Indy Hickman : Chavelas
Last Tuesday, each team in NPI had the opportunity to present our progress and work at San Jose’s city hall as a final wrap up to the initiative. It was a fun gathering and opportunity to see the whole program together, as the business owners came to watch the presentations as well. Along with the presentations, the mayor of San Jose presented each of the four businesses with plaques for participating in the program and we enjoyed food brought by the businesses.
Cayla, Calli, and I presented on behalf of Team Chavelas and talked through our progress and continued work with the taqueria over the past six months. Much of our concrete process had happened in the last couple weeks, so seeing the before and after photos was especially exciting. Among these recent physical changes were finalizing our new logo and putting it on a large sign hung in the center of the restaurant, installing a new wrap-around counter, and repainting the outside of the restaurant to give it a new look and feel.
One of the recent promotions that Chavelas had implemented was a Saturday karaoke night to draw in late night customers and strengthen their customer base in whole. Our group had recently received many of the items we had purchased for Chavelas, including menus, a shelf, and uniforms, and decided to accept Jose’s invite and stop by the karaoke night. Jose and his wife were excited to see us and a few of us even took the microphone to sing some songs in Spanish. It was a great last night with the group, and a great ending to a fulfilling project.