# Renting Space



## papacinos (May 22, 2007)

Been catering for roughly about a year now. Started out just doing Family and Friends parties to see if I enjoyed doing it. Now things are really starting to heat up from refferels and whatnot. So I am ready for the next step in my venture. Business License, Insurance and Space. Can anyone help me in telling me what are some things I can do to take my next Steps?

I am in N.Y and it is illegal to Cook out of your Home for catering. I'v cooked for Family and friends so it wasn't a problem. Now For July I have 5 Jobs coming up who are "Friends of Friends and Family" and would like to be legit by July 14th. Gives me 30 days aprox. I want to get my business license and insurance and rent a space. Board of Health has said that "Church kitchens are no good." I have money saved from the jobs I'v done. Basically what I'm asking is what are my next steps to go legit? Renting a space, where can I find places? Something that I can use as an address for place of business and also Cook out that is Board of Health Legal, until I save enough money to Purchase my own Place, or is there a place to find this information?


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## tigerwoman (Jul 18, 2002)

Hi there and welcome to the wonderful world of catering

first of all are you in nassau or suffolk county, because maybe the other county has a different rule about church kitchens. Find a church kitchen, a VFW hall or something like that to rent space. 

Check out some dinner houses (restaurants that only serve dinner) maybe they would want to rent kitchen use and space to you., Same idea for a school or nursing home or daycare center that might have a liscenced kitchen.

maybe even a bakery or a luncheonette/breakfast place that doesn't do dinner?

I have looked around the tri state area and have not been able to find an incubator spot - I heard of one in Brooklyn a few years back, but cann't track it down.

another route to go is to be a personal chef - you could still do the catering, but it would limit you to cooking and prepping at the clients location - be it there house or office or rented venue - you cann't prep at home and you cann't store things at home either. Insurance is different for personal chef than a catering business. 

The business liscense in NY seems to be the federal tax id number. I would suggest incorporating - it costs under $500 and limits your liability. In NY it's very expensive to become an LLC because of some arcaic laws about advertising the LLC setup in the law journal I think - maybe long island is different, but thats one of the reasons you rarely see an LLC in NY.

I have another business in PA - we own some rental property and setting up an LLC there was cheap and easy - cheaper than an S corp (a type of incorporation)


you should get a good accountant - and find an insurance broker who understands the bizness. PM me and I will recommend a guy out by route 110 (I think - mostly I talk to him on the phone or via email) who is excellent and gets good quotes. Insurance is very expensive in NY - as are most things.

As for hiring staff, you can either do payroll yourself or perhaps use a service to hire the staff in order sidestep the payroll issues.

Once you start running all these legitimate overheads you will probably have to raise your prices - then you will understand why alot of caterers get upset with illegal caterers who can offer low prices because their expenses are so low to start with. It's really not the food that is the major cost in producing an event. Have you taken your counties safe food handling course yet. Usually called the food handlers liscense or something like that. It will give you a good overview about how to store and handle food and what the inspectors are looking for.

I have a friend in northern california who submitted plan for his backyard/garage (seperate building and entrance) kitchen to the board of health as a school project to ask what he needed to change if they were to "theoretically" pass the plans. He wasn't zoned for the commercial use, but still managed to get the plans passed because he met codes. He uses a county kitchen (wish they had those in NY) as his "legal" kitchen.

We use a friends restaurant kitchen on a per diem basis and also have a mobile kitchen that we use for larger jobs when we need to bring cooking facilities on site.

hope this helps. Good luck - and mangia


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

my catering kitchen is in a church......it is inspected, has what it needs for regs (instead of a triple sink I have a new high temp dishwasher). The church members use it about 4x a year.....I'm on site when that happens and make sure they know how to use the equipment (in a 60 year old kitchen shtuff has issues).....as well as making sure my equipment does not disappear (even in a church stuff gets "misplaced"). 
To bring the church up to code required alot of repairs on the part of the church.
All in all I'm glad to have the space.
I was a personal chef for several years and it worked well when my sons were in school......it never translated into catering.
There are several food businesses in churches, some are legit and some aren't......
Hep shots are necessary too.....
to start out you can have staff paid directly by the customers.....at least one caterer in town avoids paperwork/workman's comp that way.


