CITY HEIGHTS — As restaurants across San Diego struggle with increasing costs to stay open, some local entrepreneurs are ditching traditional brick-and-mortar buildings to bring their businesses straight to the community.
Jot Condie, president and CEO of the California Restaurant Association, said seven percent of their San Diego members reported they are closing an additional day of the week because it costs too much to stay open. To avoid these expenses, small business owners are taking non-traditional routes.
Isabel Rosales, owner of Isa's Tamales, turned a craving for a taste of home into a full-time business.
"When I moved to San Diego from Chicago, I was in the search for good tamales because we're close to the border and I couldn't find any. So one day I just decided to make them myself," Rosales said.
Five years later, using inspiration from her mother's recipes, her business is booming outside of a traditional restaurant setting.
"My dream, of course, is to have a brick and mortar, but because I see so many closing, I get scared," Rosales said.
Instead of taking on the high costs of a storefront, Rosales works inside a community kitchen and sells her tamales at pop-up events.
"I decided two years ago to take the step, actually take the leap and quit my full-time job and do tamales full-time," Rosales said.
Rosales is one of more than 100 local entrepreneurs who went through the C.H.O.P.P.E.D. program, run by the nonprofit City Heights Community Development Corporation. The program helps micro-food businesses get permits, build business plans, and grow without the high cost of a storefront.
Javier Gomez, chief advising officer for City Heights Community Development Corporation, said the program serves as a lifeline for small business owners.
"We're really trying to prepare our entrepreneurs for this new economy," Gomez said.
"What we've seen is that the traditional model or this old path of, you know, starting your business out of brick and mortar, it's just, it's too costly for our micro entrepreneurs. What we're offering is an alternative for getting started," Gomez said.
"So around the county we're seeing a lot of businesses closing, a lot of folks who have been in the community for a long time that unfortunately just can't keep up with the cost of rent overhead. And so this allows our community or folks in the CHOP program to use not only their resources but to be successful," Gomez said.
City Heights Community Development Corporation says anyone in San Diego County can apply for the program.
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