Real Good Kitchen offers food entrepreneurs a space to grow | The Maker City – Knoxville News Sentinel
Step by step and success story by success story, Bailey Foster is realizing her dream by watching the dreams of others come true.
The Webb School graduate, who holds degrees from Davidson College and Columbia University, is the founder of The Real Good Kitchen (RGK) — a shared commercial kitchen space, or “incubator kitchen,” for aspiring Maker City food entrepreneurs — at 2004 Magnolia Ave.
Foster spent 20-plus years working in book publishing, retail grocery, consulting and software development in New York and San Francisco before she returned to Knoxville in 2013. She saw a city much changed from the one she’d left decades before, with a thriving downtown scene, a burgeoning food and beverage artisan community, a popular Farmers Market, and a rapidly growing food truck industry.
Having just come from the Bay Area, where she’d discovered her first incubator kitchen, La Cocina, Foster began to kick around the idea of starting such a venture here in Knoxville. She’d seen the positive impact La Cocina and its members — the many gifted food entrepreneurs from diverse cultures who would not otherwise be able to afford commercial kitchen facilities — had on the local food economy.
When some local culinary-minded friends mentioned that they wanted to start a business but didn’t have the place to do it, Foster saw not only a market opportunity but a way to lower barriers and decrease the risks associated with startups. She found a building, renovated it, put her business plan in place, gathered a staff, put the word out, signed up some members and opened the doors in January of 2021.
Between December 2020 and August 2021, RGK sold 30 memberships, 60% of which were startup businesses. Foster and her small staff, including kitchen manager Alhen Drillich and member engagement manager Mel Mullins, provided 135 tours of the facility and 235 hours of individual coaching.
“We really feel like we’re set up well for businesses that are brand new or interested in scaling up — anybody who is interested in starting or growing a business,” says Foster. “The incubator part is just really where our heart and soul is. We want to make sure we’re helping businesses have the resources they need to take whatever next steps are right for them — whether that’s modifying their business plan, working on a website, working on the cost of their products — all aspects.”
Member businesses cover a wide range of culinary goodness including plant-based, healthy soul food; pureed baby food; baked goods and chocolate; coffee and tea; Louisiana po-boy sandwiches; small-batch hot fried chicken and small-batch pimiento cheese spread. Starting this past October, RGK has hosted pop-up food fairs on First Fridays, and Foster plans to keep those going throughout the winter. She’s seen her member businesses make great connections that way.
“Angie Cook, of Cooks on the Curb, has seen a lot of growth since she’s been in the kitchen. Now she’s ready to really take the next leap with a packaged product.”
Another recent success story is the Seoul Brothers — the brother-and-sister team of Josh Coates and Victoria Scott, whose heritage is Korean. They now have their own space at Marble City Market.
For the holiday season, RGK’s social marketing manager Alex Rifwald has put together a holiday gift guide. Visit therealgoodkitchen.com/blog/holiday-gift-guide for the best in locally made food, and support small business success at the same time.
“The stories I want to tell are the success stories that are coming out of our kitchen, about the people who are willing to take a chance on us and join us,” says Foster. “Their success is a measure of our success.”
The Maker City is the greater Knoxville-area community of makers, artists, creatives, and small-scale manufacturers and supporting entities. Led by the Mayor’s Maker Council, we facilitate collaborative partnerships, programming, and opportunities in an effort to create a sustainable creative community. For more info, visit us at http://themakercity.org/.
