Real local businesses, real founders, and the stories behind the storefronts — from a nearly 80-year-old Oakland kitchen to a two-person roofing company that's changing how Redding thinks about repairs.
A locally owned company is convincing homeowners across the North State that rejuvenating a roof beats replacing it.
A 10,000-square-foot collaborative shop on Pine Street is betting that Redding shoppers want local over big-box.
George V. Arth & Son is believed to be the oldest auto body shop west of the Mississippi — six generations in, on the same Chinatown corner.
The oldest family-owned business in San Diego now stocks more than 7,000 knobs and 4,000 hinges — a long way from washboards and ice boxes.
Handmade tortillas, unchanged sauces, and a loyal neighborhood clientele that spans generations.
The East Sacramento grocer's 1970s ravioli machine still runs daily — and the kitchen staff has strong feelings about it.
Founded in 1876, the store's original owner invented the Fresno Scraper, a tool now recognized as a direct ancestor of the modern bulldozer blade.
What started in a small North County warehouse in 1996 grew into one of the country's most influential independent breweries.
Four friends with no retail experience opened a children's bookstore in Willow Glen — and once hosted J.K. Rowling before anyone needed to book a hall.
Three decades in, The Kitchen is still run by the same family that opened it in 1991 — now with a Michelin star.
The downtown Long Beach Italian restaurant's staff has an average tenure of 24 years, even after the building itself had to be rebuilt.
Fifty years on, the deli that grew out of a neighborhood grocery store is still family-run.
Founded in 1936, it predates the tech industry that now surrounds it by decades.
Founded by Dan Salas, the company has grown into Southern California's best-known whale watching operator.
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