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The owner of Masa Taqueria food truck is hoping to open a brick and mortar restaurant in downtown Providence. Chef Jonathon Kirk is working on securing a potential spot to launch the business, he just needs to raise the capital in order to make it happen. Kirk has launched a Mainvest campaign to encourage investors to dedicate funds toward the project with the potential for a return on their investment.
Mainvest is a crowdfunding platform that allows the public a safer way to invest in small businesses. Masa Taqueria has an investment target of raising $100,000 in forty-five days, and if the business doesn’t receive this amount by October 6, investors will receive a full refund. But if they do reach their goal, the business is required to share a portion of their revenue, at a rate of a 1.55 return, until investors have been repaid, with a deadline of the year 2031.
“The ideal ROI for people who are investing in this first stage is 1.55 times your investment. In a perfect world, if we pay everything back on the payment schedule, say you invested $1,000, you would be paid back $1,555,” Kirk says. “And when you are paid back that amount, your investment has been returned to you.”
Kirk has his sights set on the former Rosendale location in the Strand building at 55 Union St. in Downcity Providence. He hopes to curate a restaurant serving Spanish and Catalonian style tapas with a Mexican influence. There will be tacos on the menu, but a more elevated style, rather than the birria versions that his food truck is known for. There will also be plated tapas that will showcase Latin American cuisine. Kirk plans to continue to run the food truck at the same time. Masa Taqueria is currently serving tacos Wednesday through Sunday at Rock and Rye in Providence, Moniker Brewery on Wednesday, and the Guild PVD Beer Garden on Friday and Saturday.
Most of the Mainvest campaign funds will be used for the restaurant space’s first month’s rent and security deposit, and the buildout, including equipment and decor. The Data Room on their Mainvest page reveals their plans for using the funding. It also explains the business’s financial forecast for the future and gives a good history of Masa Taqueria’s financial condition and past revenue. It’s up to investors if they are willing to take the risk to help invest in a small business that many say will breathe new life into a vacant spot in downtown Providence.
“People can go to the website and sign up, there are documents they can read over and you can look at our business plan, financial projections, financials from the last two years and they can make a decision whether they want to invest or not,” Kirk says. “Just like any investment, they can go up, they can go down. There’s no guarantee on anything and that’s explained on the platform.”
Kirk further explained how funds will be used to help renovate the interior. “Our plan is to take out the wall in the kitchen so we can open it up and put a chefs’ counter,” Kirk says. “We want to have a raw bar and a ham bar, and offer a couple of different styles of cured hams. There’s the jamón ibérico and jamón serrano that come from Spain. We want to offer a few different styles of that and base the menu around small bites.”
Kirk is hopeful to attract people downtown with an affordable, accessible menu that may also highlight proteins like goat and game. And he’d also like to feed the hungry late night crowd after hours. “We want to be a neighborhood hangout that people can enjoy,” Kirks says. “We want to be open late night because there’s really nothing to eat after 11 p.m. downtown, and I’m hoping we can begin to revitalize that area and get people downtown late night more than just Fridays and Saturday.”
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