The Recipe
15-30 Food Lovers
20-50 Overlapping Tangental Conversations
6 Cooking Anecdotes
8 Excellent Culinary Tips
60 Laughing Spells
1 Case of Good Wine
1 Perfect Menu of Your Choice
Mix well and let marinate for 3-4 hours. Serve and Enjoy!
The Concept
The Kitchen is a participatory dining and event venue located in downtown Columbus, Ohio. We host nightly dinner parties that use communal cooking and food as the focal point of an immersive dining experience. We offer a unique way to gather, celebrate and entertain. There are many places you can go to take a cooking class, but at The Kitchen the focus is on the experience you have when you cook and dine as a group.
Guests will come together with friends (known and yet to be met), family and colleagues to create a meal, enjoy one another’s company and learn a new skill or share a cherished culinary secret. The best part is that when the party is over you don't even have to clean up!
Our schedule includes such cooking events as:
- Dinner Tonight is our answer to the mid-week rut. It is the perfect way to gather with friends for an evening of good food, wine & company. It will feature regional cooking (menus from the south or New England inspired fare) and ethnic cuisine (Northern Italian night featuring rich stews & homemade bread or taco night). Leave your kitchen at home and be part of what we are cooking up!
- Artful Dinner is where we turn the creativity on. You will be able to come together with other food lovers to prepare a menu in response to a shared favorite book or musical genre or perhaps a piece of art work. Can you imagine what the menu for the book "Chocolat" might be? We can!
- RavEnous Dinner features our most cutting edge, eclectic menus for those daring foodies that are looking for an exceptional culinary adventure. Explore the depths of molecular gastronomy, artisanal charcuterie or engage all of your senses by dining in the dark. The excitement is in the mystery at RavEnous Dinner.
- Hangover Brunch--I think we can all recall a time when Saturday morning rolled around and all you could think was "where is the closest place to get a fried egg sandwich and a bloody mary?" Our Hangover Brunch will satisfy your need and give you a little hair of the dog to get you going again...oh and we'll do the cooking on this one.
- Taco Tuesday Take-Out our weekly fiesta where you can choose from traditional latin flavors or sample one of our cultural variations on the theme.
The Location
We are located in German Village (a downtown historic neighborhood) in a building that was once a video store. The building was built in the 1920's and until now has only ever housed retail operations. This being said it requires a full build-out to include a commercial kitchen, 4 new restrooms and an office. Inside those great display windows will be a relaxing lounge area where dinner party guests can meet one another and be oriented to the evenings menu. The building has a terrific view of downtown Columbus, which truly adds to the ambiance of the location.
The open floor plan will accommodate 5 to 6 mobile cook stations (which will be set with all the necessary equipment and recipe components) and a long farm-style dining table for everyone to gather around and toast the success of their dinner. The warm interior design will feature a rustic contemporary feel, an ambiance that will envelope you and provide the perfect surroundings for creativity, camaraderie and an exceptional evening of memory making.
Check out how our good friend describes cooking with us...
http://megmenkedick.tumblr.com/post/35012782492/food-interlude?og=1
And, how New York Times writer Mark Bittman explains the joys of group cooking...
The Need
The Kickstarter money we raise will specifically help us accomplish the many costs associated with opening OUR dream kitchen. This includes:
- furnishings & finishes for our inspiring old building
- architecture design fees
- renovation & construction expenses
- signage
- initial stocking of our pantry
- licenses, insurance and other start-up fees
Risks and challenges
Our biggest, weightiest risk is getting the construction completed on time and on budget. Since we have already taken on a lease it is essential that we complete the build out of our building and stay on budget, so that we can begin hosting cooking events and create a stable revenue stream.
We are prepared to monitor the project closely, make tough decisions and be creative when it comes to accomplishing this goal. For instance, we chose to do some of the demolition work ourselves in an effort to save money and truly have our hands in the project.
Opening a business requires a lot of time and energy. We are both concerned about maintaining our current responsibilities while taking on the additional (albeit exciting) work necessary to get our business up and running. Jen is very focused on remaining on the Dean's List through her final year of culinary school while Anne's responsibilities as a parent of two children are many. We both have always thrived under pressure and expect that our excellent time management skills and incredible community of support around us will allow us to focus on what we need to do to be successful all around.
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Funding period
- (40 days)