Some of these posts will be more for me than for you; honestly, they all are. This one more than most.

The end of March marked the end of the uBu kitchen as our own, solitary space. We’ve decided to share it with a second business. These days, Linda’s typically there three days a week and I’m not there at all. That means with a little organization, we have surplus capacity… so, we welcome Ellen to the kitchen! Which is great, but the transition is making me feel sentimental for the simple reason that when Covid shut down the world, the uBu kitchen is where we found sanctuary. It was our bridge to the world and it meant that we had meaningful work to do. For the first few months of the Pandemic, we operated uBu as a curbside pick up retail location. Not only did we offer our own products, but we worked with some of our food producer friends to offer theirs as well. At the peak of our curbside operation, we had more than 50 products available. We had local artisanal cheeses, fresh produce from local farms, and more. We even sourced some delicacies and repackaged them, our favorite Sicilian salted capers for example.

It was a fun chapter for us and we thought seriously about opening up a retail store. But the curbside delivery model quickly died when restaurants opened back up and the public stopped being interested in novel food experiences. This became kind of a laboratory for products, some of which we’re still making.

(Click on the first image for an improved experience).

uBu Products List

More for more my own amusement, than for anything else, here’s as complete a list as I can make of every product we’ve produced there since March 2020:

Bakery and Desserts Banana Bread Dark Chocolate and Pasilla Chili Bar Frozen Beignet Dough Gingerbread Cookies Midnight Brownies, Cherry Midnight Brownies, Coffee Midnight Brownies, Macha Peanut Butter Rice Crispy “Planets” Pot de Creme, Chicory Pot de Creme, Lemon Pot de Creme, Mayan Pumpkin Cookies Hiker’s Hummus Flavors: Chipotle† Cilantro Lime† Everything Bagel† Jalapeño and Roasted Corn† Roasted Garlic† Thai Basil† Hummus Flavors: Black Bean Sriracha† Black Olive Bloody Mary Chili Lime Adobo Chana Masala Chipotle† Cilantro Lime† Curry and Cranberry Everything Bagel† Garlic Scape Gochujang Harissa† Jalapeño† Jalapeño and Roasted Corn Jamaican Jerk† Lemongrass Peppadew Roasted Beet Roasted Red Pepper Roasted Garlic† Salsa Verde Snap Pea Sumac  Sun-dried Tomato Thai Basil† Miscellaneous Catnip Pickled Onions Silken Tofu Kit Vegan ‘Nduja Meals Chicken Enchiladas Rojas Vegetarian Enchiladas Rojas Cold Peanut Noodles Pantry These were items we bought from vendors and repackaged, often with recipes to be used in conjunction with other products were making. The sushi rice was part of our “Poke Bowl Kit,” for example. Chinese Dry Noodles Jasmine Rice, New Crop Sicilian Salted Capers Sel de Guerande Sushi Rice Yeast Sauces, Marinades, Dressings, and Condiments Achiote Wet Rub Black Olive and Balsamic Vinaigrette*† Enchilada Roja Sauce Enchilada Roja Sauce, Vegetarian Macha Chili Oil, Medium*† Macha Chili Oil, Spicy*† Perfect Peanut Sauce Sesame Lime Wet Rub Thai Satay Sauce*† Unagi Sauce Seasonings and Spice Blends Chili Salt Bang! Limy, Spicy Chili Salt Bang! Spicy, Smoky Furikake Rice Seasoning† Ground Pasilla Chili Powder Ground Morita Chili Powder Soups Black Bean and Chipotle Chili Brazilian Fish Stew Crawfish Etouffe

We’ve sold most of these products through farmers markets, partnerships with Wisconsin-based CSAs and home food delivery services. Products with an asterisk have FDA-approved scheduled process for low-acid, jarred foods. This means that they are foods that need to meet acidity and temperature requirements for preservation. They have a longer shelf life and can be sold in stores, including across state lines. We were never happy with the Black Olive and Balsamic Vinaigrette and Thai Satay Sauce that resulted from the FDA approved process, and didn’t make much use of them. Selling through more local outlets meant that we could rely on a refrigerated cold chain that didn’t require pasteurizing the hell out of food that really shouldn’t be ‘cooked.’ Products with a ‘dagger’ have been FDA approved, but don’t require a scheduled process, these have been packaged and sold in grocery stores, as well through our other sales channels.

The Kitchen Itself

The kitchen itself is an unusual place. It’s in a turn of the last century retail space, facing the alley, with a vitamin and a supplement shop in the front half. It’s essentially an orphaned restaurant kitchen that used to belong to El Toro, which was a so-so Mexican restaurant in De Pere, Wisconsin. The dining areas of the restaurant have long since been converted to other uses, and as much as I’ve tried, I’ve not been successful in reconstructing how the restaurant was laid out. I think I only went there one time when it was open. And it’s not clear to me how the spaces—which are spread across multiple buildings—were interconnected. Since the demise of El Toro, which sounds like an Antonio Banderas film, the kitchen has been rented out to several catering and food education operations. The back door opens out onto an incredibly inviting patio with a grape arbor above. The outdoor area features Penelope the Pelican, which is a sculpture by local artist, Kent Hutchison. Here’s a stereo pair of Penelope, intrigued? Go here and follow the instructions for parallel view.

We’re luck to have found the space in many ways, such kitchens are rare.

The kitchen has also come with some nice neighbors. The vitamin shop is owned by Sheila, who has been a joy to have in our lives. There have been the tenants in the apartments above the kitchen—mostly nice. And most recently, our neighbors at The Porch, which is a bar and music venue next door.

So what does it look like? Like most commercial kitchens, it’s not much to look at… lots of sinks and stainless steel. In fact, going through my files, I found that I haven’t much felt like taking photos of it. Most of the pictures I’ve taken at the kitchen relate to equipment; pictures I took as a reference for fixing something, or ordering a part. We’ve configured and reconfigured it multiple times over the past five years. Most recently it had two 10 gallon steam kettles, a very large food processor, a convection oven, two multi door freezers, a walk-in refrigerator, a three hole sink, vegetable sink, dish sanitizer, volumetric piston filler, four commercial freeze dryers, pouch sealers, powder dispensers, lots of storage racks, and a coffee maker. But that configuration has now changed with Ellen moving in. She has her own needs. So we’ve moved out a steam kettle and two of the freeze dryers, to make space.

Since I took a job with the City of Green Bay, I’ve only gone to the Kitchen about once every other month. It’s become more purely Linda’s domain. I hadn’t thought much about it. It wasn’t until we set up the sub-lease and shared it, that I found myself feeling something. I was surprised by how nostalgic it made me feel. The pandemic made it more than just a workspace for me. And while I would never want to go back to March through June of 2020, there were aspects of that experience that were and are worth celebrating.