CHARLOTTE, N.C. — When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Mariah Brown took a leap of faith. She quit her corporate sales job to pursue her passion for cooking.
"I started selling tacos on a whim," Brown said.
It all started when she began working from home last year. Brown used her free time by turning to YouTube to learn how to make birria tacos. A few months later, her side hustle outgrew her apartment thanks to social media.
So she turned to the CIty Kitchen in Charlotte's Wesley Heights neighborhood.
“We live in a generation where people are building businesses solely on the internet," Brown said.
The City Kitchen is the stomping ground for small business owners who want to get their business off the ground. It's a ghost kitchen, meaning they sell food by delivery only. There's no dining room but City Kitchen has food options like vegan, soul food, tacos, sweets and Chinese street food, all under one roof.
“It’s just really nice just to be around other small business owners who love to do the same thing you do, which is feed people," Brown said.
Ishmael Heru-bey uses the City Kitchen to build his business, 33rd and Main.
“My most popular meal would be my crab cakes," Heru-bey said.
Heru-bey initially wanted to own a food truck but decided the ghost kitchen was the best route to start his concept without paying a lot of money up front.
When the pandemic put a halt to dine in-options, it raised the demand for food delivery services. That made City Kitchen a hotspot for new business owners trying to grow their restaurant without the hefty price tag of commercial space.
“Really good for beginning chefs to bounce things off each other versus saying, 'I’m going to start on my own and go to a brick and mortar,'" Honeybear Bake Shop owner Hannah Neville said.
It’s safe to say the new cooks on the block call the ghost kitchen route a win-win.
The original City Kitchen is located on Thrift Road. You can go in and order to go, use its website or use a food delivery service. There's also a location in the University City area.
Contact Ruby Durham at rdurham@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.