When Ivan Uranga decided to shut the door on a 14-year office job to own his own business, the chicken sandwiches game in Gilroy was wide open. Today, two and a half years after opening Macaco Spicy Chicken Sandwiches, competition is fierce since Chick-fil-A and others moved into the niche.
Fortunately for small businesses like Uranga’s, his was among more than 150 Bay Area eateries receiving a $5,000 grant meant to help small businesses invest in equipment and long-term stability.
The grants come from a partnership between the California Restaurant Foundation and The PG&E Corporation Foundation through the foundation’s Restaurants Care Resilience Fund. The two organizations gave $5,000 grants to 239 restaurants and commercial caterers across 30 counties in PG&E’s service area, totaling $1.4 million.
The grants are reserved for California resident restaurant owners with fewer than five locations and less than $3 million in annual revenue, with priority given to minority- and women-owned businesses, according to PG&E. Recipients can use the money for equipment and technology upgrades, unforeseen hardship, employee retention bonuses or staff training.
“Many of these restaurants are owned by families who live in our communities,” Jeremy Howard, PG&E’s regional senior manager for the South Bay and Central Coast Region, said in a statement. “They are places where we love to gather, celebrate and make memories.”
For Uranga, the money will go toward a new fryer, which will allow him to offer sweet potato fries without slowing down every other order. Under his current setup, a single sweet potato fries order ties up an entire fryer basket, pushing back wait times for other customers.
A third fryer, which he estimated will cost between $1,000 and $2,000, will let him dedicate one basket to the item, he said. The rest of the grant will cover the plumbing and permitting required to install it, plus other bills.
Uranga opened Macaco in February 2024, his first restaurant, after leaving a manufacturing job where he spent his final years as director of operations. It was sparked by the idea of offering chicken sandwiches at multiple spice levels: No Spice, Mild, Hot, Fire, Spicy and R.I.P. He said the highest level, R.I.P., is far too intense for most customers, but that he has one regular who routinely orders it.
Uranga—who employs two people at Macaco—applied for the grant online after a PG&E representative visited the restaurant and left him a flyer. The application took about 20-30 minutes and required bank statements, a handful of short-answer questions and a photo of his team.
“It was pretty easy,” he said.
Macaco Spicy Chicken Sandwiches is located at 1280 First Street, Suite F.
Other Santa Clara County recipients include Amber India Commercial in Los Altos, City Pizza in Campbell, La Veracruzana Restaurant in Santa Clara and KushiTsuru in Morgan Hill, among others.
