Johnathan Yeung : Taqueria Guaima
The first several weeks of this quarter have gone by already, hopefully everyone is doing well! Ever since Vanessa moved out of La Sonorense Bakery, our team has been searching for a new location that Vanessa could move in. Fortunately, Vanessa has found a location at the corner of First Street and Willow Street, whose owner is willing to sublease half of the store space to Vanessa. After having met up and discussed the would-be terms of the sublease agreement, Vanessa has decided that she will be moving into that location.
Because the store space does not have a exhaust/range hood, Vanessa will be selling food that would not require any cooking. Currently, she is planning on selling various types of Mexican-style fresh fruits, desserts, and sweets. As of right now, our team’s priority is to get in touch with the CET team to schedule a date and time for CET to visit the store location and to assess the situation, so to speak. As soon as the storeowner finishes clearing out Vanessa’s side of the store, we’ll be able to begin cleaning up the space so that CET won’t have to. We anticipate that at the very minimum, we will need CET to build a long counter space, possibly to allow for bar-style seating, to create a workstation, and to install a three-compartment sink for Vanessa to use. If necessary, our team could begin to do some basic painting inside the store. We are also working on possibly partnering up with the Art Club to have a mural painted on either the wall or one of the columns inside the store. Because Vanessa will once again be subleasing out of another store, we will have to figure out a way to effectively advertise the location of her store and to create signage big enough for people to see from the street.
Every member on our team are currently working on different tasks to help Vanessa get her business running as soon as possible. These tasks include consolidating and creating a menu, creating a logo and uniforms for the store and Vanessa, researching permits that we would need to apply for, looking into how to effectively utilize the Clover system, getting in touch with CET to set up an appointment for inspecting the store, and figuring out how we could petition the city of San Jose to install street lights outside the store in order to discourage and to prevent loitering at night.