Renting or owning a brick-and-mortar restaurant or storefront can be tough to find, and afford, especially here on the Central Coast. A new shared-use commercial kitchen near the airport in San Luis Obispo offers a clean, open space to work for a wide variety of chefs and creators.
A workspace for everyone.
“People that work at the farmers market, people that do meal delivery, people that sell online,” said Sunita Singh, owner of The Kitchen Terminal in San Luis Obispo.
Four commercial kitchens complete with state-of-the-art equipment, three cold prep stations, and dry and cold storage: all under one roof.
“It’s another way for young chefs to start sort of a ghost kitchen, ghost restaurant business, and not have to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into a brick-and-mortar space,” said Singh.
Singh and Daniella Davis opened their third Kitchen Terminal location (Redondo Beach and Camarillo), this one on Allene Way in San Luis Obispo. It’s a shared space for those that want to create, just cook for fun, or even collaborate with others, but don’t necessarily want the overhead of a storefront.
“I think it’s just a really professional environment for young companies to come work out of,” said Singh. “This is a way for them just to come in, produce, and sell their products, and not have to worry about all the little things, which is what we take care of; the equipment, the health department, inspections, and all those things.”
“It’s yuzu. It’s a Japanese Citrus,” said Holly Dolezal, the owner of Cheese Box Co., a small business that specializes in luxury charcuterie in San Luis Obispo. “This is by far the biggest, cleanest, and nicest.”
The Kitchen Terminal is the third commissary Dolezal has used for her growing, small business.
“Here, we have so much more room that we're able to grow at an exponential rate, better than we could have anywhere else,” said Dolezal. “Everybody is so passionate. Getting to feed off the energy. We’ll be walking through the dry storage and sharing tips on our social media strategy. That’s something that you really don’t find anywhere else.”
“This is an easy way for them to do a startup, and they can make their grandmother's sauces or jellies, jams, whatever it is that their passion is,” said Singh.
The Kitchen Terminal has a kitchen manager that ensures users clean their space when finished to avoid cross contamination. The organization also has a cleaning company to deep clean twice a week or more, depending on the need.
Aside from the kitchen spaces, The Kitchen Terminal has a full slate of services for food trucks, as well as overnight parking for food trucks. Joshua James and Savannah Starr own Haute Sugar Co., a boutique catering company in San Luis Obispo. The company uses The Kitchen Terminal’s food truck facilities.
“The cool thing about this facility is they have all the hook ups you need for your food truck,” said James. “Fenced-in, private codes to get in, cameras on every corner, which is really nice. It makes me feel good about parking my truck, my livelihood, our livelihood, and leaving it overnight. It's a good feeling for sure.”
Companies that use the food truck services can also utilize the storage space in The Kitchen Terminal. Click here for pricing information.
