The major steps to restaurant ownership were once quite linear — formulate an idea, buy or lease a space, and try out the concept.
But in these changing times, budding restaurateurs have myriad paths to launch new ventures, including options to start small with low overhead and few or no employees. Some only offer takeout or delivery, while others don’t even own a stove.
With this phenomenon and the boom in food delivery services over the past two years, Lexington-area diners now have multiple food options to try in addition to brick-and-mortar restaurants.
Shared commercial kitchens, like Pasta Garage and Southland Commissary Kitchen, have been around for a couple of years, fostering successful small but growing eateries. Southland Commissary Kitchen, housed within Southland Bagel, launched WingKYng, operated by Thomas Williams, last May.
Thomas Williams launched Wing KYng from the shared kitchen at Southland Bagel.
Williams said he’s worked in the restaurant industry since his mid-teens and realized at the age of 26 the wages weren’t enough to support his growing family. He worked at a few warehouses with higher pay, while boning up on making top-notch chicken wings in his spare time.
In 2020 when the pandemic precipitated a steep pay cut, Williams said he decided to spread his wings, so to speak, and joined a waiting list for Pasta Garage to launch Wing KYng. But before a space became available there, he was able to get in at SCK, operating out of Southland Bagel (also a Pasta Garage alum).
He has 24-hour access to the shared kitchens in exchange for $200 weekly rent, an arrangement Williams says, “helps everybody get their feet wet before you make that investment; see if you can really just have a good business.”
Working alone with no employees, Williams said there have been months when he’s missed a steady paycheck, but he remains optimistic, aiming for his own standalone restaurant once the worst of the pandemic is in the rearview mirror.
“I just need enough space for two fryers and a prep table and I’d be straight,” he said.
Tim Schosser is co-owner of SCK, which opened September 2020 and has seven entities, in addition to the bagel shop, sharing kitchen space. He said the format has been ideal, as Southland Bagel had room to spare, and he knew firsthand the shared kitchen concept works.
“We enjoyed it so much over [at Pasta Garage] we thought we’d give it a shot ourselves,” he said.
Other restaurants have started out as food trucks before opening their own brick-and-mortar enterprises. Pop-up events and rented space like those at Julietta Market and Greyline Station have also enabled others to debut dishes on a smaller scale before going full-time.
Sensing an opportunity, some nationally known restaurants have contracted with local restaurants and commercial kitchens to utilize their facilities to prepare food for take-out or delivery, an arrangement known as ghost kitchens.
Fuku, for example, recently launched a Lexington location operating out of Frisch’s Big Boy on Harrodsburg Road. Famous Dave’s also has a ghost kitchen out of Johnny Carino’s on Sir Barton Way, part of a co-branding deal the company entered into in fall 2020, according to a press release. It’s Just Wings has a pickup-only presence in the Chili’s Grill & Bar on Richmond Road, while Wingville operates out of several local Fazoli’s locations.
Jon Bush, left, started his delivery and carryout restaurant, Baby Face Grub, from the kitchen of Wild Thyme Cooking.
Jon Bush, founder/cook at Baby Face Grub, is also taking the ghost kitchen route. He operates his restaurant on a takeout- and delivery-only basis out of Wild Thyme Cooking in the Chinoe Shopping Center.
Here, comfort food takes center stage with a lineup of barbecued meat, burgers, sandwiches, soups, meatloaf, sides and desserts. Bush serves them with the help of friend and fellow restaurant industry veteran Carter Andrews and a handful of employees who start at a minimum $15 with paid time off, Bush said.
After working in food service and other fields, Bush, whose mother taught him to cook at an early age, had once proclaimed he’d never go back to working in another restaurant unless it was his own. To launch Baby Face Grub, Bush drew from his grandparents’ tried-and-true recipes, diners’ love of home-cooked comfort food and the popularity of the pickup-delivery model.
He said he wishes there were even more shared kitchen spaces locally, as the format has enabled him to open a small restaurant without spending six figures in startup costs. In the first two months of operation, he leapt from $3,500 in sales to nearly $10,000 in month two, he said.
“We just exploded in a short amount of time,” Bush said.
Future plans include seven-day-a-week service, more hires and eventually his own standalone place, but for now he’s content to bask in his early success with his friend at his side.
“We’re just kind of living the dream,” Bush said. “I think this is really what the American dream is all about.”