Lloyd Purday, right, the economic development manager for the city of Tigard, introduces Michelle Cruz, the newest entrepreneur to open up a coffee shop at the Opportunity Cafe, an small business incubator program run by the city of Portland. Cruz is the owner of Chelita's.

Brothers Alfredo and Joshua Carreon had spent years discussing opening their own food-based business before settling on opening a food cart. They knew they wanted to locate it in Tigard and were eying a spot along Highway 99, which they thought would provide access to foot traffic. They even had a name — West Coast Torta Co.

However, they also knew that getting set up in a cart would take a lot of money.

Then, the brothers heard about Launch Pod, a unique new business incubator program the city of Tigard was starting. Located in the city’s downtown area, the program would offer an opportunity for two start-up food businesses to move into city-supported food carts with initially reduced rent and small business coaching support.

“The timing was right for us,” Alfred Carreon said. “We decided to give it a try.”

Launch Pod is just the latest in a series of programs the city of Tigard has created and implemented to support entrepreneurs, especially those who are BIPOP (Black Indigenous or other people of color) and/or women, and to help grow the local small business landscape.

While Launch Pod is in a relatively new public space on Barnum Street called Universal Plaza, its roots can be traced to the Tigard Public Library.

For several years, the library’s lobby featured a coffee shop. When the shop closed, the space sat vacant for a couple of years — until Lloyd Purdy, the city’s economic development manager, and Halsted Bernard, the library’s director, put their heads together.

“Instead of leasing that space to a national brand, or even a local brand coffee shop, (we) had a conversation about whether we could use that space for a small business incubator — meaning that we would lease the space to a business entrepreneur,” Purdy told Opportunity magazine. “We would support them with coaching, with access to customers, and with some type of financial support, in this case, reduced rent.”

Purdy has spent a large part of his career creating innovative programs to help entrepreneurs start small businesses to grow city main streets and downtown areas. He knows the three key things that all small businesses need to get started – access to market, access to training and some access to financing — are also the three hardest things for entrepreneurs, especially those who are BIPOC and/or women, to obtain. Creating a city-supported incubator in the vacant space in the library’s lobby would provide one lucky entrepreneur with all three.

The incubator program, called the Opportunity Café, welcomed its first entrepreneur, Israel Martinez, in October 2021. Under the terms of the incubator program, the city provided equipment such as countertops, a display case cooler, a refrigerator and an espresso machine. The city also provided Martinez access to small business advising, technical assistance from Micro Enterprise Services of Oregon (MESO), and a below-market rate rent that would slowly increase over his two-year tenancy at the Opportunity Café. By the time his lease ended, Martinez would be ready to move to a regular commercial space, such as a storefront or food cart, which would open up the café for another entrepreneur to bring in a new coffee shop.

Purdy closely watched the Opportunity Café to see if it would succeed. It wasn’t long before he had his answer.

“Six months in, I saw that this was going to be a success, and I started to look around and say, ‘Where else can the city be a host to entrepreneurs? Where else can we create business incubators? Where else can we use what we have, which, in this case, is space, to improve economic mobility?’

“What I realized was, we could buy two food carts that are a fairly low-cost way to enter into the restaurant business — the carts new are about $55,000 each. We could incur that upfront expense and treat two food carts the same way we treat the Opportunity Café at the library. We sign leases with entrepreneurs. They have a safe and supportive place to try out ideas — to learn how to run a business. Rent increases over time. They get business coaching from MESO, SBDC (the Small Business Development Center), or Livelihood Northwest. They get access to all the customers — we call them residents — all the residents who show up to Universal Plaza in the summers to enjoy the splash pad.”

The Universal Plaza location was a key piece of making Launch Pod work, Purdy said. The plaza’s property was previously occupied by a warehouse that served as a distribution center for a plumbing company. The city purchased the property through its tax increment finance (TIF) district with the idea that it could be used to create a public gathering space, which the city’s downtown lacked.

As city staff began to plan Universal Plaza, however, they realized they had a problem.

“Even during the design phase, we knew there wasn’t an immediately adjacent restaurant or retailer, and we knew that’s an important way to activate a space,” Purdy said. “So, the city’s community development director … asked me to find a way to bring some restaurant activity to the space. That’s the other piece of the puzzle that really came together with the idea of the food carts. The carts activate the space and provide an amenity to Universal Plaza, and they’re a business incubator that supports new entrepreneurs. “

With a plan for Launch Pod in place, the city sent out a call for applications from entrepreneurs interested in setting up their businesses in the city-owned carts. The city received 30 applications and began the selection process. Once interviews were completed and taste tests of proposed menu items conducted, the Carreon brothers’ West Coast Torta Co. and Harvest Moon Experience, owned by Juliana “Jules” Mosely, were selected as the first tenants of Launch Pod. The food carts opened earlier this year, just in time for the grand opening of Universal Plaza in April.

