Local Restaurant Awarded $20,000 DoorDash Grant

Koko’’s Mediterranean Cafe, whose struggles to stay open in the later stages of the pandemic were chronicled here back in January, has been awarded one of twenty-five $20,000 grants from the inaugural DoorDash Main Street Strong Accelerator program, it was announced today.

Koko’s is the only restaurant in Pasadena to be awarded one of the grants.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity,” said family matriarch Sosy Bogharian, who along with her husband, Krikor, affectionately nicknamed “Koko,” founded the restaurant 24 years ago.

“I think it’s a great thing that they’re doing to help not only what’s been lost for this whole year for a bunch of restaurants,” she said. “but also to provide something that is super useful too, and  to provide all these resources and coaching. The whole program is going to help us get back on our feet after being kicked down for this whole year.”

The selected participants in the Greater Los Angeles area employ an average of 12 employees across their locations.

The program was created in partnership with Accion Opportunity Fund (AOF), a leading national nonprofit small business lender and support organization.

The Accelerator program  is a new initiative designed to provide financial support and specialized educational resources to women-, immigrant- and people of color-owned restaurants, which have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Along with the $20,000 grants, the selected restaurant owners will also participate in an 8-week restaurant operator course which includes  hands-on mentorship and small business advising.

Participants were selected because “they have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to their communities and shared a clear, actionable plan of how they’d use the resources from this program,” according to a statement.

Nearly 90% of the nonprofit’s small business clients are women, immigrants, and people of color.

For Bogharian, the pandemic was a constant struggle to keep the doors open.

It got to a point,” she said,  “where it was, we take out of our own pockets and keep this thing going for the sake of our own family. Because it is a family business, and for the sake of our employees, because they’re like our families too, so we couldn’t turn our backs on them either.”

By January, the family had, sadly and ironically,  gotten quite good at filling out grant applications.

Said Bogharian, “I was like, this sounds great. I’m putting in all the info they asked for, and within a month, I got the congratulations email.”

According to Bogharian, the funds will be used to keep day-to-day operations going and trying to sustain the process of going forward.

“I’m sure all the restaurants are in the same position, just bleeding money, …so we will be catching up on debt, and making sure our payroll stays,” said Bogharian. “We want to keep our employees and, we need to keep buying everything we need to buy to create the food that we love to serve everybody.”

As with any family business, every high and low point is shared by all and taken to heart, good or bad, says Bogharian.

“Our passion and our goal,” she said,  “has always been to be a wonderful place to come and to eat and enjoy your food and enjoy the atmosphere. This was a passion project between me and my husband. We started it 24 years ago, bringing in all the recipes that we had since we were kids watching our moms in the kitchen. Everything we do is homemade, and made with love, and it continues that way. And we want to be able to continue that for another 24 or plus years.”

Koko’s Mediterranean Cafe is at 273 Shoppers Lane, Pasadena, CA. Delivery is available through Grubhub and DoorDash. Open Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Open Saturday, 11-3 p.m. Closed Sunday. Kokosmediterraneancafe.com. (626) 793-8844.