Contact Information
-
Address
2501 Main St, Columbia, SC 29201, Columbia, SC, 29201 -
Phone
(803) 779-3003 -
Website
derkitchen.com -
Google Reviews
3.3 out of 5 stars from 7 Google reviews
Location
About DER Kitchen
DER Kitchen is a shared-use commercial kitchen in Columbia, SC. It provides bakers, food truck operators, and caterers with a pay-by-the-hour base of operations, eliminating the need to build and equip a commercial kitchen of their own. The facility serves as a necessary hub for mobile food operators in the Midlands area, complying with SC Department of Agriculture requirements that mandate a commercial kitchen for basis of operations. The business holds a rating of 3.30 based on 7 reviews.
DER Kitchen, located in the 2500 block of Main Street, is the state's first shared commercial kitchen. It is an SCDA approved and inspected facility with its own Food Establishment permit. The kitchen is divided into three unique areas that can be rented individually, combined, or entirely by one or more groups simultaneously. It supports a variety of specialty products made on-site.
The concept originated from David Roberts, who observed a surge in street food popularity and noted that Columbia only had hot dog stands. This inspired the creation of DER Tacos, a proposed taco cart. During the period known locally as the "Taco Wars," Roberts received inquiries from other food entrepreneurs about renting his kitchen when he was not preparing tacos. Research into commissary and incubator kitchens in other states led to the planning of this extensive commercial kitchen.
DER Kitchen operates with a focus on accessibility for food entrepreneurs. It offers a Business Start primer with links to sources of information required to get started in SC and in Columbia. Interested parties must complete an application and send it via email. Tours of the kitchen are available by appointment only. The facility is managed by David Roberts, who accepts applications for new kitchen users.
DER Kitchen provides a critical infrastructure for Columbia's food entrepreneurs, enabling them to launch and operate mobile food businesses within a fully approved commercial space.
DER Kitchen achieves a Performance score of 80 out of 100, which measures how quickly the website loads to keep visitors on the page and aids search engine ranking. The business ranks number 2 of 3 Shared-use commercial kitchen businesses that BizScoreAI has scored in Columbia.
Services:
- Business Start Assistance
- Equipment Rental
- Mobile Food Operator Base
- Shared Commercial Kitchen Rentals
Score Summary
BizScoreAI scanned the website derkitchen.com on June 17, 2026. DER Kitchen has a BizScore of 39 out of 100.
- AI Visibility11 out of 100
- SEO62 out of 100
- Google rating3.3 out of 5
AI visibility scan by category: AI Discovery 0 of 25 points, Structured Data 0 of 25 points, Content Readiness 5 of 30 points, AI Trust Signals 6 of 20 points.
Website audit sub-scores (out of 100): On-Page 61, Technical 39, Performance 80, Content 66.
Strengths: 2 checks passed. AI Content Blocking, Meta Description.
Areas to improve: 8 checks. llms.txt (failed), Structured Data (failed), Q&A Content (failed), Content Too Thin (failed), Weak Heading Structure (warning), About/Team Page (warning), XML Sitemap (warning), Author Signals (warning).
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AI engine reads
Read by AI engines 2 times in the last 30 days.
Counted from AI crawler and assistant visits to this page, identified by user agent.
See the full AI visibility report for this business