How do you open a brick-and-mortar restaurant in the middle of a pandemicâand thrive? One answer:
Break the paradigm and go co-op, Ã la Mirisata, Portlandâs only Sri Lankan restaurant, which is also vegan and entirely BIPOC- and worker-owned. The SE Belmont spotâs prospective owners prove themselves not with a fat wad of start-up cash, but via a few months of a trial working period. During the height of the pandemic, Mirisata went from pop-up to brick-and-mortar restaurant using small loans from customers and friends.
Another innovation: a buy-in membership program for $40 a year, which includes perks like discounts on orders. So far, Mirisata is Portlandâs only restaurant operating under a co-op model, but its worker-owners say itâs a way forward for those whoâve historically faced barriers, including women and people of color, to gain business ownership in a notoriously brutal industry.
Keep Craft Alive: Josh Salinger, Construction Business Owner
After scaling up and feeling disconnected from the process, a Portland, Oregon, builder refocuses his company with a commitment to building better homes and better relationships.
–Josh Salinger, Construction Business Owner, Portland, Ore.
There was a particular moment when Josh Salinger knew something was very wrong with the way he had been running his construction business,
Birdsmouth Construction. He had scaled up the operation that he started years earlier, taking on more and larger projects and adding staff to keep pace with the demand for services. But after one of the company’s projects was sold, built, and completed, Josh realized that he had never even met the clients. And while he valued the trust he had in his team, he felt disconnected from the process and people that made building a joy.