New 'community driven' restaurant incubator to open in west Louisville. Here's what to know

For chefs like Aaron Williams, starting your own restaurant often comes with bumps in the road. Now he wants to help others succeed.

In March 2020, Williams was ready to put his catering and restaurant experience together to open a brick-and-mortar eatery in Louisville. But about six days after signing a lease, the COVID-19 shutdown began. His plans stalled.

Williams shifted gears and instead, he opened his Carribean-style eatery as a food truck, called Chicago Jerk Tacos.

“I was kind of forced into it,” he told the Courier Journal. “We grew a big following.”

The truck’s fan base includes 1,600 followers on Facebook. Business boomed enough for Williams to again look for a brick-and-mortar space. He moved his operation into a 10,000-square-foot building off of 30th Street in the Russell neighborhood in February 2022.

That’s when other plans started to take motion. Williams thought about the community of west Louisville and other people with food-related dreams.

So, he teamed up with Austin Harris, a local chef who worked at the now-closed Tha' Drippin' Crab, to start a restaurant incubator. The Shop One Stop: Your Creative Kitchen Space is slated to open in early September across the street from the Norton Healthcare Sports and Learning Complex.

Chicago Jerk Tacos takes up about 2,000 square feet of space in the building at 227 S. 30th St. The duo decided to renovate and build out the remaining space to serve as a co-working shop and shared kitchen.

“We knew this was a huge need,” Williams said. “We put our funding together to create this space where people can learn and help each other.”

“I envision it to be an all-inclusive incubator kitchen,” he added. “We’re dedicated to the growth and development of small businesses.”

The business takes after Chef Space, a restaurant incubator that opened in 2015 in west Louisville at 1812 W. Muhammad Ali Blvd., and “offers multiple food preparation and processing stations, access to capital, storage space, and training opportunities for its members,” according to its website. Chef Space has housed more than 65 businesses and helped a dozen or so businesses move off-site to their own brick-and-mortar locations or food trucks, including restaurants like Bae's Baekery and The Kentucky Taco Company.

That’s what Williams hopes to do at The Shop One Stop. The incubator will offer courses for starting food trucks and hosting pop-ups, as well as training on all aspects of running a business.

“We believe there are plenty of great chefs, but only a small handful are great business owners,”  Williams said. “We want to help with that.”

As clients join The Shop, Williams says the surrounding area will hopefully have access to more restaurants and unique dining options.

“We are community driven. That’s why we chose the location,” Williams said. "The west end is a food desert," an area that has limited access to affordable and nutritious food.

This comes as the area, in the Russell neighborhood, is seeing development. Goodwill Industries and Norton Healthcare are partnering on a $100 million campus and hospital nearby.

“We think this will add more business opportunities, more employment and more food to the surrounding community,” Williams said.

For more information on The Shop One Stop: Your Creative Kitchen Space, call 502-965-0965.

Reach Food and Dining reporter Amanda Hancock at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: The Shop One Stop restaurant incubator opens in west Louisville