Smoke / Southside Cafe

Often referred to as Smoke, they joined PCV’s lending program last year. Smoke is in the restaurant industry; they started as a catering service and recently opened a café in Napa, California, called Southside Café. Through PCV’s BusinessAdvising.org, Smoke was matched with Brooke Bailey, CFA and Consulting Director of Valuation Services at Burr, Pilger & Mayer. The combination of capital and advising is yielding results both for Smoke and their employees. 

Smoke is a woman- and Latina-owned business that provides its employees a living wage, career-building opportunities, and wealth-building opportunities. In terms of helping employees advance their careers, not only does Smoke offer 16-hours-per-year of employee training and reimburses employees for the cost of obtaining career-related credentials, but they also hire internally, allowing employees to grow their career.

In 2016, Smoke grew their revenue 58% from the year before. They also created these quality jobs while growing from 5 employees in 2015 to 17 employees at the end of 2016. Based on these results, Smoke received a second loan from PCV in 2017, and we’re excited to be a part of their continued growth and quality job creation.

In the time they’ve worked with PCV they’ve grown from a catering company to a full cafe that’s achieved a low-key cult status in wine country for its all-day breakfast. They are trying to build a business where people can build on their goals, which starts with a living wage. In 2019, things were going great and they’d opened their third location in just over three years. When COVID hit, Southside had to temporarily close all of their locations for the safety of their team, pivot away from events and catering and begin offering delivery and curbside pickup.

Southside has always wanted to create good growth opportunities for real talented employees. They even had to remove dental and vision benefits for a period of time to stay afloat, but these benefits are now coming back as they look to the future. Their team understood, and having workers so invested in the company made surviving 2020 possible. “It really took everyone working together to give ourselves the best opportunity to survive,” said co-owner Morgan. “That was one positive – everyone was in this together.”

Could your small business benefit from free advice or a fair and affordable loan? PCV can help. Learn more about our advising program or our loan program.