Business & Tech

Much More than Just A Chesco Farmers Market

The Artisan Exchange is bringing dozens of small specialty food businesses to life in Chester County. And you can shop there on Saturdays.

Toffees, coffees, gluten-free, old-world cookies, fudge, cheese, candied popcorn, Belgian waffles, and literally dozens more artisan food makers create, bake, cook and sell their products to the world from a cooperative industrial kitchen space in West Chester.

It's called the Artisan Exchange.  It's tucked away in a busy corner of the Matlack Industrial Park on Jones Boulevard (see directions below)  just off the intersection of Matlack Street and Route 202. Hidden behind a simple sign is a beehive of start-up and entrepreneurial food companies sharing a huge industrial work space and ideas.

On Saturdays they throw open the doors to the Artisan Exchange and set up tables in the hallway just outside their workspaces to create a modern bazaar of tasty local delights. You can find a full list of vendors here on the Artisan Exchange website.

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Frank Baldassarre is a co-owner and founder of Artisan Exchange. He gave West Chester Patch a tour at the end of another busy market day last Saturday:

Patch: What’s the story behind Artisan Exchange?

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FB: The Artisan Exchange started about a year ago we had some available space. We are Golden Valley Farms Coffee Roasters and we transformed some of our space from coffee manufacturing to artisanal food manufacturing and we opened it up to local food manufacturers or artisans and within a year we have over 25 people on site for making hand-crafted, locally-sourced foods.

Patch: Is everything made and sold here?

FB: They make the products here. On Saturdays we open it up to the general public. We invite the general public to come on Saturdays from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.  In general they also sell on line or to other distributors. Wholesalers and to restaurants.

Patch: So there’s somebody here in a kitchen all the time?

FB: This is a 24/7 operation. There is usually somebody here making something….whether it’s Taste Artisanal they make and import world-class cheeses and she makes cheese spreads of various sizes to Rawsome Fudge, they make a raw fudge product to Basic Batters, which is a gluten-free baker. It’s all made here on site and there’s usually somebody always here.

Patch: What’s the difference between working in a kitchen at the Artisan’s Exchange and perhaps working out of the kitchen in your home (where many small business like this began)?

FB: You can get your full Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture license for food manufacturing. At this facility we met with the PA department of agriculture and we put the facility to the department’s manufacturing standards and then we invited vendors to come rent the facility and use the facility. So you can rent space in a facility that is approved by the Pennsylvania department of Ag for food manufacturing.

Patch: It seems like it might be more convenient than working out of a home kitchen?

FB:  A-It’s a lot more convenitent and B-you are working with others that are of like mind so that  you’re not alone when you are doing your production and you have questions or you have problems.  So we collaborate with knowledge and resources and help support one another.

Patch: Is there a different energy about working this way?

FB: There’s a vibe. There is a first of all feeling of not being alone.  Owning your own business, being an entrepreneur is hard.  It’s particularly hard in today’s world, in today’s economy so when you have resources that you can share to help overcome challenges and problems and we support one another, it makes it that much easier to do and be successful.

Patch: Do you still have space available here or are you full?

FB: We are almost full, we have two spot left that are for lease presently.

Patch:  What does it cost to rent space here?

FB: The smallest amount of space that we lease in in 120 square foot increments which is fairly small.  That costs about $190  a month plus utlities.  For $300 a month you can  make one of your handcrafted artisanal foods and have access to a retail market at Artisan Exchange and participate in other programs that we collectively support.

Patch: That’s a great deal.

FB: It’s a very good deal.

What’s next for the Exchange?

FB: We have approval from the Chester County Board of Health to build a full-blown commercial kitchen that we’ll be leasing out at an hourly rate.  That will be breaking ground very shortly.

Patch: For people who are not familiar with where you’re located, this is a little bit off the beaten path.  You kind of have to know where this is to find it.

FB: You do, but the fact that we have gone from 500 people to a thousand here on any given Saturday shows that people are really looking for locally-made, locally-sourced organic and artisanal foods.

We are at the intersection of Matlack Street and Carter Drive, right off 202 and Matlack Street so you can actually see us from 202. It’s on Carter Drive in Matlack Industrial Center.

Patch: How does the idea behind Artisan Exchange go beyond the business of small business?

FB: One of the other aspects of Artisan Exchange is we’re actually preserving the food culture. Between the ethnic and racial diversity that we have, this facility is really maintaining food diversity and a food culture.  We have heirloom family recipes that have been in families for multiple generations, and this facility and others like it help preserve that and we think that’s hugely important.

How did you get the idea for this?

FB:  I come from a background in banking and finance and I helped fund tech incubators and I had an opportunity to work with a family business and I came onboard and I used some the experience I had in tech incubation to create a culinary, artisanal food incubator.  It was needed and we’ve actually in the past year created about a hundred jobs and we have on site about 30 start up businesses which is what I think this area and this country needs.  It’s entrepreneurialism at its finest.

Directions to Artisan Exchange 

as posted on the Exchange's website:

FROM EXTON & WEST CHESTER:

  1. Take Route 202 S
  2. Turn Right on to Matlack Street
  3. Go 1/2 mile to Carter Drive (across from WCU Band Building)
  4. Follow Carter Drive to top of hill – at dead end turn right , then immediately left to Artisan Exchange
FROM MEDIA:
  1. Take Route 1 South to Route 202
  2. Go North on 202 (Towards West Chester)
  3. Take the 322/202 West Chester Bypass (at the Days Inn Brandywine Valley)
  4. (Do Not go under 202 into West Chester)
  5. At the 1st traffic light turn left onto N. Matlack Street
  6. Go 1/2 mile to Carter Drive (across from WCU Band Building)
  7. Follow Carter Drive to top of hill – at dead end turn right , then immediately left to Artisan Exchange
FROM WILMINGTON DE & CHADDS FORD PA:
  1. Go North on 202 (Towards West Chester)
  2. Take the 322/202 West Chester Bypass (at the Days Inn Brandywine Valley)
  3. (Do Not go under 202 into West Chester)
  4. At the 1st traffic light turn left onto N. Matlack Street
  5. Go 1/2 mile to Carter Drive (across from WCU Band Building)
  6. Follow Carter Drive to top of hill – at dead end turn right, then immediately left to Artisan Exchange
FROM KING OF PRUSSIA:
  1. Take 202 South/West DeKalb Pike towards West Chester
  2. Turn Right on to Matlack Street at traffic light
  3. Go 1/2 mile to Carter Drive (across from WCU Band Building)
  4. Follow Carter Drive to top of hill – at dead end turn right , then immediately left to Artisan Exchange
FROM DOWNINGTOWN & COATESVILLE
  1. Take Route 30 E Bypass
  2. To Route 100 S
  3. To the 202 S West Chester Bypass
  4. Turn Right on to Matlack Street at traffic light
  5. Go 1/2 mile to Carter Drive (across from WCU Band Building)Follow Carter Drive to top of hill – at dead end turn right , then immediately left to Artisan Exchange


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