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Bottle Cap Food & Drink, San Francisco

BACKGROUND
Bottle Cap celebrated its Grand Opening on July 12th at 1707 Powell Street in the San Francisco North Beach area. The former site of the Washington Square Bar and Grill has become the latest project of Chef Dane Boryta and his wife Elizabeth Ferro.

Bottle Cap is a casual bistro featuring “New American” cuisine with a market-driven menu that will promote customer choice using fresh, organic, seasonal and locally grown and harvested produce, poultry, meats and seafood - offering the best quality product at a reasonable price.  Chef Dane and Liz Ferro have redesigned the interior of the iconic Washington Square eatery to highlight sunny views of the parks although the warm walnut bar remains as an anchor to its history. The concept behind Bottle Cap is to create a lively, memorable restaurant experience that, while sophisticated, is still approachable enough for a weekly visit.

Pot and Pantry, San Francisco

Offering new Bay Area “foodie” options

BACKGROUND
Pot & Pantry is a recently opened, woman-owned business that specializes in new and niche kitchenware and local artisan foods. Pot & Pantry Owner Donna Suh Wageman has created a unique marketplace where people can buy or sell high-end vintage kitchen equipment, cookware, accessories and tasty treats.

Peas of Mind, San Francisco

Finding the niche in healthy kids food

BACKGROUND
Helping a friend feed her toddler something healthier than canned green beans turned into a full time job for Jill Litwin, founder and CEO of Peas of Mind, a healthy frozen-food company for growing kids. Jill found her niche in creating foods for the 1 to 8 year-olds, or “growing child.” Moms had little more than Cheerios and Goldfish for their 1 to 8-year-olds to snack on; Jill soon had a line-up of healthy and tasty Puffets, natural and organic wholesome meals.

SF SBDC Client is National Cover Story in BizJournals

Photo: Paolo Vescia

Minding her peas and carrots wins investors
by Susan Smith Hendrickson

Jill Litwin, founder and CEO of a healthy frozen-food company for growing kids, is a typical entrepreneur in many ways. She works (all the time). She gets overtly excited about the launch of her third product, Peas of Pie pizza with vegetables baked into the crust (and stresses about it). And, like most small-business owners, she has to, by default and natural desire, have her hands, or at least her head, in all aspects of her company, from product development to checking whether the delivery trucks are on running on time.

Read more: Business Success Stories - SBA Small Business Administration

Read the original SF SBDC Success Story

Jellyfish Art, LLC, San Francisco

Alex Andon, Owner of Jellyfish Art became a member of the San Francisco Small Business Development Center’s Youth Entrepreneurship Program in June 2008.  He was in the early stages of starting his business when he was introduced to the SBDC and began making use of its services.  

Valle Translations, San Francisco Bay Area

Valle Translations is a woman-owned, SBA 8(a) certified business that provides English-Spanish translation services globally.  What began in 1994, as a translation company focused on birth certificates and other forms of personal documentation has grown into a sophisticated business serving some of this country’s best known companies including Blue Shield and Oakwood Worldwide.

Pupuseria Gemelos, San Francisco

Maribel and Luis Ochoa (owners) of “Pupuseria Gemelos” are the first and newly assigned food concession operators for the Crocker Amazon Soccer Fields in San Francisco. By the end of this summer 2008 “Pupuseria Gemelos” will be operating at a newly built food concession stand located within the Crocker Amazon Soccer Fields; Maribel and Luis Ochoa will be the only food vendors allowed to operate at the field. The food concession will serve refreshments, snacks, and healthy ethnic and local dishes to all the soccer teams and patrons visiting the fields.

Savantis Group, Inc., San Francisco

When Deniz Mater came to the SBDC in late 2006, she and her husband, Roel Deuss, were managing a one year old company, SAP Headhunter, Inc., from their home office. The company provides IT services to customers of SAP, a German company that is one of the leaders in Enterprise Resource Planning software. Deniz and Roel are providing consultants to these customers and conducting job searches for them. They also engage in a number of in-house projects for their clients. They were receiving a reasonable amount of revenue but the SAP market presented them an excellent opportunity for growth.

Regalito Rosticeria, San Francisco

Thomas Pena had spent several years refining family recipes and, as he was preparing his restaurant project, he traveled for months in Mexico researching new menu items and cooking techniques. He also had studied baking and pastry at the California Culinary Academy.

San Francisco Guitarworks, San Francisco

Company Profile - SF Guitarworks is a guitar repair business in San Francisco that specializes in all types of guitar repairs and a large client base in the local entertainment industry. Owner Geoff Luttrell opened the business in 2002.