When you come to pick up orders this week, please pull up to the curb, call the kitchen at 815-922-7540 and open your trunk. We will place your food in the trunk, no need to leave your car.
You can order online at https://www.hivekitchenstore.com
So…First off, thank you to everyone who came in and showed a huge amount of support to this place and all of the food businesses that work here. We all really really appreciate it. Monday was a crazy day, and so was Tuesday, then Wednesday started to get back to normal as far as traffic into the kitchen. Yesterday I thought things had calmed down…and then today we went back to crazy town. A lot of people asked if we would be closing due to the new orders today. Yes and no.
The kitchen will remain open for the food businesses who need the space to work. The storefront will not be open to customers. If there is something you want or need, there will be two ways to get it: picking it up outside, or having it delivered. Delivery option at this time will only be available for those in need… if you are in a category considered vulnerable (immunocompromised or elderly) we will work out a delivery. The deliveries will all be no-contact. You can place an order on the phone and pay by credit card or we can give you a total and you can leave payment in an envelope at your door. It is very important that none of us have contact with one another at this point. All other orders will be sidewalk pickup. We will have tables outside and will leave items being picked up on the tables in bags with names clearly visible. Hours are to be determined.
I know this is weird. This is new territory for all of us. But the most important thing here is keeping everyone safe while we try to maintain a little bit of normalcy in all of the chaos. We will start this on Tuesday. Monday the kitchen will be full with private chef jobs and Florian prepping chicken for his Tuesday location. Tomorrow he will be parked as usual at River Hawk Brewing, so if you usually stop by to see him on Saturday, stop by to see him tomorrow. Practice your social distancing wherever you go, 6 feet of space between you and anyone you encounter. So just throw your money at him and he will throw chicken at you.
We’ll work this all out. Try to keep your sense of humor because all of this is pretty damn depressing and scary sometimes. We’ll keep doing our part and you keep doing yours and soon enough we will all get through this.
Alright everybody. Listen up.
I’ve been getting the emails and notifications all day from companies saying they’re going to elevate their cleaning habits to combat this virus and keep everyone safe. Number 1: why haven’t they been keeping their places clean all along!? ? Number 2: there’s only so much businesses can do to keep customers safe…and all it takes is for that one sick customer to walk through the door and ruin everyone’s day.
Everyone who works in this kitchen has had health department certified food manager and sanitation training classes. This means we all not only know how to prevent food borne illnesses and how to wash our hands and when to wear gloves and how to sanitize everything, but we also know that there are times when people should not be in the kitchen. This also includes people who don’t work in the kitchen. For our renters, anyone who attempts to come to work in the kitchen while showing any symptoms of an illness (respiratory illnesses are impossible to hide) will immediately have their contracts suspended.
NOW. IF YOU ARE A CUSTOMER: and if you are sick, and this is even outside of this coronavirus epidemic, PLEASE do not come to the kitchen. I have done this for people on many occasions, if you can not get to the kitchen due to illness or impairment I will arrange a delivery. It may happen after 6pm when we close but I will come to you. Stay out of the kitchen. Keep your sick kids at home.
Next week we will have several food businesses ramping up soup production and will have plenty of cold and flu survival kits on hand (soup, local honey, cookies, tea and tissues!) JUST IN CASE anyone happens to be feeling under the weather. Otherwise, we’re business as usual and will continue to make dinner so you don’t have to.
Floor is done (awesome job Infinity Concrete Creations ??) plumbing is done and sinks are in (thank you SO much Omega Plumbing ?) equipment is delivered and tables are assembled (thanks Ken!) walls are patched and painted and we just have a few more small projects (front counter needs to be painted, some trim in my office (I HAVE AN OFFICE!) and then a major cleaning job and we’ll be good to go for the inspections. Still have a couple of appliances to move over from the first kitchen but we can’t do that until this new Kitchen is approved for occupancy, people need those until the very last minute. So there are a couple of empty spots here for now. Almost. There.
UPDATE: Chicken salad is gone! Since we are closed tomorrow, I have a smaller than usual batch of chicken salad available today. We also have some bbq bacon meatloaf, 4 antipasto bread rolls, some carrot cake and peach cobbler. The Happy Belly Chefs just added some gluten free shepherds pies to the freezer and we have some lasagnas, cheese manicotti, baked rigatoni with Italian sausage and roasted veggies, breakfast sandwiches, meatballs and marinara sauce, chicken pot pie, shrimp chicken and sausage gumbo, corn pudding, breakfast burritos, Italian sausage and white bean soup and cheesecakes in the freezer. Gearing down just a little for moving day which is hopefully sometime next week ? Open until 6pm!
Lots going on over here, with the delivery of our new equipment for the second kitchen and a couple of our kitchen users gearing up for some huge catering jobs (yay!!) I’m going to close the kitchen for food sales this Friday and get some last minute details wrapped up at the new kitchen. I will be at Kitchen 1 again on Sunday at noon with Trinity BBQ of Plainfield when they’re there selling brisket and pulled pork so you can stop by then and buy stuff from the refrigerator or freezer.
We have chicken salad, cream of chicken and rice soup (available at 1:30), stuffed green peppers, meatballs and marinara, Italian chopped salad (only a few), spinach and ricotta rolls, baked rigatoni with roasted vegetables or with Italian sausage, still have a few gumbo left, peach cobbler, cherry pie slices, and the freezer has lasagna, cheese manicotti, vegetarian lasagna, vegetarian minestrone soup, Italian sausage and white bean soup, and some breakfast sandwiches and cheesecakes!
Wednesday!
We have antipasto rolls, spinach and ricotta rolls, shrimp chicken and sausage gumbo, BLT salads with egg and avocado, and stuffed peppers in the refrigerator! The freezer has been stocked with breakfast sandwiches, lasagnas, cheese manicotti, roasted veggie lasagnas, and there is some chicken soup with cheese tortellini, gluten free italian sausage and white bean soup, vegetarian minestrone, and Mac and cheese. Cheesecakes, cherry pie slices, peach cobbler and butter cookies for dessert!
Open until 6pm
After one year in business, we outgrew our space and needed to double in size! Kitchen number 2 will be opening soon! Can’t miss it now, our sign was installed today ♥️ #weregrowing #localbusiness #smallbusiness #foodbusiness #lookatusgo #theresyoursign #channahonillinois #channahon
There are a lot of big companies that are spending a ton of money on advertising right now to get all of you to buy your Valentine’s Day gifts from them. Instead of handing your credit card over to 1-800-flowers this year, why not keep those dollars local and buy from a small business who is just getting started? I’ve seen a few posts on some of the local Facebook groups saying “I wish there was a florist here,” so why not be a part of building someone up to get the confidence to maybe open one!? ?
On February 14th we will have our first non-food business guest at the kitchen selling some beautiful flower arrangements!
