Owning and operating a restaurant is not the easiest of endeavors.
Carlos Weir and his wife, Erika, have accepted the challenge of running not one but two local restaurants. The first, Las Chabelas, opened in Brawley on Main Street in 2003 with only four tables, two booths and three employees. The second restaurant is The Courtroom Bourbons and Grill in El Centro, which opened in 2014.
Carlos Weir is native Californian who grew up in the greater Los Angeles area and moved to Imperial Valley more than 30 years ago. Erika Weir is a native of Imperial Valley.
When the couple decided to operate a restaurant, they knew the risk. Although the closure rate for restaurants in the first year is reported as high as 90 percent, the real number over the past 20 years is closer to 17 percent. This is actually a lower failure rate than other service-providing businesses, where 19 percent fail in the first year.
District 2 Public Health to provide vaccine to emergency workers
Just days after the first seven healthcare workers at Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville received the COVID-19 vaccine, District 2 Public Health began vaccinating emergency medical personnel.
District 2 Public Health received nearly 1,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine and is holding a clinic for emergency personnel at Chicopee Woods Agricultural Center today and tomorrow beginning at 8 a.m. Appointments are required for the clinic.
Additional doses of the vaccine are expected at both NGMC and the public health department, but further details are unknown.
Local businesses offer last-minute gift ideas
With less than a week before Christmas, local tourism and hospitality officials are urging people to stay close to home for last-minute shopping.