Want To Start An Independent Restaurant? Start With The Incubator

Every restaurateur has been through the baptism by fire known as Opening Night.  Those who have survived can testify to the nerve-racking experience of preparing menu items for the first time for a dining room full of people.  Many hopeful entrepreneurs have had their dreams realized or crushed on opening night, and anyone wanting to start a restaurant had better be prepared for the big night.

The problem many new restaurant owners have is that building out a new kitchen often runs right up until opening, and that leaves precious little time to test out batches and recipes before the Big Night.  Any new kitchen is inevitably going to run into some kinks, but surprisingly few new owners get the chance to practice their chops before they have to come up big on the first night.

Luckily for new restaurant owners in Pasadena, CA, a local non-profit has styled itself as a “restaurant incubator.”  Mama’s Small Business Kitchen Incubator provides a state-of-the-art kitchen for rent at an extremely reasonable rate for aspiring restaurateurs.  Anyone serious about opening a restaurant can have full access to Mama’s kitchen for a small hourly fee and after taking a safe food handling course.

The opportunity to try out recipes and batch sizes, as well as experiment with the latest restaurant equipment, means that a new restaurant owner can identify problems before they start well before the most important night of a restaurant’s life.  Mama’s is also available for other segments of the food service industry like caterers, concessions, and even institutions.

The best part about Mama’s is that affordable access to all that shiny new restaurant equipment isn’t even the best part.  Entrepreneurs who have been there rave about the people at the non-profit, all of whom are veteran restaurateurs who can provide a lot of golden advice to the newbies.  Those that survive the reality check that Mama’s provide will more than likely find their opening night a lot less daunting.