Erin Lenhardt Food entrepreneur, consultant & investor.

If you've been able to validate your idea by going to food festivals and building a customer base (ideally by serving and *charging* for the food you intend to sell), consider starting with a pop-up or food truck in order to further validate your idea and keep you startup costs low. If you can make money with your food truck, you should be able to either bootrap your way or raise a small round of money in order to launch into brick and mortar. Good luck!