Marin resident Carla Emil is all about job creation. Her latest creation is One Job for America, a website dedicated to the idea of every business in America, great and small, creating one job each to help make the economy stronger.
Emil is a former advertising exec, so she knows something about sales and influencing people. Her husband, Rich Silverstein, is co-chairman of well-known San Francisco ad agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners (the firm behind “Got Milk?”), which gave Emil a hand putting the website together.
A quick check of the website in the beginning of May showed that, so far, the grassroots movement championed by Emil has created 175 jobs. Two of those jobs are from Marin’s Heath Ceramics and Demo Sport.
Emil and Silverstein are getting ready to roll out phase two of the job creation strategy, the hiring of a public relations firm to hype the idea and take it past the word of mouth stage. And the couple is paying for it out of their own pockets.
Who says Marin is anti-business?
Food (and drink) for thought
The Food Channel created the “Great Food Truck Race,” a TV series based on the idea of seven different food trucks selling their dishes in a go-big-or-go-home format for a $50,000 cash prize. And the local angle is that Mill Valley’s Tyler Florence is the host.
So it was only a matter of time before the marketing maniacs at the Golden Gate Bridge District got into the act. Goosed by Marin’s Event Bank to bring the trucks to Golden Gate’s riders, the trucks converge on the Larkspur Ferry Terminal every Friday night from May to September, selling their deliciousness to ferry passengers and the general public.
The district picks up 15 percent of the gross revenues for hosting the event, which helps, since the district is still staring at plenty of red ink as it tries to pay for a suicide barrier and seismic upgrades for the Golden Gate.
The district thinks the food trucks dishing up tidbits will also help non-transit users discover public transportation. Kellee Hopper, marketing and communications director for the district, knows an opportunity when she sees one. She told the Marin IJ, “It demystifies public transit.”
At last, a chance to learn what those big boats are all about.
Speaking of Florence, he now has two places open in the same block in Mill Valley. His kitchen and cooking store has been open for a while and, now, El Paseo “House of Chops” is open on Throckmorton Avenue, and has become a tough ticket. The eatery, co-owned by rocker Sammy Hagar, serves up comfort food with an emphasis on grilled meats. Locals say it could give Bungalow 44, a popular restaurant around the corner, a run for its money.
Novato’s Winery Exchange, always on the lookout for an opportunity to grow, has opened an office on the other side of the sink in London. The exchange, which specializes in creating and marketing brands of wine, beer and spirits for retailers, and which has done business in Europe since 2006, now has an office to better serve that corner of the world.
The Bel Marin Keys-based business actually turned the tables this spring by buying the Echelon Vineyards brand from Diageo Chateu & Estates when Diageo trimmed its catalog.
Onto a different kind of gourmet fare, as Torn Ranch leaves Novato bound for Petaluma. The company that specializes in putting gourmet gift baskets and specialty foods together is moving from a pair of buildings in Marin’s northernmost town into a building on Cypress Drive that’s owned by Mrs. Grossman’s Paper Co.
Torn Ranch is well known for serving a wide variety of retail and wholesale clients across the country, building baskets and trays full of candies, baked treats, dried fruits and nuts. The company has grown through sales off its own website as well as a mail order catalog. It has a strong following in hotels, gift shops and corporate achievement purveyors.
At home in Marin
The Marin Home and Garden Expo runs June 4 and 5 at the Marin Center. This marks the first full year that the Marin Builders Association has owned the show. For 33 years, it was owned and operated by Marin’s Doris Law Bagley & Associates. Bagley helped run things last year to aid the transition.
The show this year has at least 200 exhibitors, with half of those being Marin-based businesses.
The association represents construction and development businesses in Marin and, if ever a trade group required advocacy, it would be developers in Marin. On the mythical scale of the unwelcome around here, developers are just above lawyers and just below the government.
Something smell fishy?
Speaking of the government, the U.S. Department of the Interior released its report of whether the National Park Service at Point Reyes National Seashore fudged its numbers in a study to make the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. operation look bad.
For those of you just tuning in to this particular food fight, Drakes Bay has a lease good until next year to farm oysters in Drakes Estero in the National Seashore, but the company would like to extend the contract. The Park Service wouldn’t. Each side feels quite strongly that it’s in the right, and that the other side is the word that begins with F that I use when describing the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Now you’re all caught up.
At any rate, the Interior Department said the Park Service didn’t commit any criminal activity or scientific misconduct. On the other hand, its members aren’t wearing white hats either. The Park Service eroded public confidence by omitting photos showing the oyster operation didn’t have an impact on harbor seals and wildlife, according to the Interior Department.
Bill Meagher is contributing editor at NorthBay biz. No jobs were lost, no food trucks were damaged and no developers or harbor seals were harmed in the writing of this column. You can reach him at bmeagher@northbaybiz.com.
