A shared-production kitchen near the southwest edge of Midtown has bounced back since March when the pandemic cut its business by nearly two-thirds.

OtherFoods Kitchen hosted 25 small businesses before COVID-19 erupted, lost 19 of them in March and April, but by summer’s end built back up to 25 again, partner Evan Katz said Monday, Jan. 4.

“A lot of those groups were either able to bounce back or slowly pivot … ,” Katz said. “Some transitioned to deliver food directly to customers.”

OtherFoods Kitchen started four years ago in the same building that housed the now-closed Trolley Stop Market at 704 Madison. OtherFoods outgrew that space, and in August 2019 moved to 1249 Heistan Place.

That’s a former cabinet shop that burned about 15 years ago and remained vacant until the renovation for OtherFoods. The 5,000-square-foot building is owned by the adjacent Blue Sky Couriers, which is now a partner with OtherFoods Kitchen.

The brick, one-story building features a sunlit main kitchen of about 12 stainless-steel prep tables, a 16-burner gas stove, four convection ovens, two more baking/finishing ovens, a walk-in refrigerated room, large freezers, a dry-storage room, racks of pans, and shelves filled with mixers and other equipment.

A business brings its own ingredients and labor; everything else is not only on site, it can stay on site. Business operators do not have to haul pots or equipment back and forth. Each business has shelf, refrigeration or freezer space reserved for its ingredients.

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OtherFoods is designed as a low-cost, low-risk way for a new, food-related business to get started, or for a small business to keep operating with minimum overhead. The rent is $12 to $17 an hour.

Another advantage is access to a commercial kitchen approved by the Department of Agriculture, which is a requirement for selling food wholesale.

“That was one of the primary catalysts to get us in here,” said Amber Salmon, owner of TN Roots CBD. Among her products are dog treats that are gluten-free.

“To sell them, we had to produce them in a (licensed) commercial facility … ,” Salmon said.

“When CBD became considered a consumer product, we had to make sure we had our manufacturing food license and it was coming from a licensed facility,” she said.

“I love it. Ultimately, the end-goal is for me to have my own kitchen. But start-up costs are ridiculous for small businesses.”

That’s the kind of need that OtherFoods Kitchen seeks to meet.

“The goal is to help people get off the ground and do it in a pretty risk-free way,” Katz said. “At worst, you are risking a couple hundred dollars instead of 20 grand.”

All 25 business customers cannot use the kitchen facilities at once. On the wall is a schedule for who comes in when to work in the 24-hour facility.

There’s ample space for up to three groups to use the kitchen at one time during the pandemic, and more will be allowed in at the same time after COVID-19 goes away, Katz said.

Katz and his main partner, Steve Cantor, started the business four years ago to solve their own problem. Both are entrepreneurs. Katz is also a project lead for Southern Growth Studios. Cantor has a software firm, Optimal Process, and helps his wife, Karen Lebovitz, who owns Otherlands Café.

They make a probiotic drink called Benefizz, selling it wholesale. The partners came to the realization that to be successful, they needed to at least be part-owners of a certified, commercial kitchen, Cantor said.

Benefizz was too small to start its own kitchen.

“So we started getting groups together that were also producing stuff, and made that happen,” Cantor said of founding OtherFoods Kitchen.

Among other businesses that rent the kitchen from OtherFoods are Amplified Nutrition, Reveled Spirits, Krabhead, Crave4 Popcorn, Waypoint, Goodness Gracious Cookies, Kia Kakes, Cane & Herb, Memphis Lead Safe Collaborative, Mila’s Sweets, Brain Food, Bibby’s Bakes, Tatums Made ’Em, Charmel’s Cuisine, Sweets by Chan, The Canning Couple, Big River Bakehouse, Naguara Homemade Foods, and BrewBakers Barkery.

They typically sell their food products to local grocers, coffee shops, restaurants, at farmers’ markets, or direct to customers.

The pandemic has at least one silver lining, Katz said. It has created more demand for take-out food. For example, Amplified Nutrition makes 1,500 meals a week, selling direct to customers who might buy five or six meals weekly. The meals are either delivered to the customer’s house or they pick them up from OtherFoods Kitchen.

Katz says OtherFoods has room to grow more business, estimating it is operating at 50% capacity.