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The Hatchery Chicago — Food Business Incubator & Commercial Kitchen Space

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The Hatchery Chicago — Food Business Incubator & Commercial Kitchen Space

The Hatchery Chicago is one of the nation’s leading food and beverage incubators — a 67,000-square-foot facility in Chicago’s East Garfield Park neighborhood where more than 140 food entrepreneurs, CPG brands, caterers, and packaged goods startups access commercial kitchen space, business mentorship, and the community they need to grow.
A nonprofit food incubator co-founded by ICNC and Allies for Community Business, The Hatchery is built for founders who are serious about turning a food concept into a scalable, sustainable business.

What Is The Hatchery?

The Hatchery Chicago is a nonprofit food business incubator designed specifically for the food and beverage industry. It is not a general co-working space or a standard shared kitchen rental. It is a purpose-built ecosystem where food entrepreneurs access licensed production space, business infrastructure, and specialized support required to succeed in the food industry.

Unlike typical shared commercial kitchen facilities in Chicago that offer only hourly kitchen rentals, The Hatchery combines production space with a comprehensive business development program.This includes mentorship from food industry experts, weekly workshops, access to capital through partner Allies for Community Business, and connections to retail buyers, distributors, and corporate sponsors through the B2B Partner Network.

The Hatchery is an affiliate of ICNC — the Industrial Council of Nearwest Chicago — one of the nation’s largest and oldest business incubators. That connection gives Hatchery members access to the broader ICNC ecosystem: workforce programs, advocacy networks, and over five decades of experience supporting Chicago’s entrepreneurial economy.

At a glance:
  • 67,000 sq. ft. food-grade facility in Chicago’s East Garfield Park neighborhood
  • 54 private food-grade kitchen suites in multiple sizes
  • Shared commercial kitchen with professional equipment
  • Cold storage, freezer, dry storage, and loading docks
  • Business mentorship, workshops, and one-on-one advising
  • Access to loan capital from $500 to $100,000 through Allies for Community Business
  • No equity taken — no ownership stake required from program participants
Inquire About Kitchen Space
Welcome to The Hatchery

Commercial Kitchen Space in Chicago for Food Startups

The Hatchery’s facility is designed for every stage of food production, from a solo founder testing a new recipe to a growing CPG brand producing at a consistent pace. Three categories of kitchen and storage space are available, each suited to different business sizes, production volumes, and operational needs.

Shared Commercial Kitchens

What shared kitchen access includes:

  • Professionally equipped commercial kitchen with prep tables, mixers, ovens, stoves, and walk-in refrigeration
  • Hourly and membership-based access options for businesses that do not yet require a dedicated production space
  • Flexibility to scale up to a private kitchen suite as production volume grows

Best for:

  • Early-stage food founders validating a concept or building toward consistent production volume
  • Catering operations with flexible production schedules
  • Businesses transitioning out of home kitchen production and into licensed commercial space

Private Kitchen Suites

What private suite access includes:

  • 54 food-grade private production kitchen suites in small to large configurations
  • Dedicated, exclusive-use space with 24/7 access for consistent production schedules
  • On-site storage options available
  • Customizable buildout options as your production needs evolve
  • Lease terms designed to grow with your business — upgrade to larger suites without relocating

Best for:

  • CPG brands and food service producers with consistent daily or weekly production requirements
  • Businesses ready to move beyond shared kitchen scheduling into dedicated production control
  • Growing food companies that need a stable, branded production environment for retail or co-packer compliance

Storage, Logistics & Distribution Support

The Hatchery’s logistics infrastructure addresses one of the most common barriers for scaling food businesses: the gap between production and distribution. The facility includes:
For most food entrepreneurs, building their own kitchen would cost $80,000 to $100,000 before producing a single unit. The Hatchery eliminates that capital barrier entirely.

Food Business Incubation

The Hatchery is not just a commercial kitchen rental. Members have on-site access to entrepreneur assistance and business development expertise that align specifically with the food and beverage industry. This includes help navigating the regulatory environment, exploring the retail buyer landscape, obtaining capital access, and facing operational challenges.

Business Mentorship & Advisory Support

Hatchery members have access to one-on-one business coaching from industry specialists with direct experience in CPG sales, food safety compliance, retail distribution, and culinary operations. Through partner organization Allies for Community Business, members receive free on-site business coaching covering financial management, marketing strategy, sales planning, and long-term growth. Unlike general business advisors, Hatchery mentors understand the specific regulatory and commercial challenges of the food and beverage industry.

