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Font ResizeProject manager Aeman Bashir said businesses have started and expanded as a result of the incubator, which opened in July.By LEIGH ZALESKI Daily Record/Sunday News
Updated: 04/10/2012 07:35:17 AM EDT
Sarah Lanphier, center, and Robin Glembotzky, right, mix granola at YorKitchen at Central Market in York. Nuts About Granola has been able to increase its business because of YorKitchen by cutting down overhead and storage costs. On Monday, employees made about 1,000 pounds of granola. They make about 16,000 pounds a month. (YORK DAILY RECORD/SUNDAY NEWS - PAUL KUEHNEL)
Kenny Brown fills a bowl with sunflower kernels while making granola at YorKitchen. YorKitchen, which opened in June, is a 24-hour, commercial kitchen available for anyone to rent. (YORK DAILY RECORD/SUNDAY NEWS - PAUL KUEHNEL)While running her stand at Central Market recently, Donna Lott dashed into YorKitchen to decorate a cheesecake.
Lott, who owns Hattie's Gourmet Cheesecakes, outlined the half-chocolate, half-vanilla cake with white frosting. Earlier, she had adorned it with a yellow bunny with a pink belly.
Last year, Lott was an accountant. Now, she owns a baking business. She does all of her baking at YorKitchen, a business incubator run by NutriCore Northeast Inc., an initiative of the York County Economic Alliance.
Lott stores her ingredients and cakes on a shelf, and in a refrigerator and freezer that she rents at the licensed commercial kitchen - 1,200 square feet of stainless-steel ovens, tables, grills, fryers and utensils.
Since its opening in June 2011, the kitchen has spurred growth in existing businesses and encouraged people to start new ones.
Project manager Aeman Bashir said 10 vendors at Central Market use the kitchen for either production or storage, and eight businesses have started as a result of the kitchen.
She said YorKitchen aims to remove barriers and simplify starting a business.
"There's a lot of people trying to make life changes to reinvent themselves and do what they really wanted to do," Bashir said.
Lott said she wouldn't have been able to afford the costs of renting a storefront and buying equipment. YorKitchen, which also advised her on how to start her business, made the venture feasible.
"If it hadn't been for that, I don't think I would've taken the chance," she said.
York-based Neilly's makes and sells Afro-Caribbean sauces and frozen foods in about 70 stories from Georgia to Massachusetts. Marketing manager Assen Achu said Neilly's rents YorKitchen to produce its inventory and develop new products. Before using YorKitchen, Neilly's worked with a co-packer in Lancaster.
"It's definitely enabled us to grow," she said. "We can support our clients."
For already established vendors at Central Market, YorKitchen has helped them increase their business.
William Lenhart, who owns The Pie Shop, used to bake four pies at a time in the oven at his stand. He now can bake 120 pies in one hour at YorKitchen.
Casi Babinchak, chief operations officer at Central Market, said she has been working to increase the number of food- and agriculture-related stands and reduce flea-market vendors at the market. She said YorKitchen has helped facilitate that mission, adding that the only food vendors that left the market in the last year had retired.
Babinchak said opening a business at the market through YorKitchen is low risk and a good way to get started.
"It offers a lot of opportunities for creativity," she said.
YorKitchen is a shared, 24-hour commercial kitchen at Central Market in York and may be rented by anyone. It costs $25 an hour and includes access to all of the equipment. YorKitchen also includes the Rojahn Performance Kitchen, which may be used for demonstrations, classes and private parties.
For details, visit yorkitchen.com or call 717-814-8879.
Jess Ensminger, 29, of York rented YorKitchen last year to make Christmas cookies for family and friends. She made the dough for peanut butter blossoms, truffles and chocolate chip cookies at home, and baked about 15 dozen cookies in an hour.
"It normally takes me a week to do my baking," she said.
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