GNYAGG went to the sample tasting event at Union Kitchen yesterday and was amazed by all the good food and vendors there. There was a gourmet hotdog with French fries sample to die for and popcorn and vegetarian chili that were great. There was something for everybody and it was free. There were some government representatives and plenty of guests that loved tasting the food and beverages.
Polina Bakhteiarov, Great Streets Initiative, was there seeing the good work of the Great Streets. One of the owners, Jonas Singer, made sure GNYAGG was on the guest list as we had toured the facility before and testified at a Council hearing.
Union Kitchen is a business incubator for culinary arts. A new location is coming to Ivy City. The original incubator is not far from Florida Avenue in Northeast. The Ivy City location is going to be bigger than the one on Congress Street. Look for great things to happen with the Union Kitchen and the small businesses that will grow with membership with this organization.
GNYAGG
See Washington Post article below.
Union Kitchen's partners plan to open a Capitol Hill cafe, plus new details about their Ivy City expansion
By spring, D.C. will be seeing many more locally made goods, thanks to a planned expansion of Union Kitchen. New details have emerged about the food incubator -- which counts among its members brands like Broodjes and Bier, Capital Kombucha, and Dirty South Deli -- and its new facility planned for Ivy City. And with founders Jonas Singer and Cullen Gilchrist also planning to open a Capitol Hill cafe, the spring of 2015 looks to be a busy one for the two entrepreneurs.
Union Kitchen
As we reported last year, the duo will be expanding Union Kitchen's footprint with a new 24,000-square-foot space at 1369 New York Ave. NE. Union Kitchen's presence in the neighborhood will cement Ivy City as D.C.'s neighborhood for local food processing and production. Among their neighbors are ProFish, a seafood distributor for many area restaurants, as well as New Columbia Distillery and the new One Eight Distilling.
Singer and Gilchrist began looking to expand in 2013, when Union Kitchen's 50-member facility near Union Station reached capacity. The new kitchen will triple Union Kitchen's space; Singer and Gilchrist hope to double its membership, with a mix of small- and medium-sized culinary businesses that will employ, on average, six people each.
"It allows businesses to grow more before they leave us," Singer said of the expansion. "One of the things that we've learned is that there is a place for small business, and there's a place for big businesses, but there's this huge gap in between. Our goal is to try to close that gap as much as possible."
Determining the layout for a space like Union Kitchen was tricky, because it's not used the way a traditional kitchen would be. Members, who could be making anything from hot sauce to candy, share equipment and time in the space at all hours, so it gets a lot more wear than a typical restaurant kitchen.
"It's a different kind of operation. It's not one entity on high saying, 'This is how you use the resources,'" Singer said. "It's 50 people operating in concert who have to be trained to use the resources together in the way that's most efficient. It's very different, the footsteps that people take and the way that people have to be next to each other, the way you have to plan for peak usage versus the time that people won't be there at all."
Singer and Gilchrist designed the layout of the kitchen themselves to troubleshoot members' biggest issues with the current space, before bringing in architects from Streetsense. There will be more storage space, a segregated kitchen that can be adapted for special use (i.e. gluten-free baking), as well as a packaging line that members can pay to use to wrap up their products. The new space will feature 15 ovens and a 1,500-square-foot fridge. "Twice the size of my apartment," Gilchrist joked.
There will also be 2,000 square feet of space that can be used for events, whether it's a showcase of their members' products or a rental from a supper club or outside group. A cafe on the first floor of the building, similar to the partners' other endeavor, Blind Dog Cafe. will serve Union Kitchen products.
Singer and Gilchrist hope to open the new facility in late spring.
Capitol Hill
Also akin to Blind Dog is a new cafe and market that the partners are planning to open on Capitol Hill. The still-unnamed eatery will move into a townhouse at 538 Third St. NE in May.
"We think there's a huge potential for us to have more of a retail presence, to be able to distribute our members' products," Singer said. So the cafe will source its baked goods, drinks, and other potential needs from within the Union Kitchen community, serving member products like Capital Kombucha, Teeny Pies and Thunder Beast root beer.
Neighbors can expect a breakfast and lunchtime menu of sandwiches, coffee and baked goods. For dinner, Singer said there may be the potential for a rotation of some of UK's members to appear in pop-ups.
"We'd like [both cafes] to feel connected to the neighborhood," said Singer.
Maura Judkis covers culture, food, and the arts for the Weekend section and Going Out Guide.
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GNYAGG
The Greater New York Avenue Gateway Group, Inc.
for Sustainable, Economic, & Community Development & Public Engagement
Bringing People Together for Solutions, Innovation, & Action
Making the Corridor a great place to live, shop, work, do business, and enjoy
B.O.O.S.T. -- Balance. Opportunity. Options. Solutions. Transformation with Collaboration.
greaternyavegatewaygroup@gmail.com
http://greaternyavegateway.webs.com/
Follow us on Twitter: @gnyagg [pronounced "g-nag"]
Follow us on Twitter: @gnyagg [pronounced "g-nag"]
GNYAGG's Mission: Serve as a voice and strategist to drive solutions, innovation, vision, and partnerships to make New York Avenue (Northeast D.C.) a signature, attractive, useful, and pleasant destination for visitors, residents, businesses, and other stakeholders that is family and age friendly, culturally and economically diverse, balanced, and sustainable. GNYAGG, operating as a liaison to groups and facilitator, strives to make the Greater New York Avenue Gateway Group a great destination to live, work, do business, invest, and enjoy.
Additionally, GNYAGG's mission is to provide leadership, work collaboratively with groups, help guide and leverage available funds, and engage stakeholders to:
- Build, connect, strengthen, and revitalize communities
- Attract, retain, and usher in businesses
- Foster a creative economy (e.g., culinary arts, fashion design, media/sound production, software development, home design)
- Improve transportation, infrastructure, and streetscape (including public and playable art and a landmark gateway structure)
- Inform, educate, and represent and balance the interests of local residents, businesses
- Serve as a think tank and clearinghouse for information
- Preserve iconic architectural gems
- Expand economic and job opportunities and help develop small businesses and workforce
- Generate regional, national, and global appeal for dynamic Gateway Corridor.
Some key northeast New York Avenue crossroads in the Corridor include: Bladensburg Road and West Virginia, Montana, South Dakota, and Florida Avenues.
GNYAGG defines the boundaries of the Greater New York Avenue Corridor in Northeast Washington as the PG/DC Border and Anacostia River to the east, Rhode Island Avenue to north, H Street and Benning Road to the south, and North Capitol Street to the north.
Key "Main Streets" in the area are Rhode Island Avenue, H Street, and North Capitol Street.
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