Akitso

05/11/2026

A growing number of San Diego food spots are changing how customers experience their space. 🎨

Local merch corners are creating good vibes and creative business strategy:

🤌 Artists get visibility
🤌 Businesses get an extra income stream
🤌 Customers get a reason to linger (and come back)

But that's just one piece of a bigger picture. Collabs between small businesses are one of the most powerful (and underused) tools for growing your brand without a big budget.

We broke down how to actually make it happen in our newest journal entry. Link in bio. 👆

05/08/2026

Behind many of San Diego’s favorite small businesses are mothers building something meaningful through food, culture, and community ❤️

From family recipes passed down through generations to restaurants rooted in care and connection, mom-owned businesses bring so much more to the table than just a great meal. They reflect resilience, creativity, passion, and the hard work happening behind the scenes every single day.

This week, we’re celebrating some of the local mothers helping shape San Diego’s food scene one dish, story, and business at a time, including:

✨ .pupusas
✨
✨

Support local. Support mom-owned businesses. Support the people pouring heart into what they create.

04/08/2026

Happy Earth Month! 🌱🤝 A reminder that small changes in your restaurant can make a big difference - for the planet and your business.

Here are a few simple places to start:

Swap styrofoam for recyclable or compostable packaging
Encourage customers to bring their own to-go containers
Start a simple composting practice in the kitchen
Order smarter — food forecasting tools can cut waste and costs
Donate surplus food to a local food rescue program

Your customers notice the effort. And so does the planet. 🌍
Read the full guide on sustainable habits for indie restaurants - link in bio!

01/29/2026

Your menu is doing more work than you think!
It’s listing food AND shaping decisions, expectations, and pretty much the entire dining experience.

In our latest journal post, we break down visual rhetoric in menu design:

➡️ how layout, hierarchy, color, and imagery influence how customers order

➡️ why clarity matters along with aesthetics

➡️ and how one small menu change helped an Akitso client increase sales on specific items

If you’re a food business owner thinking about refreshing your menu, this one’s for you!

🔗 Link in bio to read
(or save this for later)

04/09/2025

On our first ever interview 👀
We’re sitting down with the folks behind food places—starting with Gibrán Huerta (aka G), founder of .hifi, and probably your friend if you’ve ever stopped by more than once.

G shares how LONGPLAY was a long time in the making, his personal philosophy on hospitality, and why it’s all about staying open to magic happening.

✨ Read the full story on our blog—link in bio. Already a fan of LONGPLAY? What’s your go-to drink on the menu?
And if this made you think of a fellow coffee (or community) lover—send it their way 🤍

01/06/2025

2025 is here, and as we dive into this fresh start, we’re taking a moment to reflect on the year behind us. Spoiler alert: we’re feeling immensely grateful. Happy New Year to you and yours!

2025 is here, and as we dive into this fresh start, we’re taking a moment to reflect on the year behind us. Spoiler alert: we’re feeling immensely grateful.

11/02/2024

POV: You move to a new country 54 years young. You don’t have much money and you don’t speak their language. You find work and little by little you make a life out of here.

💀🎉 Celebrating Día de los Mu***os by honoring my grandmother, born 100 years ago. She made the brave leap from Thailand to the U.S. in the 70s, opening doors for her children (to open 2 separate Thai restaurant doors in the Bay Area) 🍲✨

Akitso wouldn’t be here without her or the generations before her—each one with their own wild ride of struggles, joys, and triumphs that have shaped who I am today. Their grit, love, and culture flow through me, and I’m forever grateful. 🙏🌸

So, today, I light a candle not just for Grandma, but for ALL my ancestors. They’re with me every day in the work I do, the food I love, and the mission behind Akitso. 💪💫 Let’s keep honoring those who paved the way for us to stand tall and keep pushing boundaries!

What’s your story? How should we honor it?

***os

09/06/2024

We’re thrilled to announce that Akitso is partnering with San Diego State's Masters of City Planning Program’s Intro to Urban Design Studio class this fall! 🥳🥰 Together, we’ll explore how to incorporate community into design processes, figuring out best practices that uplift and empower underserved restaurant owners. 🌱🍽️

Even more exciting, is the upcoming participation from fellow community organizations! — imagining a room full of devoted, passionate community advocates… 🤩🙌🏽🤭

This collaboration, is a step toward building stronger, more resilient communities through thoughtful design and support for local businesses. We can’t wait to see the impact we create together! 💡

08/08/2024

"Give me calloused hands and tender hearts."

We encourage all to be authentic through their work, to embrace rest and play, and to always keep dreaming. We are taking a step to grow our community of dreamers and promoting genuine cultural exchange through our love of joining people together, connection, support, and of course, food.

06/20/2024

is an ever-changing tableau. It’s different people for different reasons at different points in time. In honor of 🩵 National Immigrant Heritage Month 💛 (just a few days left!), here's a condensed and abbreviated timeline of immigration and relocation to the US. Our history has always been shaped by peoples and communities who came to its shores or moved within its borders. Let us continue shaping an that shares its abundance with all.

*Kumeyaay Land Acknowledgement: Akitso acknowledges that the land on which our team is able to work, rest and play, is the land that carries the footsteps of millennia of Kumeyaay people. They are a people whose traditional lifeways intertwine with a worldview of earth and sky in a community of living beings. This land is part of a relationship that has nourished, healed, protected and embraced the Kumeyaay people to the present day. It is part of a world view founded in the harmony of the cycles of the sky and balance in the forces of life. We find inspiration in the Kumeyaay spirit to open our minds and hearts.

Sources: sandiego.gov/sites/default/files/timeline_of_immigration_to_the_us.pdf, Free Library of Philadelphia, and One Book One Philadelphia.
Images from Library of Congress and Wikimedia Commons.