Frontier Kitchen Joins with Entrepreneurs to Help Dreams Come True

Jun 16, 2023

Brenda Cromer stands in the Chantilly location of her business Frontier Kitchen, a commercial kitchen space that she opened to help entrepreneurs get their businesses off the ground.

Frontier Kitchen in Chantilly is cooking up Loudoun County’s next batch of promising restaurants and food-based businesses with its shared commercial kitchen space.

Co-founder Brenda Cromer said the facility opened out of a desire to help entrepreneurs try out ideas and test their dreams before having to commit their entire life savings into the endeavor.

“Food companies are expensive to start,” she said. “We make it very affordable, and we add the education component. So, we have consultants on staff that help them with any of the business problems they come up with. Most people come to us with a good idea and not much else.”

Cromer said her team guides them through the process of getting a license with the county health inspector and provide advice for a business plan.

Elysa Lenoard cooks up meat for her healthy meal prep business F-diets at Frontier Kitchen on Aug. 28.

“It’s one thing if you have a food truck,” she said. “Those are pretty self-Googleable. People can find that pretty easily. But if you want to put a product on a grocery shelf, all of the things change.”

Cromer said when an entrepreneur comes to them, they first get a tour of the facility and take part in a two-way interview to find out if they are a good fit. If so, they can buy a membership, which includes orientation training, 24/7 access to the facility, and access to the educational resources provided by the business.

The 24/7 access allows business owners who are still in the early stages of their company to benefit from the space. For instance, entrepreneurs who still need to work a nine-to-five job can fill catering orders after hours. Cromer said a sign that a business is moving to the next level is when the owner can quit their other job and move to working their own business full time.

Elysa Leonard from F-diets Food is an example of this. She started her healthy meal prep business three years ago as a part time job while also owning her own marketing company for small ship cruise lines.

Josh Sinins bakes and decorates customized cookies for his business Treats and Sweets which he operates full time at Frontier Kitchen.

“When the pandemic hit, all [cruises] just stopped,” she said. “… I was at a crossroads, and I was like, ‘Do I go all-in on F-diets? Or do I go back and rebuild my other business?’ but I was kind of in the mode of this and I was helping people and I liked that.”

Khai Nguyen started his business Pho From Home last year, providing pho and spring rolls to-go at area farmers markets and for pick up at Frontier Kitchen.

“Brenda and her team are great,” he said.

Nguyen said he dreams of growing his business even more and having his own space someday.

“Any entrepreneur with any kind of product that is food can come in and work with us and get it started and get it launched,” Cromer said. “And the whole idea is to graduate them into their own space. I think we’re somewhere between 80 and 100 graduates.”

Frontier Kitchen’s first Chantilly tenant was Gabriel Key, founder of Foggy Mountain Milling and Pasta. Key sources grain from farms in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina and mills it into flour himself. While he sells fresh and dried pasta at farmer’s markets, he also supplies pasta and flour to local restaurants that county locals frequent often such as The Wine Kitchen, Field and Main, The Restaurant at Patowmack Farm and others.

Pho From Home owner Khai Nguyen and his team makes vegan spring rolls at their space in Frontier Kitchen Aug. 28.

Josh Sinins opened Treats and Sweets, a customized cookie bakery, from his home five years ago before the business grew enough for him to expand into Frontier Kitchen last year, allowing him to move to running the business full-time.

Cromer said her goal through Frontier Kitchen is to help entrepreneurs through the difficult task of starting their own business. In addition to providing the 12,000-square-foot space, industrial-sized kitchen appliances, storage space for ingredients and tools and a power source for industrial and specialized machinery, she said her staff also takes care of receiving deliveries that come during business hours when many of her tenants are working their full-time jobs.

She said the kitchen also has a close relationship with the county’s Economic Development Advisory Commission, which is an added benefit to her tenants.

“[EDAC] comes out once and month and does consultations with our members,” Cromer said. “It’s super awesome. They have been such a fantastic resource. Danelle Hayer has been our primary point of contact and once a month she’ll give advice on staffing, on locations, on county programs happening, everything.”

Cromer said she recruited pastry chef Cassity Jones to co-found the business with her, and they opened their first location in Lorton in 2015 before expanding to Loudoun County in 2020.

“Loudoun County has been so welcoming to all of our members,” she said. “I think we have probably graduated as many out of our Loudoun kitchen in the last three years as we have in six years out of the Fairfax kitchen, just because the Loudoun community really responds well to local food. They love the clients. They love finding new things and we are happy to bring it.”

Foggy Mountain Milling and Pasta founder Gabriel Key makes his pasta at Frontier Kitchen in Chantilly. He was the first tenant when the space opened in 2020.

She said she understands the struggles that new business owners face because she’s experienced them herself.

“Back in 2013, my spouse at the time, decided he wanted to start a bakery out of our house,” she said. “And like many of our clients, we outgrew it in a very short period of time. So, we were at farmers markets where we were selling, and I found out a lot of the same problem. There were no kitchens in Virginia at the time. There was nowhere to go. And so, I came up with the idea of starting one.”

Cromer said she just wants to give entrepreneurs with a dream a chance to realize it without investing their life savings.

“Being able to get out and start a business is life changing,” Cromer said. “Sometimes you do it and you don’t end up liking it. That’s just how it works. But to not have to risk everything that you have on it? Someone could come in and start a business and try their concept for probably about $5,000 dollars at our kitchen. That’s a chance to see if it has legs and if you want it to.

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