After eight years running the fashion-forward Main Avenue women’s clothing store Silk Sparrow, Sarah Rousseau is trading clothes for cooking utensils.
Rousseau is opening a commercial kitchen in the former Brickhouse Cafe building at 1849 Main Ave. The building is now the home of Your Flesh Tattoo, owned by Rousseau’s husband, Matt Rousseau. When the couple bought the building in December, Rousseau saw a new business opportunity in the former restaurant’s commercial kitchen.
She plans to open the kitchen for daily and hourly rentals to food entrepreneurs and cooking aficionados who want to kick their endeavors up a notch from home-cooked operations.
Rousseau estimated she will spend $15,000 to get the kitchen up to snuff. That will include installing a new range, convection ovens, mixing equipment, a commercial juicer and lots of refrigerator and freezer space. She is aiming to have the space finished this summer.
Ever the entrepreneur, Rousseau said she also would like to build a business for herself in the commercial kitchen. She’s throwing around the idea of a juicing business or possibly something related to cakes.
Already, she said, she has been approached by people who want to do all sorts of food-related endeavors from food carts to vegan specialties to baked items. As longtime small-business owners, her and her husband like the idea of helping others succeed as well.
“We both struggled opening businesses, it’s nice to help someone out,” she said. She hopes the kitchen will spawn lots of new food-related businesses.
Many culinary startups in Durango began by renting commercial kitchen space at the La Plata County Fairgrounds or in other restaurants.
Roxanne Riccardi, co-owner of the Intolerant Italian, said she used the commercial kitchens at the fairgrounds, Manna Soup Kitchen and the Durango Elks Lodge to whip up gluten-free breads, pastas and pastries. Jimmy Nicholson, the owner of the catering company Durangourmet, said the fairgrounds kitchen was a much-needed resource as he was starting his business and saving up to buy his own space.
A number of clients the Southwest Colorado Small Business Development Center has worked with through the years has expressed a need for commercial kitchen space, director Joe Keck said. But a new commercial kitchen would have to offer pricing and amenities to make it more appealing than the two existing options of renting out the fairgrounds or a restaurant kitchen, he said.
Whatever the avenue, increasing food-related startups in the county is a good thing for local economic development, said Roger Zalneraitis, executive director of the La Plata County Economic Development Alliance.
These businesses can be a source of chef training for the local restaurants, increase demand for locally grown foods, bump up the amount of products shipped out of the county and complement the existing food and beverage industry here, Zalneraitis said.
The county completed a study in 2003 to assess the feasibility of a shared-use commercial kitchen incubator, and in recent years the commercial kitchen at La Plata County Fairgrounds has seen growing demand.
ecowan@durangoherald.com
