In early 2019, there weren’t any operational ghost kitchens in New York City. Camilla Opperman found this out the hard way.
When Opperman started developing her macro-driven food start up, she looked far and wide for a culinary space with flexible hours and an affordable price point, where she could perform research and development, only to realize none existed. Disappointed by a lack of options and resources, but determined, Opperman switched gears and laid the foundation for what would soon become a new business plan for Nimbus Kitchen, now set to open its first Lower East Side location on January 11th, 2021.
“I realized this was a massive pain point in the industry and that everyone was facing this problem of finding affordable and flexible kitchen spaces,” says Opperman, now 27 years old. “I think that has become even more apparent during COVID. People are really hesitant to commit to long term leases or building out their spaces because this industry has been hit so hard.”
Instead of creating her own food business, Opperman partnered with Samantha Slager, 29, to create a space which they summarize as “a hybrid between the traditional commissary kitchen and a ghost kitchen, with a few more bells and whistles.”
The vision of Nimbus reaches far beyond the spaces it occupies and certainly has more to offer than just bells. It is a vision of opportunity, camaraderie, and flexibility. Unlike most ghost kitchens or commissaries, Nimbus guarantees dedicated equipment to its users as well as professional sanitization after every shift. All equipment rests on casters for easy transport, so members can select their kitchen configuration based on their operation’s unique needs.
Bringing this concept to reality would require vision and insight from industry professionals, so they got to work, asking industry owners and operators what their dream kitchen would look like in this space. After over 200 conversations, there was one piece of equipment they invested in early on, that they knew would take their kitchen from prep school to professional: their Alto-Shaam blast chiller.
“Something that’s unique about our model is that people are operating on pretty tight shifts. If someone comes in for 4 hours, they don’t have the luxury of waiting around for their food to cool,” says Opperman. “The blast chiller was a great solution for those businesses who are working on a tighter timeline to be more efficient.”
Efficiency and universal access to their kitchen spaces are two key cornerstones of the business they have built, and so their equipment procurement was an exercise in calculated curation. After being introduced to Singer Equipment Company at a New York City Hospitality Group meeting, they knew they wanted a one-stop shop that could consult on their project and deliver the equipment and supplies their team needed to fulfill their mission.
“We worked really closely with Singer on getting high quality equipment that could take 24/7 utilization,” says Opperman. “Alto-Shaam really fell into that category of being high-quality, durable and wasn’t going to break the bank.”
It’s clear that the mission of Nimbus is to help food businesses not just survive—but thrive.
“With the rise of the ghost kitchen model, people weren’t really connecting with these [restaurants] previously,” says Slager. “We’ve taken all these dark kitchens and brought them to light.”
Nimbus Kitchen is dedicated to opening ground floor spaces, where customers can see the kitchens from the street, giving operators more exposure and yes, plenty of natural light.
“We’re so focused on making a really hospitable place for our members to do what they do best which is creating,” said Slager. “We wanted to make a space where they can create content that will ultimately help them gain more customers.”
After all, as young female co-founders in a male dominated industry, leveling the playing field of foodservice is an essential part of their mission.
“We’re hoping these members do become the next big names in food,” says Slager. “We’re hoping to scale with these people as they become more established in their passions.”
“Nimbus will be the future,” says Opperman, laughing.
“You can quote her on that,” says Slager.
We’re confident we can.
