When Brooklyn-based food incubator Pilotworks closed abruptly last weekend, 175 small businesses were displaced. According to GrubStreet, Pilotworks sent an email to announce it would be shuttering “after failing to raise the necessary capital to continue operations," and gave members limited access to collect possessions over the following few days.
For businesses like Dominga, a cafe collaboration between chefs Lani Halliday of Brutus Bakeshop and Woldy Reyes of food service company Woldy Kusina, slated to launch in 2019, the sudden closure was detrimental to normal-course business. While a neighboring commercial kitchen has welcomed Halliday and Reyes, Dominga had to leave behind critical supplies.