Maketto

Hey what's going on my name is Eric Bergerying, today we're at my restaurant McKenna w So we kind of, I t At the time when we opened, there was actually no coffee shop between here and the 4th street block so almost, We had the retail component, we had this amazing Taiwanese Cambodian food, we wanted a place that aesthetically felt Asian but didn't have any Asian motifs or drawings or art or anything A lot of people ask why do you have the retail in front of the building. It's really to play to that It should continue to exist here if you wanted to make it a prominent feature. I'm not from the DC area but originally from Taiwan but I've been in this area since 2000 even longer maybe Yeah, I t Since the pandemic we've been actually sub-leasing t He calls t He was having a hard time finding a physical space and we had already developed t So this is Downstairs we have a collection, a Maketo collection that some ex-employees designed for us when they decided they didn't want to work in F&B anymore and they met through here and they launched a design studio and they did one of their first projects with the collection for t So I t We start with the people that work here and then it kind of grows out where they work. Yeah, we literally built this main building, we call it the main building, this used to be kind of The courtyard was a complete disarray and the back was actually a So we combined all three blocks into one unit and then we download everyt And what I touched about in the beginning is we wanted to have t And it also would play to an Asian aesthetic without being over-intentioned. I actually t I feel The artists always seem to be younger. They remind me a lot of myself when I was still figuring out what my final voice would be. And so I t Maybe it would be the artist's way to say it. I don't really put a label on it. Maybe other people do, maybe other people don't. I just try to be a good friend to people that need them and that's how I always approach t I don't But I think everyone experiences tra We look at the world much differently. We look at the work much differently. And I t And that makes it unfortunate, everyt Having to address all of these systemic issues in t But I t It's a collective purpose and I today on A-Street for a long time, I've had up to three businesses wit I don't But I'm also very happy with where it's at right now. I t For a long time, everyone thought everyt What's really happened more towards where the whole truth is. So I really We'd love more businesses to come in. There's a lot of making properties. We'd love more businesses to come in and push us to the next phase of t But I'm also very grateful. I t I don't But I t It will be in 10 years or 15 years in mind. Hopefully someone else will either take the mantle and take it to the next level. But I t I'm excited to see what we're doing. My name is Eric Bridger Yang and t I'm a big fan of Peketa.