The first visitor to the Kitchen Collective caf� showed up a couple of months early - and didn't use the door.

Security video caught an SUV crashing through the large bay window at the newly opened commercial kitchen at 811 King St. E just after 4 a.m. Sunday.

No one was in the building at the time or injured in the crash, but an unidentified man was seen abandoning the vehicle and running from the smashed kitchen.

Collective founding member Reuben Vanderkwaak heard the bad news early in the morning from police, who were still seeking the driver Sunday afternoon.

"Amazingly, the car smashed right through the glass in between two pillars without causing any actual structural damage to the building," he said. "Sure, it was quite a mess, but (the vehicle) missed all of the cooling and cooking equipment . We're able to use the kitchen again already."

It might have been a different story a month or two from now, when collective members hope to open a retail caf� in addition to the 1,500-square-foot commercial kitchen that fired up three weeks ago.

"Better to happen now, I guess, because everything (in the caf�) would have been wiped out."

The collective of five food entrepreneurs batched together to pay for renovations to the long-abandoned convenience store and held a successful Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign last year to help pay for kitchen equipment.

The Collective offers general membership for $200, which gives access to the kitchen for $16 an hour. Families or community groups cooking for an event or fundraiser can use the kitchen for $20 an hour.

Fans of the new collective commiserated on Twitter - and some did more, accepting an online invitation Sunday morning to help sweep up and temporarily cover the smashed bay window with plywood.

"We've cleaned up, sanitized and the kitchen is back up and running already," he said just hours after the unexpected drive-thru.