Local Kitchen is Food Entrepreneurs' Bread and Butter

An unassuming Pacifica locale is growing into a hub of culinary entrepreneurship.

The idea behind Pedro Point Creative is simple: provide an incubator kitchen and event space that can turn home cooked goods to market-ready product.

One has only to visit the at Rockaway Beach or Half Moon Bay to see the success of the commercial kitchen’s clients.

Frittle Factory began with Elizabeth Honneyman’s family recipe for delicate, peanut butter candy, and she is now producing them for sale in the Pedro Point Creative kitchen and selling at Rockaway Beach every Wednesday.  

In the food industry, start-up costs are often high, and access to an affordable commercial kitchen space for lease can make all the difference in catering or selling wholesale realistic.

“The food business is tough. [Start-up] really weeds out the weak,” Gheeva Chung, the founder and “kitchenista” of Pedro Point Creative said.

This “kitchenista” views her business as more than just a space for rent, or a means to an end. As such, she also consults with clients on the operations side of running a food business, such as applying for permits.

Chung also involves herself in the local food community, which provides invaluable contacts for her clients. The owners of soon-to-open Pacifica restaurants, Boston Bills and have both held events at Pedro Point Creative. Chung said having seasoned professionals and up-and-coming businesses in the same space creates lasting connections.

The Pedro Point Creative founder likens her business to “a small scale La Cocina.”

San Francisco-based La Cocina is recognized in the national food community as a food business incubator, particularly for low-income entrepreneurs. The company boasts a portfolio of over 30-up-and-coming businesses.

La Cocina’s operations have also developed into a National Street Food Conference.

Pedro Point Creative may operate on a significantly smaller scale, but the aspiration is there.

“My passion is to work with people who want to be food producers—to give them a place to create their vision,” Chung said.

According to Chung, the fact that several food businesses now using the space are Peninsula-based, including 3 Bee Baking and the Naked Chorizo food truck, demonstrates a market need. In Pacifica, Pedro Point Creative is the only business incubator of its kind—for food businesses or otherwise. Perhaps a larger scale operation isn’t too far off.   

When Pedro Point Creative opened its doors in 2007 amid the effects of a national recession, the client base was small.

As financial times slowly began to rebound, however, Chung saw that people were turning toward small entreprenuerial gigs to make ends meet.

As of late, those same businesses have "blossomed," she said.

What these local food businesses have accomplished, she said, "can be tough but really rewarding."