CHARLOTTE, N.C., May 19, 2020 — The City Kitch, a Commercial Kitchen Community that provides private and shared facilities for all food businesses throughout North Carolina, has announced its plans to expand to a third location in the Freight District of West Charlotte in August 2020. The City Kitch currently has a facility in the University Area of Charlotte and an upcoming facility in Greensboro, NC.

The City Kitch has been a market leader in Charlotte for some time, starting with a converted K&W Cafeteria in the University area. Chef Carrie Hegnauer, founder of The City Kitch and former Senior Culinary Instructor at Johnson & Wales, saw a need for this type of facility for her own food business. Hegnauer founded The City Kitch to fill that need, and soon found herself falling in love with the ability to help other food entrepreneurs to build and grow their businesses. Much of the beginnings of The City Kitch focused on facility provisions and business support for mobile food services, such as food trucks, caterers and bakers. Today, they view themselves as more than a commercial kitchen facility and consider themselves a collaborative and supportive community for their clients. The City Kitch empowers culinary businesses to focus on what they do best, prepare great food for their customers while eliminating the high-risk, capital-intensive investments associated with physical brick and mortar locations. The City Kitch’s newest location in West Charlotte will enable restaurants and food vendors outside of the Charlotte Metro area to quickly and efficiently expand into the Charlotte market, bringing more variety and flavor to the rapidly growing city.

The City Kitch partnered with Red Hill Ventures, a Charlotte-based investment firm, to strengthen business operations and retain capital investment to expand and grow at scale. Red Hill Ventures identified The City Kitch as a strong player in the culinary industry and one that is poised for growth. Red Hill Venture’s expertise in business growth and expansion enabled The City Kitch to reach the next level with the expansion to both Greensboro and the West Charlotte facility. The City Kitch’s Director of Operations, Dana Winstead, said, “Our West End location gives me goosebumps, because we are able to build exactly what we have learned is most needed and highly desirable for our clients. Everything is state-of-the-art and beautifully designed to accommodate any type of food business at any size. We are thrilled about the culinary community expanding into this space!” The City Kitch West End will also have a “front of house” zone dedicated to food delivery/pickup services and offer education/training opportunities for culinary professionals.

Pre-lease efforts are in full gear for the Westside Charlotte location. Private Prep Suites as well as shared-kitchen and mobile food business (MoFUs) memberships are now available to reserve. The Private Prep Suites, which are dedicated, single-member units within the facility that lease holders can customize to meet their specific needs, are typically the first spaces to lease in the facility. One of these suites is already booked to Bow Ramen, a top rated authentic Japanese Ramen Restaurant in Manhattan NY, that has expanded into Charlotte. The City Kitch West End will be opening Summer 2020 and will be in good company with Hygge, Wray Ward, Stratified, Laurel Street Partners and a host of other local businesses all located along Thrift Road corridor. For more information about The City Kitch and the company’s expansion, please visit https://www.TheCityKitch.com.

To view renderings of West End location, visit: https://www.thecitykitch.com/tck-west-end-construction-renderings

About The City Kitch

Founded in 2013 by Chef Carrie Hegnauer, former Senior Culinary Instructor at Johnson & Wales, The City Kitch is the culinary industry's solution to achieving cost-efficient and rapid growth, providing private and shared facilities for all food businesses throughout North Carolina. Through The City Kitch, culinary businesses can access top-of-the-line commercial shared-use kitchen spaces, Private Prep Suites, food storage, client services as well as ongoing education, support, consulting services and more. For more information, go to www.thecitykitch.com, like our Facebook page and/or follow us on Instagram @CityKitch.