BOSTON (WHDH) - The city of Boston is issuing its first residential kitchen permit which will allow people to cook and sell edible items straight from their homes.
This new permit will help people like Lisa Mackin who started making flowery cupcake arrangements as a COVID passion project. Now, she is running a business right from her South Boston kitchen.
“My north star would be to do a wedding, like a large venue,” she explained.
Mackin’s business, Boston Baked Blooms, was awarded the city’s first-ever residential kitchen permit.
The city stated allowing them back in January for some food items but, until recently, these small business owners were required to do their cooking and baking in commercial kitchens.
“I looked into the whole renting a commercial space, there were two places I didn’t visit but looked at. Each of them were $3,600 a month, and I don’t even know if they were equipped,” Mackin said.
In a statement, Mayor Kim Janey said, “during the last year, many entrepreneurs had to reimagine their business models. This quick and easy permitting process will help Boston residents to earn extra income and build businesses.”
For Mackin, it means living a dream she otherwise may not have achieved and she hopes others will be able to do the same.
“I think everybody and their brother made banana bread or some kind of sourdough bread,” she said. “If it’s something people really enjoy doing and could make a living out of it, I think it’s great. I would love to see more people do it.”
Many inspections go into getting one of these permits. The cupcakes Mackin was making while talking to 7NEWS cannot be sold because extra people are not permitted to be in the kitchen while the baking goes on.
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