{"id":468849,"date":"2026-09-19T07:46:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T07:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/468849\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T07:46:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T07:46:27","slug":"l-a-micro-kitchens-turning-private-homes-into-culinary-destinations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/468849\/","title":{"rendered":"L.A. micro-kitchens turning private homes into culinary destinations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Known as MEHKOs, microenterprise home kitchen operations come in many shapes and sizes. They are coffee shops, barbecue joints, supper clubs, backyard tea parties, pickup-only pizzerias and everything in between. For some of these operators, it\u2019s a passion project, and for others, it\u2019s their only source of income.<\/p>\n

MEHKOs were first legalized by state lawmakers in 2019, spurred by advocacy from nonprofit organization the COOK Alliance<\/a>. Riverside County was the first in the state<\/a> to adopt the program in 2019. MEHKOs were greenlighted in L.A. County in May 2024, and since then over 400 licenses have been approved. While informal backyard restaurants are nothing new<\/a> in L.A., the program offers a legal, health-department-approved pathway for many existing home kitchens to thrive.<\/p>\n

MEHKOs can only sell up to 30 meals per day<\/a> and no more than 90 meals per week. They\u2019re also not allowed to advertise with signs on their homes or front lawns. And unlike commercial restaurants, where line cooks will often prep ingredients for the rest of the week, MEHKOs can only serve food that was prepared the same day.<\/p>\n

\u201cA home kitchen is not designed or required to have the same commercial infrastructure, such as ventilation systems, grease interceptors, specialized wastewater systems,\u201d said James Dragan, who oversees initiatives including the MEHKO program at the L.A. County Department of Public Health. \u201cThe limits are important because of the food safety perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

When dining at a MEHKO, be flexible. It might not be as easy as just placing an order. These home businesses are often open just a few days per week with limited hours, and might only accept orders placed in advance. For example, Palestinian home kitchen Mid East Eats<\/a> \u2014 one of L.A.\u2019s first MEHKOs \u2014 currently only offers private dinners and monthly supper clubs. It was previously open for walk-ins with a larger menu, but the format was difficult to sustain and would often create food waste.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to continue doing my private dinners because that\u2019s my favorite thing to do,\u201d said Mid East Eats founder Sumer Durkee. \u201cIt\u2019s satisfying to me and feels like home, and people leave feeling so happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

MEHKOs can serve as a relatively low-cost stepping stone toward opening a brick-and-mortar and offer one-of-a-kind food experiences, even in a city with as rich a culinary vocabulary as L.A. These eight home kitchens, all of which offer dine-in service, are a great starting place to discover the city\u2019s burgeoning MEHKO scene.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Known as MEHKOs, microenterprise home kitchen operations come in many shapes and sizes. They are coffee shops, barbecue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1409,184588,413,134438,2303,184589,48,52,51,47,50,49,111464,20734,9355,184590,184587,4576,11662,184586,430],"class_list":["post-468849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-city","tag-culinary-destination","tag-food","tag-home-kitchen","tag-l-a","tag-l-a-micro-kitchen","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-mehko","tag-nonprofit-organization","tag-order","tag-private-dinner","tag-private-home","tag-program","tag-state-lawmaker","tag-supper-club","tag-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}