Entrepreneur Project Produces 1st Business

More than just a restaurant opening, La Cocinita’s first day of business Thursday was a tangible measurement of success for an innovative experiment in neighborhood renewal.

The small restaurant on Van Nuys Boulevard is the first for-profit business to emerge from an entrepreneur program at Pacoima Urban Village, a nonprofit organization whose goal is to help community residents help themselves.

“We are right in the heart of Pacoima. My dream is to have this restaurant become a community place, where people can come to meet and get information, and also to eat,” said Elsa Rojas, who started the restaurant with her husband, Ernesto, and another couple, Mario and Cecilia Garay, after completing an entrepreneur course taught at the Village by Mission College instructors.

Now 18 months old, the Village is an extension of the Vaughn Family Center, which has evolved from a loose-knit group of parents who organized to deal with school issues to a vital community resource.

The Village offers parent education, child care, job training, counseling, dental care and many other services to Pacoima residents. Those who receive help are encouraged to give something back.

Rojas, who left at her job as a family advocate at the Village to run La Cocinita, will donate 5% of her profits to the agency.

“Everybody here is excited. They look at it as a child born out of the Village,” said program coordinator Joyce Cooper. “Elsa is the perfect example of what we’re trying to achieve.”

Thursday afternoon City Councilman Richard Alarcon cut the ceremonial ribbon to open La Cocinita, which means “the small kitchen” in English.

“I have been hearing about this opening all over,” said area resident Roger Elliot, who ordered three tacos and was eager to have his five-dollar bill, the restaurant’s first, retired to a place of honor on the wall. “I wanted to get down here right away and sample the food.”