Charleston-area commissary kitchen to abruptly close, sidelining 30 mobile food businesses (2024)

NORTH CHARLESTON — A commissary kitchen that houses 30 small businesses is permanently shutting its doors after eight years in operation.

Commissary kitchens provide mobile food companies space to cook and store ingredients. They are the lifeblood of the flourishing food truck and catering industries that serve communities across the Charleston area.

The closure of KTCHeN, at 6185 Rivers Ave., means each of its tenants will have to find a new place to prepare food for events such as pop-ups by the end of the month.

KTCHeN is owned by Christopher and Keila Garate, who operate the bakery BKeDSHoP in downtown Charleston, Mount Pleasant and Summerville. The former food truck owners said they started the business to help others like themselves.

In an email to their tenants, the owners said that facility violations prompted the property’s landlord to ask the commissary kitchen to vacate its space in a North Charleston strip mall by the end of the month.

“We have exhausted every opportunity to try to negotiate with our landlord to allow us to stay,” the email, shared with The Post and Courier, said. “But unfortunately due to all the issues occurring with the grease dumping in the parking lot and other facility violations outside he has declared us in default with no opportunity to remedy the issue.”

The Garates sent the notice on June 10, giving tenants 20 days to vacate their workspace and find a new commissary kitchen.

The Post and Courier reached out to several KTCHeN tenants. None of them wished to speak on the record about their time at the commissary kitchen and where they might go next.

In an email to The Post and Courier, the Garates said that their landlord at Aviation Square Shopping Center asked them to leave before threatening eviction. There was no other choice but to close the commissary kitchen, they said.

The owners of the Rivers Avenue strip center, Benderson Development, were not on-site when a reporter went to the property in mid-June. They did not respond to several attempts requesting comment.