It would be difficult for someone to describe the Commissary in a single sentence, as the multifaceted, food-centric enterprise has its fingers in a lot of different pies – so to speak.
The new addition to the Columbus-area culinary community opened in the middle of October. The brainchild of long-time culinary professional Kate Djupe, the Commissary is the culmination of five years of planning and work.
Djupe attended the Culinary Institute of America before meeting her husband, Paul, and settling down in Columbus with their two sons, Gust and Bear.
She is no stranger to culinary enterprises. She opened two casual restaurants in Birmingham, Ala. in the past.
“I am having all of these restaurant building flashbacks right now because of construction at the Commissary,” Djupe says. “In some ways, the process feels the same even though this is more than five times the size of either of those.”
The idea for the Commissary came to Djupe when people began ask about buying the baby food she made at home for her youngest son. In order to sell it, she needed commercial kitchen space and industrial refrigerators, which proved to be just too expensive.
Djupe sought to create a support system for food entrepreneurs at every level. With the help of private investors and crowd-funding websites, such as Kickstarter, Djupe raised enough money to make the Commissary a reality. Contained within the building at 1400 Dublin Rd. is a plethora of services to help anyone interested in food preparation.
Starting a restaurant can be difficult, especially with the expensive equipment necessary for food preparation and storage, but the Commissary has fledgling food entrepreneurs covered with its on-site and off-site equipment rentals.
Food trucks – an integral parts of the
rising foodie community in Columbus – can find a support center in the Commissary with dedicated power stations and dishwashing machines inside to help with maintenance issues and overnight parking spaces available for rent outside.
It also offers the ability to try out point of sale technologies, the systems that manage transactions when a customer goes to the cashier, so restaurateurs can make informed decisions when choosing to invest in their business.
Also found in the Commissary is its nonprofit partner, the Proof Box. The Proof Box provides business services to food entrepreneurs, including accounting and consulting.
Inside the Commissary are three private kitchens, a dedicated dairy kitchen, a curing room and a walk-in storage area. There is a large kitchen space where restaurants are encouraged to experiment with different and new recipes and try them out before implementing them in their own menus.
“We call it ‘The Lab,’” Djupe says.
The Commissary is also host to a sizable community event space that can be rented out for everything from book club meetings to cooking classes.
One wall, across from the Commissary's sizable community cookbook library, is dedicated to several murals created by Columbus-area artists, including Sarah DeAngulo Hout. One mural, a work in progress, is open for visitors to contribute to.
Anyone who walks through the Commissary’s doors can contribute by painting in one of the many shapes that make up the mural. Djupe recommends fun food shapes if a person picks one of the circles.
Another wall is dedicated to wooden spoons engraved with the names and comments of the private investors who made her vision possible. The wall, filled with hundreds of different voices, embodies the core philosophy of The Commissary: a community kitchen space by and for everyone.
The Chopping Block
The Commissary is hosting a block party Nov. 16 with a multitude of food- and community-oriented events. The block party will feature Columbus Knife Fight, a cooking competition to spotlight culinary talent in the style of the Esquire Network show Knife Fight, mixed drinks and craft beers provided by area breweries, T-shirt and swag bag giveaways; all complete with live music performed by local indie rock band Earwig.
Kyle Banfill is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at sreed@cityscenemediagroup.com.
