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The smell of pizza, island cuisine and baked goods filled the crowded Amuse Kitchen in Livermore as members of the community and local leaders had a behind-the-scenes look at how the commercial kitchen provides a unique support system for small businesses during the facility’s official ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Apart from providing food purveyors a place for them to cook, the space acts as a collective where vendors have the resources to grow their business to the point where they can hopefully one day open their own eatery.
“We are here to watch these guys grow and to support their growth — to see them successful,” Dave Victor, owner of the kitchen, told the Weekly.
“To be this stepping stone to them, is really important,” he added. “To have this opportunity to reimagine what I can do for the community is really important.”
Around 30 years ago, Victor opened his restaurant Cabana Dave’s in Pleasanton. He eventually sold the restaurant and went into the catering business by renaming his restaurant to On the Vine Catering.
When the pandemic hit, however, he said as he witnessed the catering industry grow he decided he wanted to support these businesses that might not otherwise get the general public’s attention.
“I decided that it’s time to pass the knowledge on — it’s time to help and offer support so that other businesses didn’t have to struggle and take the time to figure everything out on their own,” Victor said during the ceremony April 30.
That’s when he decided to open Amuse Kitchen in 2023.
“I just imagined that there were going to be (food) producers that were losing their spaces, that couldn’t afford rent, that were going to lose their business if they didn’t have a place to operate out of,” Victor said.
Located at 61 Rickenbacker Circle in an industrial park just off Isabel Avenue, the space offers a fully equipped, state-of-the-art kitchen that 26 businesses currently rent and use to run their business.Â
Apart from the ovens, mixers and prepping areas, the kitchen also serves as a collective where these businesses — which range from meal preparation and food delivery services to food and supplements for dogs — come together to share ideas, marketing support and general business guidance.
Sherri Souza, CEO and president of the Livermore Valley Chamber of Commerce, told the Weekly that the ribbon-cutting ceremony was to commemorate the addition of Amuse Kitchen to the city’s business community.
“This just makes the community aware of their location, what they have to offer,” Souza said. “It promotes all of their makers, their chefs and the products that they have, and it gives them a little bit more credibility in the community.”
She added that the space is particularly important for small businesses because not only is it hard to find kitchens to work out of, but Amuse Kitchen really provides the additional help to grow their business.
“This is an incubator for bigger businesses and this is where they are going to start,” Souza said.
Chef Debbie Casey is another one of the many chefs who operates her catering business — Chef Debbie, which offers meal prep and delivery services in the Tri-Valley — out of the Amuse Kitchen space.
Casey had worked as a private chef for a few years before the pandemic hit, which forced her to cook out of her private kitchen. After deliveries began piling up and business started to pick up, Casey said she was in need of a bigger space — that’s when she contacted Victor.
Now, her business delivers to roughly 80 to 100 homes every week and has products offered in certain retail spaces.
Casey is at the kitchen usually about four days out of the week while the other two are dedicated to delivery.
But businesses like What The Fur — one of the newer additions to the Amuse Kitchen collective — only need one day a month in the space.
Shubhraj Bhinder, who lost his family dog a few years ago, said he was stuck in his corporate job as a biomedical engineer before he and his brother decided to do something new and for themselves.
That’s when the two started What The Fur, a small business that makes healthy supplements for dogs. The supplements range from helping dogs with anxiety to helping their digestive systems.
As one of the newer businesses to come to the kitchen, Bhinder said they are still learning and taking in feedback from customers but that having the kitchen — especially after facing difficulties operating out of their previous kitchen — was especially nice because of the community.
“Dave’s been very welcoming and friendly. You can definitely tell he values community,” Bhinder said. “This truly is a collective … Everybody is here to help each other and help grow their business.”
Another business that has been very appreciative of Amuse is The Mego Kitchen, a family-owned food vendor based in Livermore that is mostly known for their island cuisine, which is a mix of Filipino, Hawaiian and Guamanian food.
Tiana Megofna, co-owner of The Mego Kitchen, runs the business with her mother-in-law — who was in the kitchen that Wednesday helping fry the lumpia — and her husband.Â
She said they were originally at another kitchen around the corner and they were referred to Victor when they were looking at renting a commercial kitchen. At that time Victor didn’t have the space but once he opened Amuse Kitchen, Megofna said her business revisited the idea of joining the collective because of what they heard about the sense of community there.
She said Victor has been very helpful and his knowledge, plus the resources he provides through the kitchen, has turned him into a “steward for some of our small businesses”.
Megofna also said the various business owners at the kitchen have recently started to collaborate more, which has been nice and hopes to see that collaborative effort grow.
“Being in the kitchen, alone, has just helped us function better as a small business — as a caterer,” Megofna said. “The kitchen is clean, it’s upkept. Dave puts a lot of love into the kitchen so it makes it nice for us to be here.”
But it’s not just savory treats that come out of the kitchen.
Ameer Woolfolk, owner of Scoop N’ Wubbie Baking Company, said he started baking with his mom as a kid and when the pandemic hit — similar to the other local food purveyors — he decided to do something new.
Named after his son and daughter, Woolfolk started his baking business four years ago by selling cookies at the San Ramon Farmers Market.
“They really inspired me, right after the pandemic, to really try to build something that we could call our own. Something that I can pass down to my kids,” he said.
He started off with six flavors and now, especially with the big kitchen and array of industrial sized ovens and mixing machines, he said he can make up to 50 different flavors.
“Having the amount of racks to be able to put the quantity of cookies that I offer for the weekends is a tremendous help,” he said.
Woolfolk said he heard of Victor a few years ago before the Amuse Kitchen was a reality and that he first joined the collective late last year.
“It’s been a great experience,” he said. “It’s a great space to have.”
During the speech portion of the ribbon-cutting ceremony, several local elected officials and representatives from officials also commemorated the kitchen’s work over the past two years.
Livermore Vice Mayor Evan Branning was one of the elected officials who spoke during the event. Branning said he was particularly invested in Amuse Kitchen’s overall mission and goals because he came from the catering industry.
“Having a place like Amuse Kitchen would have been a life changer for me,” Branning said.
He added that if he would have had a place like collective, rather than having to jump from kitchen to kitchen, he would still be a chef to this day.
“This is the foundation, this is the life blood for these businesses,” Branning said.
Another local official who spoke was Alameda County Supervisor David Haubert, who not only lauded Victor’s work with the kitchen and with providing small businesses the opportunity to flourish, but also committed the county to funding $50,000 in grants for those small businesses — the supervisor previously mentioned that the county had already sponsored some grants for the program to be given to a number of the small businesses owners.
Victor said as far as next steps, they are just about at capacity after having recently squeezed in a couple more businesses and he recognizes there is a desire for more, so he did mention the possibility of expanding.
But one of the main next steps for the kitchen is looking into developing a market place online and then eventually a market hall in town where people can walk around and check out these vendors in person.
