Contra Costa County hands out its first permit for home-based micro-restaurants
Contra Costa County handed out its first Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation permit, and it's been a dream come true for the people who received it.
Patience, precision and passion are all important parts of Kellie Joe's pizza making process.
They've helped her find success operating numerous pizza ventures in Contra Costa County with her wife, Vanda, since 2009, including Chicks and Love and Queen of Crusts.
But now, her patience, precision and passion is about to really pay off.
"I get really emotional. It's like a dream come true," she said.
Kellie and Vanda became the first people in Contra Costa County to obtain a Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation (MEHKO) permit, which will allow them to legally run a restaurant out of their home.
"I've been dreaming about this since 2009, after a trip to Thailand and I found out that a lot of people have restaurants in their homes," Kellie said. "It's a huge deal."
California green lit the idea back in 2018. Several Bay Area municipalities jumped on board shortly, thereafter, including the city of Berkeley, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano and Alameda counties.
But to Kellie's dismay, Contra Costa County didn't get cooking on a plan right away.
"We were going to move to Pacifica," she said. "Some of our friends and family thought we were crazy."
In hindsight, she's glad she and Vanda didn't commit to that decision.
Thanks to the county's decision to move forward, Kellie believes her operational costs will go down and profits will go up. The primary reason being she won't have to rent space from a commercial kitchen anymore.
"It was my largest expense," she said. "It's hard when you have to pay that hourly rate."
Prior to the decision, Kristian Lucas, the county's director of environmental health, said unless someone had a cottage food permit, cooking and selling food from a private residence wasn't permitted in Contra Costa County.
"This essentially provided a pathway forward for folks who wanted to prepare food in their own home and sell it," Lucas said. "A micro enterprise home kitchen can do much more than what a cottage food operation can do, in terms of the types of foods that you can sell."
There are limitations to what the MEHKO permit allows, per the county. For example, operators cannot sell more than 30 meals a day and 90 meals per week, and they cannot generate more than $100,000 in gross annual sales. MEHKO permit holders also cannot sell raw milk or raw milk products, raw oysters, per Lucas.
"Entrepreneurs that choose to go down that route can essentially cook things like tamales, tacos, barbecue, hamburgers, dumplings – whatever it is that they want to specialize in or provide," he said. "With those few exceptions, a micro enterprise home kitchen can do much more than what a cottage food operation can do, in terms of the types of foods that you can sell."
Lucas said his department is now fielding more applications and questions for MEHKO permits as the community learns more about it.
"We're fielding questions daily and are looking forward to those applications continuing to roll in," he said.
The county health director does anticipate there will still be unpermitted food sales from homes in the county. However, he sees this as a way to help mitigate that problem.
"We've had issues over the years with folks that are conducting unpermitted activities from their garage or a food cart or food truck. Our department is responsible for investigating those when we receive them. We fully anticipate that is still going to happen now that there is a permit program," he said. "It's a bit refreshing that we can now go out when we're responding and investigating those complaints to actually educate folks and let them know that instead of them not being able to do it, there's now a legal and lawful way for them to be able to do that."
Kellie and Vanda plan to make the most of their tranquil backyard Oasis.
"We are a little extra," Kellie said.
"We want to make each table and seating area a special place," Vanda said.
Per the couple, they plan to have a takeout/pickup window for pizza, and then they plan to run a "members only supper club" in their backyard.
"It's going to be great," Kellie said. "The excitement of sharing my home and this backyard with our community, and being able to do my pizza magic in my own home and having that freedom and flexibility."