James Wicker started baking cheesecakes out of his Detroit home in February 2002 but realized after about a month that he couldn't get business that way - restaurants wanted proof of his licensing and work history before they'd buy his product.
Now he leases inadequate but licensed space from a friend with a catering business, but the kitchen doesn't have the proper mixer or convection oven or a large enough refrigerator.
A proposed restaurant incubator in Detroit would help both budding entrepreneurs operating illegally from home and from established restaurants, such as Southfield-based Beans & Cornbread and Detroit-based Cayenne, which owner Patrick Coleman said are undercut in price for carryout orders and catering by the unlicensed operators. That is why the Detroit Catholic Pastoral Alliance and the McAnoy Business Center are spearheading the idea of the restaurant incubator, said Angela Wilson, director of commercial and economic development at the Pastoral Alliance.
The Pastoral Alliance founded McAnoy in 1995 as a separate nonprofit to incubate companies that would provide "family-sustaining" rather than minimum-wage jobs.
"One of the things we found (at the McAnoy Business Center) is that there were always people in food-related businesses, whether specialty products or catering, who wanted to be incubated as businesses," Wilson said. "We couldn't support them because we didn't have a licensed kitchen."
Jerry McVety, president of McVety & Associates, a Farmington Hills-based food-service and hospitality consulting firm, has felt helpless in the past when struggling entrepreneurs asked for help finding kitchen space. "I get calls all the time, and I don't know where to send them."
It's difficult to quantify how many unlicensed kitchens operate in the city, Wilson said, but anecdotal information collected during a needs analysis by the Pastoral Alliance suggests a thriving cottage industry.
Since November, 45 potential food-service business owners have attended three workshops hosted by the Pastoral Alliance and McAnoy Business Center - workshops designed to gauge the need for a restaurant incubator in Detroit. About 17 people operated businesses from home; others had concepts but no means to bring them to fruition, Wilson said.
The dearth of commercial kitchen space is a big problem for budding restaurants in Detroit, said John Lopez, co-owner of Detroit-based Atlas Global Bistro and Atlas Small Business and Restaurant Consulting Services.
On Tuesday, Wilson finished a case for support of the incubator to present to the Empowerment Zone Corp. as part of a request for money to build it. She said the building, equipment and staff will cost about $500,000 to $700,000. The Pastoral Alliance is forming a board of directors and a nonprofit corporation to run the incubator, Wilson said.
In addition to commercial kitchen space, the incubator would have experts on menu planning, licensing, marketing, staff management and other food-related business concerns, Wilson said.
The business-planning component is key, McVety said.
"These people want to know how do I get (my product) to the market," McVety said.
Wilson said planners are studying other successful incubators around the country for ideas, particularly the DEC Kitchen Center in Denver. DEC is a $1.4 million, 7,900-square-foot, fully equipped food-production center that also does food-service business consulting.
Source: Crain's Detroit Business | 
