Olaf Growald
Caterer Carlo Capua, founder of Z’s Café in Fort Worth, got a strong sense of the potential demand for a small business kitchen incubator in the city when he began offering his Near Southside commercial kitchen for rent. “For every 10 people who called me, I could only help two of them,” he says.
The Near Southside has been on the lookout for a kitchen incubator as Fort Worth’s entrepreneurial food community grows, with the cost of a commercial kitchen and dearth of available kitchens for rent a substantial barrier to entry. Capua and Cortney Gumbleton, a longtime Fort Worth nonprofit executive and budding foodpreneur, this summer launched Locavore, a kitchen incubator on the Near Southside.
The two leased The Bastion, a commercial kitchen and indoor and outdoor event venue at Hemphill Street and Hawthorne Avenue, from owner and chef Chandra Riccetti, who’s told followers she’s gone on “renovation sabbatical.” At the same time, Capua won the catering contract to serve the nearby Woman’s Club of Fort Worth earlier this year. Locavore signed a lease on that kitchen and has added it to its rental offerings. Capua’s Z’s Café kitchen at Pennsylvania Avenue and Henderson Street in the hospital district also is in the rental mix.
Locavore will be doing more than just renting kitchen space, use of equipment, and storage. It’ll also offer connections to potential mentors in the food business locally.
“I think there are a lot of [food entrepreneurs] who are doing it under the radar, and they get stuck,” says Capua, who founded Z’s Café in 2009 in partnership with the Samaritan House nonprofit, providing jobs for what Capua estimates has been 135 Samaritan House residents so far. “Our goal is to help them avoid that brick wall. A lot of it is in the mentorship. We can put them in touch with people who can help take them to the next level.”
Locavore also offers limited office space in The Bastion. The restaurant and bakery Spiral Diner and Crack Salsa, a growing Fort Worth food company, are among the initial tenants.
Gumbleton came into the venture when she went looking for a kitchen to produce a line of items like jams and jellies. “I did some research on commercial kitchens,” she says. “Z’s Café came up, and so did one in North Fort Worth,” Elixir, a commercial kitchen for rent. “I just had a light bulb moment.”
Gumbleton contacted Capua. “The model was proven,” she says. Capua’s partnership with Samaritan House started when he decided to found Z’s, but initially using someone else’s kitchen. “We looked everywhere for a commercial kitchen that wasn’t in use,” he says. “That’s what led us to Samaritan House, because they had a commercial kitchen.”
From the Near Southside, Inc. economic development nonprofit, Gumbleton and Capua learned of the availability of The Bastion’s 5,000-square-foot center. “Never heard of it, never been there,” Gumbleton told Megan Henderson, the Near Southside’s marketing director who recommended it. Near Southside and the IDEA Works FW incubator on the Near Southside had been trolling for a potential location for a kitchen incubator. The Woman’s Club was in the market for a new caterer and more revenue sources. “The missions are all aligning,” Capua says.