Since 2013, the Incubator Kitchen Collective has been living its mission to help people start their small business dreams.
With three locations, The Incubator and The Hatchery in Newport and the Coop in Loveland, the Incubator Kitchen Collective is Greater Cincinnati’s hub for food ideas. Over 60 food-based small businesses, including Grandola Granola and Harmony Plant Fare (which is now a vendor at Findlay Market), have joined the Incubator Kitchen family, and you can, too.
The Incubator Kitchen Collective (IKC) was started by Rachel DesRochers, owner of Grateful Grahams, which makes vegan graham crackers. Her goal was to create a “shared kitchen space to support foodpreneurs with an affordable, comprehensive approach.”
In December 2020, Kroger Co. partnered with Incubator Kitchen Collective to sponsor three food companies to work in the kitchen rent-free for all of 2021, according to the Cincinnati Business Courier.
“We do so much work in our kitchen, help so many startups, but what we weren’t able to do was offer any kind of financial help or grants,” DesRochers said in the same Courier article.
On Dec. 23, the Incubator Kitchen Collective announced via a Facebook post that Kroger and themselves weren’t able to pick just three winners, so five small businesses were chosen to have a rent-free 2021.
The winners were: Pata Roja Taqueria, Foz Bakery, F&Goode Desserts, C&G Catering and The Ferrari Bros (the brother duo behind Mom ‘n ‘em Coffee & Wine in Camp Washington and Fausto at the CAC Restaurant in downtown Cincinnati).
You can join IKC at the egg level for $25/hour (minimum 8 hours/month), chick level for $600/month (40 hours) or the hen level for $825/month, which offers full-time access to the Incubator and its equipment. Some of this equipment includes 13 8-foot stainless steel tables, four 5-rack convection ovens and a walk-in refrigerator and freezer.
The nonprofit organization believes in gratitude, the power of community and that the local Cincinnati food community can be used to help people.
Between the 13,467 cups of coffee consumed, 35,624 produced shipped last year and 967,834 dollars generated for small businesses last year, it seems as if Incubator Kitchen Collective is flying high and won’t be landing anytime soon.
