Kitchen incubator to be a food hub
Oct. 27—SHARON — Laurel Technical Institute officials hope the Laurel Kitchen Incubator will be a successful addition to its culinary school and will make Sharon and the region a popular destination area.
LTI, at 200 Sterling Ave., Sharon, received $45,000 from the city of Sharon in American Rescue Plan Act funds to help create a cooperative kitchen incubator. The project includes a rentable commercial kitchen, walk-in coolers, and restaurant space for both the culinary school and the public.
"We need takers to come in and take advantage of this," said Doug Decker, vice president of LTI, adding that it's been two years since the idea for the incubator came to them. "It's exciting to see the community have the opportunity to come in."
The kitchen incubator is available for rent on an hourly basis.
"We're hoping members of the community, hopefully alumni, who have an idea and want to start a restaurant can come and test it here," Decker said. "It's a way to be a catalyst; get people incubated here, test out concepts and then hopefully they can buy their own space downtown or elsewhere in the community."
It will also expand upon its culinary program as well as support the community's food service industry and entrepreneurs in the culinary space.
"This program seeks to harness the tremendous expertise of local farms, markets and food producers to grow downtown Sharon as a culinary destination," Decker said.
Expectations for the commercial kitchen include a food-related business spinning out of the kitchen incubator every year, then two and three, with the goal to have incubated 10 culinary businesses into the community and region at the end of five years.
"It's ambitious but I think also reasonable," Decker said. "If we give people a place to start and a culinary community to be a part of, who knows what can happen when the momentum grows."
The culinary school opened in fall 2020 at the Sharon campus. The school, which encompasses the kitchen and restaurant space as well as a community garden and shared greenhouse with Whole Life Services in Hermitage, has graduated six students and currently has 20 students — its highest enrollment ever.
The culinary program has established internships with the local business community including Vey's Pub and Grille, Hermitage; The Springfield restaurant Group; J Hicks in Mercer; Avalon Country Club in Hermitage; Nemacolin Resort in southwestern Pennsylvania; and Woodland Cellars in Hubbard, Ohio.
"The culinary program has really taken off in the past six months as industries have reopened," Decker said, adding that their goal with the culinary program and the kitchen incubator is to "really focus on standing it up so it can also help support graduates of the culinary program as well as the community."
Decker said the Mercer County area is rich in food resources.
"If we could just pull this together as a hub, it could be a launching point for so much," Decker said. "We have all these amazing local products within 15 minutes. If it could just be harnessed and talked about.
"And that leads to revitalization downtown, and one good restaurant leads to another," Decker said. "And then people start to look to the area as a place to go — a destination."
Follow Melissa Klaric on twitter @HeraldKlaric or email her at mklaric@sharonherald.com
Follow Melissa Klaric on twitter @HeraldKlaric or email her at mklaric@sharonherald.com
