How to Find the Perfect Catering Kitchen

You know you’re a good cook and you want to make it your profession – but you want to work for yourself. Catering looks like a good place to start, but your home kitchen is just that, a home kitchen. So where do you go to find a kitchen rental for catering? 

Look up Partake Collective in Long Beach. They offer everything from hourly kitchen rental to a dedicated commercial catering kitchen to a shared catering kitchen. There’s even a commissary and a dining hall if you want to host an event. 

Flexibility is key to a catering business. One night it may be a dinner party for eight. Then there’s a wedding reception for 100 the next weekend. And some nights, there’s no gig at all. 

Looking around your idle kitchen – where you’ve spent thousands of dollars on equipment, ovens and more – can be more than depressing. It can be a killer for your business. 

So why not rent a kitchen by the hour at Partake Collective, located conveniently near downtown Long Beach at 456 Elm Ave.? 

That answer made sense to Chef Nicole Nguyen and her partner, Chef Juan Sanchez, when they started Cave Catering Co. The company came together during the COVID pandemic. 

“We started posting on social media and began to get requests,” Chef Nicole said. “We saw a great business opportunity. It was all private dinners to start… We could prep at his house and cook at their (the client’s) house.” 

Word spread, and Cave Catering started getting more requests for larger parties. Some of those parties didn’t want to have someone in their own kitchen, or their kitchen was too small to cook the exceptional cuisine Chef Juan and Chef Nicole were becoming known for providing. 

So the search began for a ghost kitchen. Partake wasn’t far away, and sounded like a potential solution. 

“We took a tour when it wasn’t even open yet,” Chef Nicole said. “We even had to wear hard hats. But it was great. Everything was new and it had all the equipment we needed.” 

That was in 2022, and Cave Catering became one of Partake Collective’s first partners. Chef Juan lives five minutes away from Partake, and the rent-by-the-hour flexibility allows him to make the most of his time. 

Chef Nicole lives in Orange County and started out as the business and planning side of Cave Catering. But she caught the cooking bug, went to culinary school and now can more than hold her own in the kitchen. 

“I just love to put my creativity on the plate,” Chef Nicole said. “I like to incorporate a theme or the season when we plan menus. We focus on being locally sustainable, too.” 

Cave Catering now has two or three jobs a week, often more, Chef Nicole said. They range from corporate events and private parties to big weddings and receptions. 

“One thing I’ve learned is that you have to be super organized,” Chef Nicole said. “Now we are getting repeat customers – we’ve done a wedding and now we’re doing a baby shower (for the same couple). I really try to make them feel like family. 

“It might be chaos in the back (as we put it together), but we keep it calm and collected in the public.” 

Chef Nicole said she and Chef Juan are happy catering, with no plans to pursue opening a restaurant. There may be potential for a second Cave Catering location though – perhaps at the soon-to-open Glassell Park Partake Collective in Los Angeles. 

“It (rental kitchens) makes a lot of sense,” Chef Nicole said. “It is much lower overhead and higher flexibility. It can be very efficient. And the (Long Beach) location is right in the middle of our customer area. It’s great.” 

Fernando’s Catering

Ismael Lua wanted to keep his father Fernando’s legacy alive – serving great tacos and Mexican food that was fresh and unusual. 

But after the COVID pandemic, a stand-alone restaurant wasn’t feasible. So Ismael decided to go to what had once been a side business – catering. 

“Dad started the business in East LA,” Ismael said. “I fell in love with it. And the Long Beach area is great.” 

But there was a need for a base of operations here – a taco setup may seem simple, but there is a huge amount of prep involved in offering a good experience. 

In addition to the traditional taco ingredients – four types of meat, onions, etc. – Fernando’s offers Kosher proteins for a Kosher event, vegetarian tacos, quesadillas, guacamole and chips and more. 

So when Ismael found Partake Collective last year, he knew he had something that could work. The communal kitchen with space rented by the hour fit the bill, Ismael said. 

“I loved how easy it was to start up,” Ismael said. “In less than two weeks, I was fully permitted. I liked the communal space. I can do all the prep there is related to catering. 

“We average five jobs a week. So it’s Wednesday, Thursday and Friday prep, then work on the weekend.” 

Ismael said he and his teammates are working hard, doing everything from office Taco Tuesdays to big weekend parties. The ultimate goal, he said, is to open a restaurant. 

But until then, catering based at Partake Collective is the ideal. 

“I love the flexibility,” he said. “I can pick the hours when the staff is available. The other chefs there are very welcoming too. It’s a good place to be.” 

Partake Collective offers a wide range of kitchen spaces, including prep spaces, fully equipped commercial kitchens, a Chef’s & Commissary Kitchen and more. Rentals range from hourly and daily to monthly or yearly. 

There is also a food hall, a marketplace and food pickup and delivery areas. 

Free tours are available by appointment. For more information, go to partakecollective.com.