NORTH CHARLESTON — A diner that is home to 30 small businesses is closing permanently after eight years in business.
Commissary kitchens provide mobile food companies with space to prepare and store ingredients – they're the lifeblood of the thriving food truck and catering industry serving the Charleston area community.
The closure of KTCHeN at 6185 Rivers Ave. means each tenant has until the end of the month to find a new location to prepare food for pop-ups and other events.
KTCHeN is owned by Christopher and Kayla Garate, who also run bakery BKeDSHoP with locations in downtown Charleston, Mount Pleasant and Somerville. The two former food truck owners say they started the business to help others like themselves.
The landlord has asked the diner's kitchen at a North Charleston mall to vacate the location by the end of the month after a string of violations of facility rules, the owners said in an email to tenants.
“We have exhausted every opportunity to negotiate with our landlord to allow us to stay,” the email obtained by The Post and Courier read, “but unfortunately, due to all the issues that have arisen, including oil dumping in the parking lot and other facility violations outside, our landlord has declared us in default and has not given us an opportunity to resolve the issues.”
Galates sent the notice on June 10, ordering the tenants to vacate the workshop within 20 days and find a new kitchen.
The Post and Courier reached out to several KTCHeN tenants, none of whom wanted to speak publicly about their time in the commissary kitchen or where they plan to go next.
In an email to The Post and Courier, the Garates said their landlord at Aviation Square Shopping Center asked them to vacate before they could do so, leaving them with no choice but to close the concession kitchen.
When a reporter visited the Rivers Avenue strip center in mid-June, its owner, Benderson Development, was not on site, and they did not respond to several attempts seeking comment.
