As they say it's location location location. Getting the right location has been the biggest challenge by far. Despite working on this point since March (well before the move from the UK), and using multiple real estate agents to look on my behalf, it's been a hard nut to crack.

What I needed is retail space with permissions for a kitchen and the correct level of utilities being supplied to the building. It also has to be in the right location if we are to conduct any direct sales. If we're paying rent on a space we might as well sell there too.

Permissions to perform food service is one thing, but your whole kitchen has to comply with the health dept/Dept of agriculture too, plus the entire site has to comply to local authority zoning regs.

Alexandria, Arlington and DC weren't showing anything in the right shape. I looked at constructing semi permanent kiosks but I still needed a kitchen. The same for any mobile vending options. n.b. mobile vending is much easier in Arlington than DC.

Then we turned up an option in Vienna (Virginia) and this had good possibilities.

A 1300 sq ft space that had retail front and was part of an existing bakery that was upgrading to purchasing its own premises. Great little town, near enough for me to run food carts into Arlington. This is what we are going to pursue.