COLUMBIA − The wait is over. The new location for the CoMo Cooks kitchen is now open off of Business Loop 70.
The CoMo Cooks Kitchen is a shared commercial kitchen that local businesses and companies can rent out to use the space and equipment. People use the kitchen to prepare food such as baked goods, candies, tacos and more.
Trish Sieckmann is the kitchen manager at CoMo Cooks, and she said this is a great place to begin if people want to start a business.
“We rent our space to start ups and food trucks in Columbia that want to start up their small business that they may have been working out of home, but need more of a commercial space to work out of, to sell their products to the public and to be able to use the commercial space for their food trucks to operate because it is a city ordinance,” Sieckmann said.
Originally the CoMo Cooks kitchen was located at Mizzou North, but that building was demolished. The kitchen was then moved to a temporary space in downtown Columbia on Walnut Street while the new kitchen was being built. The new kitchen is now located at 14 Business Loop East 70 in north Columbia.
“This location was built in mind of what we experienced at the other two locations and how to utilize the space that we have available,” Sieckmann said. “So we designed the space so that we can have multiple clients in at the same time and they would have their own space and their own area to be able to work in. And yet it’s still open enough that we can be a family inside the kitchen as well.”
The plan for the new space was to make the kitchen large enough to incorporate multiple clients at the same time.
“We take a lot of pride in it because it was built from a plan,” she said. “The plan was to be able to bring in more clients and the space is made so that we can grow with our clients and it’s open 24/7 so they can come in and we have stalls set up so that each client can kind of have their own space when they reserve it. And we’re not stumbling on each other. We’re not trying to fight to get through a door.”
This allows for CoMo Cooks to open the door for more clients.
“The phone’s been ringing nonstop of new clients wanting to come into the kitchen and to inquire about the kitchen,” Sieckmann said. “It has just been clients after clients coming in and wanting to start up their business.”
Right now, CoMo Cooks has about 20 clients.
“They all know each other and it’s kind of like a little family here, so it’s kind of cool,” Sieckmann said.
A lot of time and money goes into starting a business and finding a space. Sieckmann hopes the new CoMo Cooks kitchen will help people begin their business venture.
“We would like to be able to see people who want to start up a business have an opportunity to do that, because trying to build a brick-and-mortar business can be so expensive. As we learned when we built this kitchen, it’s almost a $1 million kitchen,” Sieckmann said.
The Packing House is a separate manufacturing kitchen that’s part of CoMo Cooks. Local and regional growers and businesses, such as Root Cellar, use The Packing House to produce, package and distribute crops and produce.
The Packing House is located in the front of the building next to the CoMo Cooks kitchen. Sieckmann says The Packing House needs a couple final finishing touches and it should be open in a week.
Sieckmann is excited for the new location. The heavy traffic on Business Loop 70 is a good place for people to make a quick stop, she said.
“I love being here on the Loop. I think this is such an easy location. New clients can easily park out front, our clients park out back. So we don’t have the downtown parking problem,” Sieckmann said.
The grand opening ceremony for CoMo Cooks will happen in April.
Sieckmann encourages people to visit their website to find the steps to take to become a part of CoMo Cooks.