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Youngstown’s Kitchen Incubator gives chefs a chance

Tom Phibbs in front of some of the products that came from the Youngstown Common Wealth Food Incubator. (Photo by Richard Weiner/Legal News).

RICHARD WEINER
Legal News Reporter

Published: April 27, 2017

“It always smells good” at the Youngstown Common Wealth Kitchen Incubator, said Thomas Phibbs, the incubator’s manager and sole employee.

The kitchen incubator (https://www.cwkitchenincubator.org), one of only three in Ohio, is a full-scale commercial kitchen set up to take a food business from idea to success, said Phibbs, who adds his skills as a business consultant to the mix. The incubator is the only one of the three which is operated by a nonprofit organization, Common Wealth, Inc.

The incubator has been operating since 2012. Phibbs came in as manager a little over three years ago, he said, and, since then, he has “helped launched over 40 food businesses and created over 70 jobs,” he said. “You can come in with an idea, and we will help you get it to market. Or you can come in wanting to start a food business, and we can give help you with ideas to help make that happen.”

Phibbs’ expertise as a food business consultant is available to any incubator participant as a part of the cost of using the facility. He also keeps in touch with businesses that have been successful enough to strike out on their own.

The incubator, located near the Youngstown State University campus, describes itself as a “shared-use commercial kitchen… that aims to lower the cost for starting or expanding local food businesses. We aim to help folks create jobs working with food we love and helping Northeast Ohio create food security and promote economic development.”

The incubator offers the kitchen to create products, and also every other need of a food business, including safety training, business planning, label and logo art, marketing strategy, networking, and more.

In addition to the kitchen itself, the incubator has opened a small café and store to sell some of the products produced by its businesses.

Some of the incubator’s businesses use the facility to create their products to sell elsewhere (like pasta and hot sauces), some of them sell their products directly out of the incubator (catering and food pickup), and some have matured and left the facility to open their own store fronts.

The facility, which rents by the hour, comes equipped with kitchen standards like refrigerator, freezer, commercial mixers, and a 10-burner stovetop, but also esoterica like steam jacketed kettles, commercial dehydrator, dough sheeter, five-gallon food processor, and a double rack oven that can bake 130 pies at a time, said Phibbs. The facility also has a $250,000 canning line. Coming soon are a 10-by-15-foot walk-in cooler and freezer, and a blast chiller freezer that freezes cooked foods for shipping.

There is also a take-out window for food pickup, used by businesses that make and sell their products right out of the incubator.

One highly successful business that makes its food in the incubator and sells it directly to the public is Kitchen Abz (https://www.kitchenabz.com). Kitchen Abz makes prepared meals on a subscription basis. Phibbs said that the business has gone from a standing start to making 100 meals a week in a short period of time. “They take over the place on the weekends,” said Phibbs.

The owner, who goes by the nom de plume, Tom Kitchen Abz, said that he has had “a really good experience” at the incubator.

“They helped with everything we needed in developing and growing the business so we could supply jobs and help people in the community.”

Kitchen Abz is looking forward to expanding its business beyond Youngstown, said Tom, who said that he can’t wait for the flash freezer to get going so that he can expand the business “from local to national. The Incubator is a really cool facility that allows you to see your potential and grow, and help reach the next level where you could get your own building (and move up from there,” he said.

One company that has done just that is “Too” Hot Mamas, who started their pickled pepper business in the Incubator and who have just opened their own kitchen and storefront in Hubbard.

“When we arrived at the incubator, we had recipes for canned peppers,” said Audra Horton, co-owner of Too Hot Mamas. “Tom (Phibbs) gave us a checklist of everything that we needed to accomplish (to make the business idea a reality).” Even after taking classes at the Incubator and leaving to start their own place, Horton said that Phibbs continues to answer their questions.

For his part, Phibbs, who came from a “rat race” computer consulting position to take the job at the Incubator, said that “there is something special about being able to help people make a change in their lives. It feels good. It isn’t anything I dreamed about doing before I got here, but it is basically about giving back and just watching what people can accomplish.”


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