The industrial kitchen at Portsmouth Olympic Harbour is now used to help women who want to start a business in the food industry.
After the once-bustling harbour restaurant closed in 2021, the city decided to re-purpose the space.
It’s been leased as a commercial kitchen to Keys Employment Services, which uses the space to help female entrepreneurs.
“There are some limited spaces in Kingston and some significant costs associated with accessing kitchen space. So this becomes a huge barrier for people who are looking to grow beyond a home-based business,” said Carissa Cosgrove, operations coordinator of Keys.
For one aspiring entrepreneur, who is thinking of starting a food-based business, this was her first time seeing the space.
“It was just from word of mouth that I heard about this opportunity. I thought, why not take a chance?” Nida Rehman said.
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For food-based business owners, using a kitchen like this, for a lower cost than most other commercial spaces, can allow small businesses to grow.
The kitchen has the equipment needed to fill big orders, such as commercial-grade ovens, counter space and cookware.
“They already have all the equipment that we need in the commercially larger sizes that we need, like a huge pot. All of that is here, which is really handy. All of those things are really, really expensive to buy,” said Christina Avery, co-owner of Knifey Spooney.
Both Rehman and Avery are seeing the kitchen for the very first time.
But in Selena Martin’s case, she has already had the opportunity to use the kitchen a few times.
Martin currently runs a one-person business, but access to this kitchen may help her expand.
“A space like this kind of opens up the world for me. I can produce more products, potentially have employees.”
While the program is only in its infancy, the plan is to open up to more entrepreneurs as it grows — and to “serve up” more opportunities for women breaking into the food industry.
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