Lessons learned

For their food cart, the Carreons focused on providing customers with the food they grew up eating as kids in Southern California and Oregon.

“I loved tortas,” Alfredo Carreon said. “I liked tacos. But I loved the torta — and the way my family made them was amazing.

“My dad was a chef when I was a child,” Carreon said. “He would take me … to work with him, and (I) would help by chopping bread.” His father’s restaurant featured French cuisine, so there were always posts of bone broth and sauces bubbling away on stovetops, filling the air with what Alfredo considered intoxicating scents.

“I fell in love with the smell of the restaurant the first time I walked in,” Alfredo said. “We ate Mexican beans and rice at home, and at (my dad’s work), it was like, ‘We’re French. This is stock, this is mirepoix, this is quail.’”

Joshua, who is 14 years younger than Alfredo, also found himself drawn to the restaurant business and graduated from culinary. Opening a food-based business together was a natural step, allowing each of the brothers to split tasks and focus on what they do best. Alfredo oversees the food part of the business, keeping shelves stocked and creating new torta variations and other times for the menu. Joshua tackles the various business aspects, from creating his own system to organizing their food delivery systems to handling outreach, marketing and social media.

Those latter areas have lately become especially important for West Coast Torta Co. The experience of being the initial tenant of Launch Pod hasn’t been without challenges, according to Alfredo Carreon. During the summer, Universal Plaza saw a lot of foot traffic. That has changed as fall and winter have arrived, bringing cooler temperatures, shorter daylight hours and wetter weather. For example, customers were few and far between on a recent rainy December day.

The brothers are determined to see West Coast Torta Co. thrive, so they’ve developed new marketing strategies and are bumping up their presence on social media. They’re expanding their catering services for events such as Quinceañeras and company parties. They also see potential in growing the breakfast portion of their business.

And Alfredo Carreon says he’s pulling out all the stops to create menu items that customers won’t find elsewhere. Along with classic tortas, the food cart boasts specialties like a birria torta, an option that lets customers build their own tortas.

“We have to be more unique than the rest of the restaurants around here,” Carreon said. “Because we’re not a Mexican restaurant. Tortas are my thing, and I’m West Coast, so I’m not limited to one thing.”

Sangria success

One of the goals of the Launch Pad program is to provide a potential pipeline for the food cart entrepreneurs to possibly expand into storefront spaces in the city at the end of their 18 months at Launch Pod. Juliana Mosely isn’t waiting that long.

Just eight months after opening her food business, Harvest Moon Experience, at Launch Pod, she’s opening what Purdy says is Oregon’s first sangria bar. Mosely and long-time friend, collaborator, and co-worker Trina Fyler have struck a deal with Senet Game Bar, which is located in a building on Tigard’s Main Street, to launch Harvest Moon Sangria Bar in a ground-floor area that previously housed a whiskey bar.

The space is currently available for rent for special events, with catering provided by the food cart.

Catering is, in fact, the main focus of the food cart. Before joining Launch Pod, Mosely gained a farmers market following for her charcuterie cones — paper cones filled with salami, olives, nuts, and other savory items — and unique gourmet-level mocktails.

“It just grew from there,” Fyler said.

The cart has already become a favorite of local businesses looking for unique catering options. The sangria bar location is also starting to become a favorite of local businesses looking for event space, company parties, or special meetings. Eventually, Mosely and Fyler plan to add a kitchen to the sangria bar space that will allow them to prepare food with a more upscale flair on site, focusing on brunch.

The food cart, Fyler says, will continue to focus on gourmet seasonal comfort food, both for catering and for at-the-window customers.

The cart’s food –charcuterie and seasonal comfort food such as soft pretzels with white cheddar fondue; fall sweeties, featuring sweet potatoes, fondue, cranberry sauce, sour cream and green onions; and polish or veggie dogs loaded with betties or homemade chili — serves as a companion to the main attraction: a rotating shortlist of handmade sangrias based on recipes created by Mosely. On the menu recently, a version featuring strawberries, basil and red wine; and a version made with cranberry, eggwhite, lemon, angostura bitters, rosemary and lavender. The cart also offers a special menu just for kids.

Like the Carreons, Mosley and Fyler split tasks at the food cart and the sangria bar. Fyler handles the food part of the business, while Mosely handles creating sangria recipes and the administrative end of things.

“Her mind is always going,” Fyler said. “She’s always thinking of new things to try.”

