Michelle Cruz is the current entrepreneur-in-residence at the Tigard Public Library’s Opportunity Café business incubator.

Ms. Cruz was selected due to her restaurant operations experience and menu offerings. This is the first time she’ll have an opportunity to run her own café. Ms. Cruz was selected from a field of seven entrepreneurs working with Micro Enterprise Services of Oregon (MESO). She will be the second entrepreneur to benefit from this City of Tigard business incubator which provides two years of support to new entrepreneurs as they start a food-focused business and then launch to a permanent location.

“I’m so excited to open Chilita’s at the Tigard Public Library,” said Michelle Cruz. “I’m ready to start my own business and be the first entrepreneur in my family. The Opportunity Café business incubator can support me as I do that.”

Stop by the Tigard Public Library and welcome Michelle to the Opportunity Cafe. She's named her business Chilitas and she's excited to introduce new foods and beverages to visitors.

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In October 2021, Israel Martinez was the first entrepreneur to launch a business at the Opportunity Café. Martinez named the coffee shop El Cuadrilatero — paying tribute to the times when Israel and his uncle would spend Sundays watching would Lucha Libre professional wrestling. 

Israel traces his dream of owning a restaurant back to 2006, when he began working in the industry with the goal of becoming a chef. From an initial position as a dishwater, his hard work, motivation and dedication helped him move into a job as a prep cook. He continued to work in restaurants when he and his brothers moved to Hawaii. By the time he returned to Portland in 2014, he realized he wanted to use what he had learned to open his own restaurant. He took a big step toward achieving that dream when he attended an information session offered by MESO that outlined the assistance and programs the nonprofit provides.

Israel then went on to take business education classes, including the Business Building series, to gain the knowledge and skills he would need to start a successful business. He worked one-on-one with MESO business specialists, who helped him focus on the exact support he needed for his business. Now Israel is focused on introducing patrons to El Cuadrilátero’s menu of specialty coffee drinks, beverages such as fresh cantaloupe and pineapple water, sandwiches, and pastries from La Imperial Bakery, a minority-owned small business in Hillsboro.