Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nora Gavarrete. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Nora, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear how you think where to draw the line in terms of asking friends and family to support your business – what’s okay and what’s over the line?

We started out as a small family business and still depend on the support we receive from them. We would not be able to do this without the support of our friends and family. With the type of business that we have, events come up where we may need additional hands and someone is always there to jump in when needed. Whether it’s to help pick up a refrigerator in a trailer because we can’t fit it or work a shift because someone called off. They are constantly sharing every post we share to get our business out there. We appreciate everything they do and we want them to know that.

Nora, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hi, my name is Nora and I am co-owner of Chino’s Street Food. Chino’s was started 9 years ago by the founder and co-owner Nick Ho. We currently run a pop up food stand that began as an Asian inspired pop up (business).

Since we started, we have expanded our menu to include more diverse dishes. This is what I believe is unique about our business. We have taken our love for multi-cultural food and have created dishes that include our favorite flavors from different cultures. Like our Vietnamese street taco which includes the sweet and salty in our Vietnamese marinated chicken and the crunch and freshness of vegetables which are very common in Asian and Latino cultures, and topped with a creamy cilantro mayo sauce that makes it a perfect combination.

We love running the pop up food stand and what we have done with it, but with the challenge of having to close for the winter and the lack of prep space we are at a point that we need to take the next step.

I just recently quit my full time job and I am taking this course to ensure that we are ready and fully prepared to open up a brick and mortar. I believe that this will open up doors to include more catering options and to go’s while still continuing to do pop events.

We haven’t focused enough on marketing in the past which I know will change with our future plans, but we still have an instagram and Facebook page that you can follow us on. I hope to include more dishes that can catch your attention when we open our brick and mortar; however, we still have some great dishes you can stop by and get every weekend until we have to close for the season.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

Chino’s started off as a way to bring extra income while doing something we love which is cooking and sharing our love for food with our customers. Year after year have been growing and we are at a point where we have to consider what our next steps are. I had a full time job which I did enjoy but this business is what I live for now. This year we are finally looking for a brick and mortar building to give us the opportunity to finally grow the business to the scale that we know we can grow into. By having a brick and mortar it will give us the opportunity to be open full time year-around. We will be able to tap into the pickup and delivery aspect of the business and grow our catering offerings as well. Without a real kitchen space it has limited us and we could not continue to grow. We will have the kitchen space that we need and will work on marketing our brand to be a successful brick and mortar.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I think that we provide quality food for good prices that can’t be found anywhere else. We take the time to build relationships with our customers. We are a group of hardworking people and our customers see how hard we work to serve them.

Contact Info:

• Website: N/A
• Instagram: @Chinossstreetfood
• Facebook: @chinosstreetfood

Image Credits
n/a