Beyond the incubators

Like Opportunity Café, the Launch Pod program aims to help entrepreneurs get to the point where once their leases or the food carts at Universal Plaza end, they’ll be ready to take the next steps on their own – in whatever direction those steps may lead them.

“We’re really excited about seeing entrepreneurs like Juliana launch into a brick-and-mortar space,” Purdy said. “She’s moving into downtown, and that’s super exciting for us. But I think Joshua and Alfredo might be more interested in a small cart or a truck of their own. Whatever works for them. This is their starter phase. This is their chance to try things, make some mistakes but be supported and recover from those challenges quickly.

“(A situation an entrepreneur getting stuck in a) multi-year lease and you’ve maxed out your credit cards and taken loans out from family members to make that work. This is not that scenario. This is a much more supportive scenario. It gives the entrepreneurs almost two years of runway to get momentum. “

Back at the Opportunity Café at Tigard Public Library, there’s a new entrepreneur and business in the space.

Martinez, the Café’s first entrepreneur, successfully completed his two years in the program in September. He has since gone on to expand El Cuadrilátero, the coffee and sandwich shop he ran in the Opportunity Café, to a food cart that recently opened on Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway across the street from Jesuit High School (see the Small Business Spotlight feature in this issue of the magazine.

In October, Michelle Cruz celebrated the grand opening of her Opportunity Cafe coffee shop, Chelita’s. While she started with an initial menu, she said she plans to rotate items and keep the ones that customers identify as favorites.

While the library staff way they’ll miss Martinez, they’re also excited about being able to support another entrepreneur and help her business grow. Just a few weeks after opening Chilita’s, she had already picked some catering gigs, including one or two of the library staff.

Lloyd Purdy, meanwhile, is ready to expand Launch Pod at Universal Plaza.

“Now we’re at the point where we have two city-owned carts, and they’re working, helping these two entrepreneurs over about an 18-month time frame, helping them figure out how to launch their business,” Purdy said. “We see with Juliana Mosely, she’s already launching into a bricks-and-mortar space. We see that working. So, we realized it was time to bring in a third cart.

“This cart will be privately owned – (the city doesn’t) have money to buy another. But an entrepreneur with a new food business will have a chance to bring their cart to the Launch Pod at Universal Plaza. We’ll have three carts here, acting as an amenity and still as an incubator.

Owners: Alfredo and Joshua Carreon

Address: Universal Plaza, 9100 S.W. Burnham St., Tigard

Email: westcoastmasaco9077@gmail.com

Website: westcoasttortacompany.com

Instagram: @westcoasttortacompany

X(formerly Twitter): @WestCoastTortas

Facebook: @West Coast Torta Company

When Lloyd Purdy, the City of Tigard’s economic development manager, first started talking about creating a food cart incubator, there were more than a few questions about whether the concept would play out as planned. However, according to Purdy, six months of success at the Opportunity Café helped grease the wheels for city support of Launch Pod.

“A lot of people thought it was an interesting idea but weren’t sure how it was going to work and weren’t sure that a cart experience would translate into a successful business,” Purdy said. “But we saw through our first entrepreneur at the library, Israel Martinez, he went ahead and moved into his own food cart.

“So, it wasn’t too much of a risk for the city of Tigard to say, ‘Let’s get into the economic mobility business of helping entrepreneurs in Tigard start a business — especially since residents of Tigard want more locally owned restaurants.’ So, growing them up locally and giving them exposure to Tigard customers, that makes a lot of sense.

“And (these incubator programs) are working. I’m all smiles because these businesses at these food incubators at the library and Universal Plaza are absolutely working.”

Owner: Juliana “Jules” Mosely

Address, Foodcart: Universal Plaza, 9100 S.W. Burnham St., Tigard

Address, Sangria Bar: 12553 S.W. Main St., Tigard

Email: jules@harvestmoonexperience.com

Website: harvestmoonexperience.com

Facebook: @Harvest Moon Experience

The entrepreneurs at Launch Pod aren’t the only ones learning from their time in the program. The city is also noting how they might change or adjust the program.

For this first group of cart tenants, the city decided to go with 18-month leases, thinking it would allow them to provide opportunities to as many entrepreneurs as possible.

“The key driver,” Purdy said, “was looking for the minimum amount of time an entrepreneur would need to get started, get established, get their feet under them, go through a couple of seasons: Summer when it’s gang-busters busy. Winter when it’s cold, wet, dark, and there are fewer sales at a cart.”

Purdy, however, says the city may take a second look at the length of leases when a new round of entrepreneurs moves into Launch Pod. Banks, for example, typically like to see at least 24 months of sales and experience from small businesses seeking loans to expand and grow.

“We’re trending toward 18 months or more. We could conceivably stretch to 24 months,” Purdy said.