SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The face of restaurants is changing, as some business owners are ditching commercial buildings and opening up shop inside their homes, exploring a new way to make money.
For Ryan Cunningham and Kalina O'Connor, making meals in their kitchen is truly a family affair. But it's not just burgers, fries and milkshakes for their household — it's for the line of customers who show up and place their order at their Bonita home.
Their business is called Burger Kook, and it's a Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation, also known as a MEHKO. This is a county-permitted mini restaurant that operates in a private home.
But this wasn't always the case. They used to own a traditional restaurant in Ocean Beach.
"We needed some extra money when the restaurant was going because our personal bills were starting to stack up and I was like yo - we need to see some burgers and get money flowing. So we tested it out and when we started to realize that the numbers were doing better here without even hyping it than our restaurant it was just a smart business move," Cunningham said.
Just like any other restaurant, the operators have a number of requirements they have to meet. From paying for an application to securing a number of permits, going through routine inspections and they have specific limitations. They can't make more than 30 meals a day or 90 meals a week.
Ryan and Kalina say despite that, they are saving tens of thousands of dollars by giving up their restaurant. Since they're working from home, they're cutting back on a number of costs, including paying for childcare.
"We could not physically make it as a family, we both came from broken homes, so spending time with our family is number one," O'Connor said.
That's the same case for Roger Post, the founder of This Musubi Love.
"I've got a 4-month-old newborn daughter, so being able to pop in and see her and my lady throughout the day, that's awesome," Post said.
He makes his musubi out of his kitchen in Leucadia. People order online and pick up in his backyard.
"For somebody with like zero startup capital, it's really restrictive. You know, I mean, I did have to shell out some money for some equipment, but that pales in comparison to buying like, you know, large scale commercial equipment and, you know, just the rent and the utilities and when you're running a business of that scale you're gonna have employees," Post said.
While his operation is on a much smaller scale than Burger Kook, he tells us he's still saving enough on expenses to keep pursuing his passion.
"Yeah, I mean just having all the comforts at home and just, you know, saving a ton of costs or saving a lot of money on operating costs," Post said.
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