Common House Café: Hatching a tasty plan

Hamilton’s newest food incubator, operating out of the first floor of City Hall, is giving a leg up to food entrepreneurs.

Hamilton is known for its thriving and innovative food scene. But getting a restaurant off the ground – and keeping it profitable – is undoubtedly a tall order.  

According to the most recent Restaurants Canada report, 62​​ per cent of Canadian restaurants are operating at a loss or barely breaking even, and restaurant bankruptcies increased by 44 per cent in 2023. 

From real estate and renovation costs to purchasing kitchen equipment, the average start-up investment for a new Canadian restaurant is around $300,000, based on industry estimates from restaurant tech platform TouchBistro. 

With such a high barrier to entry, not to mention fierce competition, inflation and high interest rates, it’s no wonder so many restaurants struggle to keep their doors open.  

Enter Common House Café, a food incubator, retail location and creative space designed to support local food entrepreneurs in Hamilton. 

Operating from the first floor of City Hall and run by the Hamilton Business Centre (HBC), the café offers licensed food businesses in the startup or expansion phase a launchpad for their business. 

“Ultimately, the goal of the program is to bring these individuals in, mentor them, and help them grow their business to the best of our ability, and then graduate them out into the community,” says Keith Russell, coordinator for the Common House Café and senior business development officer at the City Of Hamilton. 

Vendors in the program benefit from reduced rent, access to essential kitchen equipment, space to showcase their products, and training and mentorship opportunities. The goal is to create a collaborative working environment where local foodpreneurs can network and grow their businesses.

“I often tell our primary vendor, I’ll be happy when you leave because now you're moving on to something bigger and better,” says Russell. 

The idea for the café came about after HBC started Food Forge, a boot camp designed to help food and beverage entrepreneurs scale, package, and market their products for retail distribution. 

After a few successful cohorts of the program, the coordinators realized the biggest hurdle for many small food businesses and restaurant operators was actually getting their products into retailers. Listing fees with big retail stores were high, and business owners either needed to find commercial kitchen space (which is hard to come by) or convert their at-home kitchen into a commercial kitchen (which is expensive and involves a lot of red tape). 

And one of the biggest costs for these operators was kitchen equipment. Restaurant owners and food vendors often don’t know what kind of equipment they need and can waste thousands of dollars on equipment that isn’t fit for the purpose. 

To support emerging foodservice businesses, the HBC team came up with an idea. On the main floor of City Hall, there was an underused space that served as a makeshift lunchroom for City workers. Before COVID, it had been a Country Style Donuts, complete with a commercial kitchen and serving area. With its prime downtown location and steady foot traffic from both City staff and the public, the space was ideal for helping Hamilton’s food-based businesses get up and running.

In March 2020, after the previous tenant left the space in City Hall when their lease expired, HBC worked with corporate real estate to find a replacement. After an extensive search and no luck securing a new tenant, HBC took advantage of a unique opportunity through a partnership with the Ministry of Economic Development to transform the space into a community-focused program that would support Hamilton’s food sector. 

After acquiring the space for the café, HBC purchased kitchen equipment, including commercial-grade hot tables, refrigerated sandwich prep stations, a deli cooler, a commercial toaster oven and digital menu boards, among other tools and appliances. 

Then, they went looking for vendors. 

The primary vendor had to be a restaurant licensed by the City of Hamilton and registered as a business with the province. They would have to sign a 10-month lease and be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. They also needed to offer in-house catering services to support the City of Hamilton. In return, they would have free use of all kitchen equipment and retain 100 per cent of their profits. 

Secondary vendors needed to be licensed pre-packaged food retailers that could commit to regularly providing products to the café for three to six months. There was no cost for the secondary vendors, and they also retain 100 per cent of their profits. 

Selected vendors are required to complete the Food Forge training, with an additional one-on-one consultation with professional food trainer Nicole Haney. They also benefit from mentorship and training from the HBC, which includes a free meeting with a lawyer and the opportunity to sign up for other HBC programs like Starter Company Plus and Launch Local.  

The primary and secondary vendors are meant to collaborate, with the primary vendor promoting the secondary vendor's products in-store. The goal was to have a few secondary vendors to start, eventually increasing to five vendors to give the café the feeling of a small farmer’s market when it was running at full capacity. 

HBC received nearly 75 applications from vendors for Common House Café. After a rigorous selection process, HBC found partners for the first iteration of the program: Calabria’s Catering, a caterer specializing in Italian cuisine as the primary vendor, and Freshly Baked Happiness, a gourmet bakery, and JC’s Hot, a craft hot-sauce producer, as secondary vendors. 

"The most rewarding part of this experience has been meeting new people and building relationships,” says Frank Calabria, owner of Calabria's Catering. “The café has become a meeting hub, boosting networking (opportunities)], increasing off-premise catering orders (and even) leading to a new hire."

Vendors have already learned important lessons about running their business during the café’s soft launch in October, including how to adapt their menu and offering to suit their customers' tastes. 

“Having that direct feedback on everything from quality to pricing to selection is not something they would get without having this opportunity to be in the café,” says Russell. 

HBC also offers continued support for vendors when they’ve completed their time at the café. 

“If (vendors) want to try to find a brick and mortar location, (like in the) Concession, Barton or James Street North areas, we can utilize our partnerships with the BIA directors to find those vacant areas and storefronts and get them in there.”

As a social enterprise, Common House Café, which celebrated a grand opening in January, aligns with broader economic development goals for Hamilton. With the café hiring staff locally, it’s helping to boost employment, and the new brick-and-mortar location and the foot traffic it will bring to City Hall is part of a larger initiative to provide much-needed revitalization to Hamilton’s struggling downtown core. 

“The most rewarding part of being a vendor is seeing our cookies bring joy to the community,” says Kathy Kontozis, owner of Freshly Baked Happiness. “This opportunity has allowed us to reach a wider audience in the Hamilton community, increasing our brand visibility and attracting new followers. We appreciate the exposure this has brought to our business.” 

Common House Café is located at 71 Main St. W. on the 1st floor of Hamilton City Hall. To learn more and to apply to become a vendor, click here.