About
Why First Coast Commissary exists
Northeast Florida has no shortage of talented bakers, juicers, and dessert makers working out of home kitchens they’ve outgrown. What it’s short on is licensed space they can afford to use.
The problem we watched happen
Florida’s cottage food law is genuinely generous. A baker can start at home, sell at markets, and build real demand without a permit. Then one of four things happens: a café asks for a standing wholesale order, a customer asks for something that needs refrigeration, the holiday season arrives and one residential oven can’t keep up, or the household has simply had enough.
That is the moment a growing food business needs a licensed kitchen, and finding one that fits a small producer has never been easy. We have been in that spot ourselves.
What we built instead
A licensed, inspected commercial kitchen in Jacksonville with membership levels from hourly access to full access. You pay for production time, and when a month is slow your costs are slow with it.
We deliberately specialized. Rather than a generic commissary with a little of everything, we equipped for six categories: baking and pastry, cold-pressed juice and smoothies, ice cream and frozen desserts, coffee and cold brew, confections, and granola and dry goods, and set the kitchen up for each: the ovens, mixers, cold and freezer storage, and clean packaging space those products need, with room and power for the specialty equipment you bring. It also means we are not the right kitchen for a savory hot line.
We also write the guides we wished existed when we were figuring this out. Our resource library covers Florida cottage food rules, licensing, labeling, insurance, and market selling, free, whether or not you ever book an hour here.
How we operate
Four things we hold to
Honest about scope
We tell people when we're not a fit. A kitchen that promises everything to everyone ends up serving nobody well, and a wasted application wastes your time more than ours.
Equipped, not improvised
The shared basics are real commercial gear: convection ovens and mixers built for daily use, not consumer equipment pressed into service. The specialty tools that define your product are yours to bring, with the space and power to run them.
Priced so you can start small
Hourly access to start, a higher membership level when you're ready. Your fixed costs should not outpace your revenue in month two.
Built for the next step
People arrive from a home kitchen and leave for something bigger. That's the job. We'd rather help you outgrow us than keep you small.
What we’re not
This is not a hot-line kitchen
We do not have a commercial range or exhaust hood. The kitchen is not suitable for frying, grilling, wok cooking, or savory hot-line production.
We built this kitchen for a specific set of businesses and equipped it well for them. If your menu needs a range, we’ll tell you honestly up front rather than take your money for a space that can’t do the job.
- Frying, grilling, or wok cooking
- Savory hot-line and restaurant prep
- Anything that needs a range or exhaust hood
Jacksonville, Florida
Where to find us
We'll invite you to walk through the kitchen ahead of opening day.
Where we are
San Marco, Jacksonville, FLOpening November 2026 in San Marco, minutes from downtown, Riverside, and the Southbank. Dedicated member parking and a roll-up door for deliveries.
When you can work
Members book sessions ahead of time from the member dashboard. Early mornings go first with bakers, so join the waitlist early to claim a standing block.
Who we serve
We serve producers from across Northeast Florida and the First Coast:
- Jacksonville
- Jacksonville Beach
- Orange Park
- St. Augustine
- Fernandina Beach
- Ponte Vedra
- Northeast Florida
See it before we open
We'll invite you to walk through the kitchen ahead of opening day. Join the waitlist and you're first on that list. Bring questions, especially the awkward ones about licensing.