A shared-use commercial kitchen in Charlottesville provides a fully-equipped facility for weekend culinary entrepreneurs and established caterers, bakers, pizza chefs, and more. Recent state and federal grant awards will help the social enterprise expand. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.
The famous Kathy's Produce building on Carlton Avenue is once again home to local entrepreneurs looking to food to make a good living. BEACON Kitchen opened here last April, after starting in a pilot location downtown. Inside the warehouse, which has been converted into a giant commercial kitchen space, an organized maze of prep tables host caterers preparing school lunches and Caribbean takeout, bakers whipping up confections, and farmers processing produce for frozen pizzas.
[sounds of kitchen equipment]
YOLUNDA HARRELL: Good morning!
Yolunda Harrell is the co-founder and CEO of New Hill Development Corporation, the kitchen's parent organization. They recently received two grants to grow their operations – about $963,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure, or RFSI, program, and $50,000 from the Virginia Governor’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development fund.
A long wall of hood vents hover over multiple gas ranges, flattop grills, stacked ovens, and specialty equipment such as a tilt skillet and giant kettle.
HARRELL: So one of the things we knew we were going to support were value-added products. So, someone does have a sauce, they can cook it here. We're buying a piece of equipment, a filler … and then we can do a hot fill right here. … And so that's what we're going to be utilizing some of those RFSI funds for.
New Hill Development was established in 2018 to grow wealth and home ownership in Charlottesville's Black community. Through their work on a community vision plan, they found that while Charlottesville was experiencing ongoing growth, Black residents' median incomes were still less than 60% than that of white residents' and their unemployment rates were double. Across the state, only 4% of businesses were Black-owned, despite Black Virginians making up 19% of the population.
HARRELL: New Hill's vision is that of expanding economic opportunities that redefine wealth for a thriving Black community. It's not to the exclusion of other communities. It's about the intentional inclusion of the Black community, right? … And so what we ultimately walked away with is that most of the activity for business in Charlottesville in the Black community was happening in the food space.
This work is also inspired by the legacy of Vinegar Hill, a primarily Black neighborhood that was demolished in the 1960s as part of urban renewal, forcing families and business owners off the land where the Omni Hotel, Ridge-McIntire Road, and Staples now sit.
Watch the Maupintown Media film "Raised/Razed" on VPM or PBS to learn more.
HARRELL: Our goal is to make sure that the ecosystem is more diverse, that there's more opportunity to access it, that some of the barriers are easily overcome because this kitchen exists.
BEACON currently has about 25 members. The organization also has an in-house catering business that provides meals for the Barrett Early Learning Center and local private schools.
Michael McCrary of Twisted Oak Barbecue parks his smoker trailer outside, and uses the kitchen's prep and storage space.
MICHAEL MCCRARY: Any time you want to keep it twisted and want some good barbecue, come see us! [laughs]
He launched his food truck last April alongside the grand opening of BEACON's Carlton Avenue facility.
MCCRARY: If you're thinking about starting a food business, I mean, this is definitely the way to do it with the minimal cost investment … because you have access to all the industrial equipment that you need for a kitchen. Plus, also, the sense of community, and everybody, all the entrepreneurs help one another here.
Pearl Island 2 Go & Catering is one of the kitchen's "anchor" members, with reserved prep space and an established customer base. Co-owner Sober Pierre said they've been in business for 13 years, but moved into BEACON to focus on value-added products.
SOBER PIERRE: The emphasis has always been to share the flavors and the culture of the Caribbean, and so one of the other ways we like to do that is to kind of make it more of a staple in people's households. … We have a jerk seasoning and curry that we make our own blends in-house. We also have some blends that we're developing that focus on our spicy pickled slaw which is called pikliz – it's a more traditional Haitian dish that I'm doing a different take on. Just trying to showcase more of those flavors, and honesty, find more flavors that typically are sauce-based or marinade-based and make it something that could be a blend that could maybe have a little bit more shelf-life but also give you a bit more flexibility in use.
Some of their jerk chicken has ended up on Penny's Imperfect Pizza – frozen sourdough pizzas made by local small farmers.
MATT TERIELLO: It's a great community of people here, so we all like to collaborate.
Co-owner Matt Teriello said they make about 350 pizzas a week.
TERIELLO: We make everything here, from the dough, then we parbake it, and then we start building it and put it in the blast chiller, freeze it, and package it. … So we try to use local ingredients or stuff we grow on our farm. We're prepping some mushrooms today from a local farm out of Richmond.
Some of BEACON's new grant funding will equip a new food processing room.
HARRELL: Our first venture is going to be into cold-pressed juice … with Julian's Juicebox – Julian was an entrepreneur that worked with us at our pilot kitchen. … In a day, we can do about 7,000 bottles, whereas right now he's doing about 3,000 bottles a week.
Grants will also go towards the buildout of retail and dining areas at the front of the building. The vision is for patrons to stop by, pick up a bottle of frozen juice or a pack of freshly baked cookies, take home a premade meal, and order lunch or dinner from a rotating menu of vendors – supporting the medley of flavors and endeavors simmering in the kitchen.
