Community crowdfunding campaigns save two restaurants in Sierra Madre, Historic Filipinotown
Facing one hardship after another, two different restaurants in two different cities were on the verge of closing. But thanks to a crowdfunding campaign they were saved just in time.
"I put the bat signal up and asked for a GoFundMe if folks can spot us for just a second," said owner John-Eric Concordia.
Concordia is the owner of the Park's Finest — a Filipino-inspired barbecue joint near Angelino Heights and Historic Filipinotown. He started it 10 years ago and it flourished into a successful catering company — but then the pandemic hit.
"I had to lay off personnel," Concordia said.
During the pandemic's trying times, when many restaurants and businesses were shuttering their doors, Concordia survived by feeding essential workers. Despite weathering the storm, the sweltering heat wave in September forced Concordia to shut his restaurant's doors.
"Sept. 1 we lost power," he said. "The following week, during the full heat wave, we went through consecutive days of power outages, restorations and power outages again. We lost a total of five days."
With inflation and losing thousands of dollars a day, Concordia didn't have anywhere else to turn to other than to ask his community for help using Linktree.
"The neighborhood kept me alive," he said. "The community kept me alive."
It is a similar story of the coming to rescue a local cafe in Sierra Madre.
"It was closing up — going bankrupt. That was it," said David Bremer, the owner of Bean Town. "And a nearly 30-something-year business was going down the tubes."
Bremer said it started with the pandemic, but his problems were only exacerbated when a driver accidentally drove right through Bean Town's front door.
"Hit two cars, narrowly missed a couple of customers and plowed through the front door of the store," said Bremer. "We were shut down for 10 months."
When they finally reopened Bremer said staffing shortages and skyrocketing costs proved to be too much. But in his moment of need, two of his loyal customers stepped in to help by setting up a donation page.
"They showed up in droves," he said.
The customers helped save what Bremer calls the living room of Sierra Madre, at least for now.
"It's not just money for us," he said. "Most everything we have goes back into it. It's a labor of love."
Park's Finest and Bean Town are not out of the woods yet. Bean Town The owners said they are hoping the support continues.
