Photo by Kate McCann
by Alex Jones
These businesses double as kitchen and dining room: They provide a clean, certified and inspected space for food entrepreneurs at the production side of the supply chain, and then serve up a delicious final product to excited eaters in a beautiful space.
City Kitchen
Location: Center City
Year founded: 2014
This cheery space along the eastern wall of Reading Terminal Market hosts programs such as a culinary camp for kids, tastings by market vendors and high-end dinners. It also serves as a production kitchen and staging area for Reading Terminal’s catering company, which hosts private parties, fundraisers and weddings after hours.
Greensgrow Community Kitchen
Location: Kensington
Year founded: 2009
In partnership with St. Michael’s Lutheran Church, five blocks west of their urban farm, Greensgrow uses their commercial space to host cooking classes, produce a line of Greensgrow-made value-added products, and provide hourly kitchen rental space to food trucks, caterers and other food entrepreneurs. (Since the church doesn’t allow alcohol, parties, weddings and more can be booked for the farm space.)
“Greensgrow was the first real pioneer in the effort to meet the growing demand for commissary kitchen facilities and was absolutely instrumental to our first year’s success.” —Alex Buckner, chef/owner, Local 215 food truck