“Nimbus Kitchen is creating a solution for everyone,” Nimbus Kitchen co-founder and chief marketing officer Samantha Slager said. “Whether you’re a food entrepreneur, an established catering business, or an emerging pastry chef; whatever you need, we can accommodate.”
Slager was running a launch marketing firm when she met Camilla Opperman, who originally dreamed up the idea of Nimbus Kitchens. “She had workshopped it for a while, but it was still in the early phases when we met,” said Slager. Intrigued, Slager made the decision to join Opperman and make Nimbus Kitchen her full time job.
The kitchen, which officially opened on the Lower East Side of New York City on January 11, is a commissary/ghost kitchen hybrid, offering members options for hourly, monthly, and yearly leases. On the hourly side, there are four types of kitchens available: one for prep only, another equipped for bakers, one with a tilt skillet used in catering, and another with a flat-top fryer range, which can be used for a variety of purposes. For longer-term clients, there’s the ability to customize the space to fit the business’ needs. The idea, Slager says, is to help members build into a full time space.
In addition, Nimbus has cold, frozen, and dry storage, along with a front-of-house space that has a full studio kitchen that can be used for events, tastings, filming, or any other content creation. Everything is situated on the ground floor, allowing for easier customer interactions and delivery operations.
The kitchen also offers full operational support to its members from fully cleaning and sanitizing the kitchen stations to connecting members with marketing services and distribution tools. “We want to make sure it’s clean and at optimal efficiency for our members,” Slager noted.
When asked if having two female founders has had an impact on the types of members the kitchen is interested in, Slager emphasized that though the kitchen is open to all kinds of businesses, the majority of current members are female-owned or run. “This could be because women in business are traditionally underserved and have trouble accessing capital,” she said. “This solution is meant to be a much easier entry point.”
This hybrid model also aims to improve transparency among food makers and consumers. “We believe we should educate our consumers so they know where their food is coming from,” Slager said. “And with our front-of-house space, they can see how their food is being made and be able to interact with it.”
Though the first location just opened, Slager and Opperman aren’t sitting still. “We have plans to open three facilities within the year and we hope to have at least 10 facilities in the New York City area,” Slager shared. “Eventually we want to create a national footprint so that members have access to our facilities anywhere. We want to help them expand and test new markets.”
Currently, Nimbus Kitchen is accepting members for its Lower East Side location. Slager emphasized the kitchen’s focus on member development and support. “As a startup, we’re very involved,” she said. “We’re on a texting basis with all of our members. We want to get feedback from them and make any changes that will help them do better business.”
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Images: Nimbus Kitchen