Maker’s Common is a combined eatery and retail market, located in Downtown Berkeley, from the team that created the popular Mission Cheese restaurant in San Francisco. The restaurant is opening in 2017, and the team’s plan for the space is to have — of course — tons of cheese, plus charcuterie, wine, bread, and beer to go. The restaurant portion will be in line with the offerings at Mission Cheese, but with an expanded in-house charcuterie program, family-style dinners, and more.
At the core of their business is the community of Bay Area makers that the team seeks to support as vital to the economic, environmental, and social health of our country for a multitude of reasons. By sourcing almost exclusively from this community of small responsible producers, Maker’s Common advances healthier eating, more responsible land management, more economically resilient communities, more connected communities, and diversity in opportunities for working people.
Many of the small producers that Maker’s Common supports can’t work with big chains because they don’t meet the volume required by those kinds of restaurants and grocery stores. Many of these small producers are struggling financially and the continued support of this community is vital to the resurgence of the small agricultural producer fabric that we have seen develop in America over the last decade.
As they do with Mission Cheese, Maker’s Common will operate with open book finance and profit sharing. They really believe in PCV’s mission of quality jobs: they pay living wages, allow all staff complete access to company finances and the operation of the company, and to learn the ways of small business on a friendly, supportive playing field. This helps those that want to advance in the business have access to the information that allows them to do so.
We’re thrilled to be working with Maker’s Common, and to help them advance more equitable opportunity for working people.