource for developing a business plan, and a place to learn about sustainability and how to get your food product out to a larger market.

"I'd like to see the entrepreneurs and our food vendors in the Market Hall downstairs share ideas and utilize each other as resources," says Crystal LeCoy, director of the incubator kitchen. "We're hoping that some of them will be able to work together to do wholesale buying (of supplies) from the farmers at our outdoor market, and to collaborate on how to get their product outside the region."

Among the five food producers using the incubator kitchen is Kelly Battjes, owner of Sweet Batches, which makes shortbread cookies. Battjes says in a recent Rapid Growth article that, "The perk for me of the Downtown Market was that it was new and a really cool place. The equipment is state-of-the-art and the Market is helping me market the shortbread."

The kitchen has five distinct areas: pastry, packaging, catering, production, and prep. Each has a selection of equipment for use by that specialty, whether it be ovens, a meat slicer, a veggie slicer, a commercial mixer, stainless steel tables, and more. The hourly rate varies, depending on the type of space needed, whether the entrepreneur is a member of the incubator kitchen programs, a non-member, or qualifies for a scholarship.

The kitchen also offers secure dry and cold storage rental space. Free lockers are available for daily use.

The food entrepreneurs will sell their products at the market's Winter Wonderland event, 3 p.m. to 9 p.m., Dec. 11.

For more information, click here, or drop in any Weds. between 10 a.m. and noon to talk with Crystal LeCoy.

Writer: Deborah Johnson Wood, Development News Editor