New Lenox caterer and food truck opens shared kitchen facility

Smokin’ Z BBQ, a family-owned, New Lenox-based food truck and catering business, often had trouble finding affordable kitchen space to rent.

So owner Joe Zolecki and his wife Kelly started a kitchen of their own and decided to rent space to other businesses.

According to its website, Cookin’ Z Kitchen at 1026 Industry Road in New Lenox is a “fully-equipped, shared-use commercial kitchen for rent by the hour.”

The kitchen has three cooking stations, two baking stations, one preparation station and a shared area that includes a dishwashing area, food prep sink, warming cabinets, small appliances and a packaging area, the website said.

“We have almost 2,700 square feet between dry storage space and the kitchen space,” Zolecki said. “We also have a garage for people to pull into and unload everything in a climate-controlled environment. Food trucks can come right into the garage and get their gray water dumped.”

Additional rental items include pan carriers and hot/cold transport bags. Prices are hourly (depending on the membership rates), as a one-time use or storage-only, according to the website.

Zolecki said that one of the biggest challenges when his family started Smokin’ Z BBQ in 2014 was finding commercial kitchen spaces for rent and obtaining temporary – and expensive – food permits for catering events.

In addition, Smokin’ Z BBQ also hosted regular barbecue camps where attendees learned how to prepare, smoke and serve a variety of meats, side dishes and desserts and learning about smokers, gadgets, wood selection, use of smoke, fire management, temperature control and food safety.

The class concluded with a barbecue feast featuring all the items made in class and attendees left with recipes, smoking tips, magnetic charts of the best woods for particular meats and barbecue rub.

But to host a barbecue camp, Zolecki had to work around the schedule of the Lockport VFW Post 5788. Zolecki needed his own space. He also knew that other food businesses needed space, too.

So he acquired a large, unfinished warehouse in 2018 for the purpose of creating a commissary kitchen for bakers as well as others in the food truck and catering industries, he said.

“We had architectural plans put together in the fall of 2019,” Zolecki said. “And we had already gone to the county in early January of 2020. We filed plans by the end of January and got our approval in June.”

Construction also began in June. Any COVID-related construction delays were minor, he said.

“It was very unfortunate that when we were building this, we were incurring all these expenses and then COVID basically destroyed all our revenue opportunities,” Zolecki said. “We’re very encouraged for 2021. We’ve already booked six weddings for 2021, triple what we normally have in a year.”

Zolecki said having his own kitchen is helping Smokin’ Z BBQ expand its offerings, too.

“We can do more prepared meals,” Zolecki said. “We’ve rolled out a jerky line and candied bacon. It will allow us to expand our barbecue classes.”

But Cookin’ Z Kitchen is more than just kitchen space.

“We have a conference room where we can sit and have private meetings,” Zolecki said. “We actually can invite the grooms and brides to our facilities. They can sit down and get free tastings.”

For more information, visit cookinzkitchen.com.

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Cookin' Z Kitchen in New Lenox is a fully-equipped, shared-use commercial kitchen, licensed by the Will County Health Department. The kitchen is availale to food operation business owners to rent by the hour. (Photo provided)