By Michael Lafleur, mlafleur@lowellsun.com
LOWELL -- City officials are establishing a new program to help would-be restaurateurs grow from their kitchens into a successful, entrepreneurial businesses.
The Lowell Kitchen Incubator program seeks to make it financially feasible for someone with a batch of popular recipes and the desire to start a business to access professional kitchen space. That often is a daunting step for budding food proprietors, who have difficulty obtaining the necessary state licensing and product liability insurance.
City officials now are seeking public input to guide the development and implementation of the new program.
Anyone interested may fill out an online survey at www.lowellma.gov/ki_survey. Survey forms will be available on the city Web site through the end of the month.
Theresa Park, the city's economic development director, said a specific professional kitchen space has yet to be established. She said that effort will be guided by the survey responses.
"We want to make sure as we develop this notion further that it's done in a way that's responsive to the community and that's as financially sound as possible in the way it's formed and organized," she said.
Park noted, however, that there certainly seems to be a demand for food created in Lowell's home kitchens, especially by the city's many ethnic immigrants. She said yearly surveys done in conjunction with the Lowell Folk Festival show that about half the visitors to the event come for the ethnic food.
"It's really taking a look at the makeup of the community," Park said. "There's a lot of creativity to the city. We think we could capture that, particularly given some of the immigrant populations, and tie that to the fact that food has a way of attracting people to the city."
Besides the professional kitchen space, the Kitchen Incubator effort also will pair would-be cooks with training offered by the Lowell Small Business Assistance Center "so they can be better business people and not just good cooks," Park said.
The ultimate goal, she said, is to create opportunities for potential new small-business owners and provide new food options for visitors.
For more information about the program, contact Park at (978) 446-7200 or tpark@lowellma.gov.
This story appeared in the Lowell Sun on Friday, April 11, 2008