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## m brown (May 29, 1999)

if you are in nassau county or close to it, send me an email or private message and i can give you the names of two kitchens that may be available for renting, off hours.:bounce:


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## papacinos (May 22, 2007)

Thank you everyone for helping out. GREAT Responses...Really enjoying the forum so far.

ESTY-I was Not able to Read your links. Its says "< Participant is not yet authorized to post links. >"
Maybe PM me the links? Not sure what your trying to Link me to though?

TIGERWOMEN-I am in Suffolk County, although if Space is available in Nassau I'm not afraid to Travel and setup Shop somewhere else. I love to Cook, and basically started out with a cousin of mine who also loves to cook. A Family memeber had a party and we Catered it. Everything went Great and so OTHER Family members started asking for us to CATER their parties. (All within a Year) Things got a little slow in January/February, however I have friends in the Business and was told this is an EVERY Year thing, those are the slow times for Caterers as it's cold and parties pick up again around April/May for Communions and all that fun stuff..ANYWAY Since then he IS NO LONGER in the business with me, he has moved onto other things. So come April/May/June SURE enough things go right back to being busy avg about 2-4 parties a month since April. Now come July I have 7 Parties booked, and 5/7 are for Friends of Friends. That is why i want to go legitmate now. I'v feel like i'v gotten a taste of the business and REALLY ENJOYED what i'v done. I'm sure there will be Bumpy roads ahead but the Bumps i'v encountered so far I'v overcome and learned from and still ejoy what I'm doing.

My Experiance is I'v cooked since I was about 5 years Old. Cooking is in my family and that is my selling point and recipes. Recipes my father, grandparents aunts and uncle all brought with them to America from Italy. I worked at a deli that did many catering Jobs out of it and I was the one prepping and traying everything and loading the truck. So I have quite a bit of experiance. As far as beig a "PROFESSIONAL CHEF" I'm not.

My goal is to RUN my business and HIRE a proffessional Chef, using my Recipes and my ideas and hopefully find a great chef who can bring some his/her ideas on board as well. I do understand why Legit Caterers get mad at unlicensed Caterers. I have friends who work in the business and they tell me stories all the time. Unfortunatly their not in NY and i'm unsure of things to do HERE IN NY.

I'm going to PM you and maybe we can speak some more if you don't mind, seems like you have quite a bit of knowledge and would love to pick your brain if you don't mind? I'd love the number to your insurance Broker on 110. I know exactly where that is and is only 30 minute from my house.

I'm currently looking into VFW halls. A Question I Have is, am I allowed to use that for my address for place of business? Also, if anyone can take a look at my website. WWW.PAPACINOSCATERING.COM And let me know what you Think, like or dislike? Any opinions on ADD-ONS or even to take away is always welcomed and apreciated. Thanks to all who responded.


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## status (Mar 10, 2010)

We offer a facility for rent in Southern CA.

As far as what we offer and the associated rates, depending upon many different factors, rates start and vary from $19-$40 per hour. It all depends on what you need and how often you need it. In addition to our kitchen rental services, we also offer storage space (dry, cold, freezing), co-packing services, consulting, labor, and/or the combination of all the above mentioned... Additionally, regardless of the service you end up going with, we include all utilities, chemicals, paper towels, soap, towels, and cleaning supplies. Also, we include a free hour of consulting time with our professional chef to help with conversion, quantification, development, or anything else you may need.

What I/we typically like to do is set a time to meet in person and give you a tour of the facility. This allows us an opportunity to meet, greet and learn of each other's product(s), services and rates. It's an effective way to determine your needs and how I can accommodate them in the most efficient way.

I can provide the above mentioned information in whatever format is required for your guide.

I appreciate your consideration!


Cordially,
[email protected]


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