BALTIMORE — A local chef who started his brand in his kitchen at home is now inspiring other entrepreneurs to upscale their food business in creative ways.
It starts with operating out of what’s known as a "ghost kitchen." It’s a relatively new way entrepreneurs are building brands in the culinary arts space.
“So some people get a brick and mortar, some people, they go the ghost kitchen route. What we're able to do here is kind of meet in the middle. We offer state of state of the art kitchen space. And so full businesses, they use the space as a communal or Commissary Kitchen,” Alex Perez said.
It’s exactly how Perez, who many know as Chef Papi, co owner of the brand Papi Cuisine located in Federal Hill, got his start in the industry. Now, he’s the co-owner of La Chow.
Inside the old Stratford University formerly known as a culinary arts school, it’s now being rebranded as La Chow. It’s equipped with 35,000 square feet and a host of supplies inside at least seven commissary kitchen spaces approved by the health department, and available for rent by the day, week, or month.
“Each kitchen can withstand between 10 to 15 companies,” Perez said.
The ghost kitchen concept isn’t new but has started booming over the past few years due to many restaurant restrictions from COVID.
“It's a restaurant that is essentially operating where you don't necessarily need to know where it's located. But it's in the approved facility, and UberEATS and Door Dash typically come and pick the food up and delivered to customers. What ended up happening during COVID is the model was put to the tests,” Perez said.
Some food brands use it for catering or manufacturing, others as a permanent ghost kitchen. Allowing new business owners with food brands to test out their menu with less overhead cost of a traditional brick and mortar.
“I had to start out of my house and there weren't many spaces like this available. Operated outside of a commissary kitchen space called “B more kitchen” and it gave me the ability to more so expand my customer base. It got to the point where a lot of our customers, they started to think that it was actual restaurant from the pictures they would see. And it just kind of segued us into the next phase which was developing a brick and mortar space,” Perez said.
Upscaling his business has awarded him so much success he’s now in the process of opening his second brick and mortar restaurant location with Papi Cuisine, this time in Owings Mills.
Which is why part of his goal as co-owner of La Chow alongside his business partner Brandon Phillips is to help others thrive in the industry, so they too can be successful.
“So with this project, we're able to allow people to come in at a lower cost and actually fulfill their dreams,” Phillips said.
“I seen what it did for us, and I always had in my mind you know what, I want to eventually do that for others. This is just a perfect place to do it,” Perez said.
In addition to La Chow helping develop the brands of new food businesses and providing a ghost kitchen space, they also offer a host of other opportunities specifically catered to entrepreneurs in different industries including business , music and entertainment.
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