New Kitchen

As our business was growing, we started looking into our growing operating costs and decided to look into building a commercial kitchen in our former garage. It would be relatively easy to do; we just had to figure out a way to make sure our animals were locked out. But the drawback was that if we wanted to have any employees, we’d have to also build out a restroom separate from our one in the house. We were sort of figuring out all the particulars, doing layouts, pricing out equipment and such, while running the business.

Meanwhile, we had met a new client while doing the Farmer’s Markets, a catering company based in West Seattle. Turns out they were sharing their kitchen with a bakery that just happened to be going out of business, so they asked us to share with them. It would actually be cheaper rent than the previous kitchen, but we’d have to buy a few pieces of equipment. We figured we’d eventually need to make some investments, and it seemed a good time to make a move. Plus, the shared kitchen space was getting a little crowded, and some of the other businesses in that kitchen were growing to the point that it was difficult to get into the oven. So we moved.

The former bakery wanted to sell us their oven, but because it was a built-in oven, we didn’t want to purchase it, especially since we didn’t have a lease on the space and we couldn’t move it if we had to move. We told them they were free to take it, but also knew that because it was built-in, they probably wouldn’t take it so we’d probably end up with a free oven, but we certainly weren’t going to pay for an oven that would be no use for us. Like we told them, they could take it anytime. But they never did.

We had a lot more space than we did previously which immediately saved us loads of time because we didn’t have to store half of our ingredients at home. Everything would be at the kitchen. Plus, we had just purchased a double door reach in refrigerator, which was right behind us, substantially reducing the time back and forth to the walk-in. So this big improvement gave us the extra push to start thinking about expanding and growing, but first we had to get through the busy holiday season.