Workshops & Weekly Training

The Hatchery hosts weekly workshops and training sessions covering the full range of topics a food business founder needs to navigate: food safety certification, packaging and labeling compliance, retail buyer pitching, pricing strategy, distribution channels, and business operations. Sessions feature both Hatchery staff and external industry experts. Members receive advance scheduling access and can join both in-person and virtual sessions depending on availability.

Access to Capital & Funding Support

One of The Hatchery’s most distinctive features is its integration with Allies for Community Business, a nonprofit microlender that provides loan capital from $500 to $100,000 to qualifying Hatchery residents and members. This is not a grant program — it is accessible, mission-driven capital from a lender that understands food business economics. Hatchery staff also connect members with external grant opportunities, government programs, and pitch competitions, including the Good Food Fund and the Midwest Dairy Pitch Competition.

Industry & Retail Connections

The Hatchery’s B2B Partner Network is a curated directory of industry experts, service providers, buyers, and peer companies in the food and beverage space that Entrepreneur Members can access directly. This network accelerates relationship-building that would otherwise take years of cold outreach, connecting food founders with the co-packers, distributors, retail buyers, and corporate sponsors that determine whether a food brand scales or stagnates. ICNC’s broader network of corporate partners adds an additional layer of connection to national CPG companies and institutional buyers.

By the Numbers — Hatchery Impact in Chicago

The Hatchery’s impact is measured in the businesses launched, the jobs created, and the economic activity generated by food entrepreneurs who moved from concept to commercial scale inside its walls. The metrics below reflect cumulative outcomes since the facility opened in Chicago’s East Garfield Park neighborhood in 2018.
The Hatchery — By the Numbers
140+
Food Businesses Supported
A community of food entrepreneurs, CPG brands, caterers, and culinary operators
25
New Companies Per Year
Food businesses launching annually from The Hatchery incubation community
Weekly
Workshops & Training
Business, culinary, and operational skills development sessions every week
150+
Culinary Trainees
Young adults trained and placed in Chicago's food industry through Impact Culinary
$100K
Max Loan Capital
Available to qualifying members through partner Allies for Community Business
67K
Square Feet
Purpose-built food incubator facility in East Garfield Park — one of the largest in the U.S.
The Hatchery is a 67,000 sq. ft. facility built with $30 million in investment — including $5 million in New Markets Tax Credits — specifically to eliminate the capital barrier that prevents food entrepreneurs from accessing licensed commercial production space in Chicago.

Success Stories from Hatchery Entrepreneurs

The measure of any food incubator is not its facility, it's the businesses that grow inside. The stories below are representative of what Hatchery membership makes possible for food founders at every stage of growth.
THE HATCHERY CHICAGO — CPG / PACKAGED FOODS & CATERING

Laos to Your House

From a shared kitchen user to a private kitchen tenant with a nationwide reach in less than four years.
Laos to Your House launched in July 2022 and moved its operations into the shared kitchen space at The Hatchery in December 2022. After its first full year at The Hatchery, Laos to Your House registered their brand with the USPTO, transitioned into a private kitchen suite, and hired a fulltime executive chef, allowing the founders to shift toward a more sustainable and scalable business model.

Key Outcomes:
  • More than doubled its earnings in 2024
  • Local retail grocery locations: 12+
  • Nationwide distribution of ready-to-eat meals
  • Full-time employees hired: 1
  • Earned positive media coverage from the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Reader, and WTTW | PBS Chicago.
"Words cannot adequately convey how grateful we are to every member of the team who makes us feel like their success is dependent on our success"
— Laos to Your House COO Byron Gully, Private Kitchen Tenant
THE HATCHERY CHICAGO — CPG / PACKAGED FOODS

BāKIT Box

This culturally inspired STEM baking kit company transitioned rapidly from local startup to national retail competitor. Using workforce development services from The Hatchery wrap-around support, they were able to manage early-stage hiring to help keep up with demand.
Since its February 2021 launch, BāKIT Box has evolved from a startup into a culinary enterprise, scaling its culturally-inspired STEM baking kits 159% in the first year. Incubation services provided structured guidance for founder Shelley Gupta to develop and refine a subscription-based business model, and with continued wrap-around support, she was able to make a strategic shift toward high-volume distribution with the launch of retail-specific kits and national dropship partnerships.

Key Outcomes:
  • Revenue increase of 159% in its first year
  • Certified as a Woman-Owned Business Enterprise (WBE)
  • Supports a team of four full-time and three part-time employees
  • Full-time employees hired: 1
  • Business still operating 5+ years post-enrollment
"The ecosystem and staff at The Hatchery have been instrumental in our success, providing the foundational support required to refine our model and successfully scale our workforce."
— BaKIT Box founder Shelley Gupta, Incubation Graduate & Private Kitchen Tenant

Who Is a Good Fit for The Hatchery?

