5 hours Ago By By ARTURO BOJORQUEZ Editor
EL CENTRO – Although Ursa Restaurant opened its doors a few months ago, on Wednesday evening the Imperial Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce held a grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony. “It feels really good,” said Ursa co-owner June Lopez about the official opening that hosted dozens of customers. “It’s nice to feel so supported by all the elected officials in the community.
I’m glad that the chamber is here to support us to help get the word out.” Since Ursa opened in July, customers have enjoyed everything at the Main Street restaurant, from the food, the décor, and the beverages – a fact that has encouraged owners to keep going. Lopez said the restaurant will remain small for now.
Aaron Lopez, a culinary-trained chef originally from Calexico, has been working in the industry for over 15 years, with dreams of opening his own restaurant. “We were camping out in the desert and we’re just thinking about products and produce that grows out here and that no chef and restaurant is really using any of those products,” June Lopez said of where the idea to open Ursa came from. “It just came to us when we were stargazing and, with his background and his technique, he’s able to take these ingredients that I think a lot of people would maybe discard and turn them into something fantastic.
” The regional restaurant celebrates the desert Southwest by cultivating and utilizing ingredients drawn from its four deserts: the Grand Basin, Mohave, Chihuahua and Sonora, a previous IVP story reads. The 15-item, modern dining menu Ursa offers includes wild boar machaca, corned beef-style venison, cooked quail, and others. June Lopez assured that while the food served at the neighborhood restaurant might be elevated, the ambiance is comfortable and casual.
“You can come and just have a beer and a couple of bites. It’s not intended to be formal by any means,” she said. “We just want our community to come and dine with us.
” El Centro Mayor Sylvia Marroquin said the official opening of Ursa was a much-anticipated event as the unique restaurant brings in the flavors of the local area throughout the desert. “What we’re most proud of is that Aaron and June Lopez selected the city of El Centro to open their very unique restaurant and even more proud that they selected the downtown area because as you know, we’ve been working hard at revitalizing this area,” she said. “Hopefully, this is the beginning of more restaurants and nightlife in the downtown area of El Centro.
” Downtown El Centro – regardless of its issues – has been attracting several businesses lately. Mayor Marroquin said the City just completed its façade improvement program that helped improve the landscape of seven businesses along the Main Street corridor. “We are working diligently to try to bring back the life that the downtown area had once before,” the mayor said.
“Growing up here in North El Centro it was a place that my family and I came to. We would window shop on Main Street as a form of entertainment.” With Ursa and other businesses opening in the area, that atmosphere is coming back in a way with its social setting for people to have something to enjoy.
Mayor Marroquin noted that business openings have not only happened in the downtown area but in other city spots as well – something that is not being seen in other cities around. “It means economic development. It means growth.
It means sustainability for this not only for the businesses but for the city,” the mayor added. “The tax revenues that these businesses generate are a huge portion of our general fund. It’s not only that we encourage entrepreneurs to open businesses, but we are trying very, very hard to make, our community and our staff business-friendly to encourage more business coming into the community as well as home developers.
” For the latter, the city has been working for the last couple of years to help home developers by passing an ordinance to defer impact fees to the end of the project and not at the beginning. “That’s a huge expense for any developer,” the mayor said. “We’re just really working hard at making El Centro very business-friendly.
We’re proud that we’ve accomplished that.”.