The Hatchery serves food and beverage businesses at every stage — from a founder testing a concept in a shared kitchen to a scaling CPG brand running daily production. If your business involves making or selling food or beverage products and you need licensed production space, business support, or both, The Hatchery is designed for you.
The Hatchery — Who Is a Good Fit
Early-Stage Founders
Concept to first sale — access licensed kitchen space without the $80K–$100K buildout cost
Packaged Goods Brands
CPG startups pursuing retail, e-commerce, or co-packing relationships
Caterers
Catering companies needing licensed production, storage, and business support
Scaling Manufacturers
Food businesses growing beyond shared kitchen into dedicated private production
Chicago-Area Businesses
Chicagoland food founders — neighborhood businesses and West Side entrepreneurs prioritized
The Hatchery does not take equity and has no fixed program graduation timeline. Members stay as long as the program serves their growth.
Learn How To Apply

Impact Culinary Training Program

The IMPACT Culinary Training program was established in partnership with renowned chef Rick Bayless and Allies for Community Business to address two interconnected challenges: high unemployment on Chicago’s West Side and a persistent shortage of skilled kitchen staff in the hospitality industry.

Designed for Chicago adults ages 18 to 24, the program provides the skills required for an entry-level restaurant position — primarily as a prep cook. Students complete an intensive eight-week classroom course covering knife work, cooking methods, food preparation, and food handler certification, followed immediately by a four-week paid internship at recognized Chicagoland restaurants.

Program outcomes:
  • 85% of IMPACT graduates gain full-time employment
  • 150+ young adults trained and placed since the program launched
  • Operated out of the Impact Kitchen at The Hatchery facility
  • Positions secured: prep cook, line cook, and other food and beverage roles
Learn about the IMPACT Culinary Training Program

Why Choose The Hatchery?

There are commercial kitchen rentals in Chicago. There are general business incubators. The Hatchery is neither — and that distinction is what separates the businesses that simply produce food from the businesses that build lasting food brands.

Industry-Specific Mentorship

Every business development resource at The Hatchery is designed for food and beverage businesses, not adapted from a general startup program. Mentors and coaches have direct experience in CPG sales, food safety compliance, culinary operations, and retail buyer relationships. That specificity matters: a food entrepreneur navigating FDA labeling requirements or a co-packing negotiation needs someone who has done it, not someone who has read about it.

A Community Built Around Food

With more than 140 food businesses in one facility, The Hatchery creates something that cannot be replicated in a standard kitchen rental: a peer community of founders at every stage of growth. Hatchery members share referrals, solve production problems together, connect over shared buyers and distributors, and provide the informal accountability that solo founders rarely find elsewhere. The collaboration is organic because everyone in the building is working on the same category of challenge.

Economic Development Mission

The Hatchery exists to drive inclusive economic growth on Chicago’s Near West Side and East Garfield Park — not to extract equity from founders or generate returns for investors. No ownership stake is ever required. No fixed graduation timeline forces members out before they are ready. This mission orientation shapes every program decision and every partnership: the goal is always the long-term success of the business and the community it operates in.

Access to the Broader ICNC Network

As a Hatchery member, you are not just part of The Hatchery — you are part of ICNC’s 50-year-old ecosystem, which includes Make City (manufacturing and production), workforce development programs, advocacy resources, and relationships with corporate partners, institutional funders, and government programs across Chicago and the region. That broader network is available to Hatchery members through referrals, events, and ICNC staff introductions.

Join The Hatchery

Becoming a Hatchery member starts with an inquiry form. After your form is submitted, the ICNC team is available to help you navigate the path into a kitchen space at The Hatchery.
The Hatchery — Join
1
Submit an Inquiry
Complete the online kitchen inquiry form. Share your business details, production needs, and goals.
2
Consultation & Tour
ICNC will arrange a tour of the facility, including a conversation about your food or beverage business and operation needs.
3
Membership & Onboarding
Accepted members complete licensing and lease documentation and get access to the full Hatchery ecosystem.
Apply Now
Submit a kitchen inquiry
Start Your Application
Incubator Overview
Learn more before applying
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The Hatchery is a nonprofit food and beverage incubator. No equity is taken. No fixed graduation timeline.

Partner With The Hatchery — Support Chicago’s Food Economy

The Hatchery’s work is made possible by corporate partners, foundations, and sponsors who share a commitment to Chicago’s food entrepreneurship ecosystem. Partnership with The Hatchery connects your organization directly with a measurable, documented investment in Chicago’s Near West Side and East Garfield Park communities.

Benefits of Hatchery partnership:
Become a Partner
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