The Guerrilla Food Company in downtown Courtenay is closing its frozen food outlet in order to focus on other business ventures, including a new pizzeria on Fifth Street and the launch of a taqueria at the Gladstone Brewing Company.
Jason Uglanica, the business’s owner, says the decision to close down the frozen food store was many months in the making.
“I really love my food business and it was an extremely hard decision over a course of many months to say we weren’t going to do it anymore — to take the pride out of it,” he said. “It’s a weird place to be, to just change gears and change the focus when at the beginning it was so important.
Located on Fifth Street, the Guerrilla Food Company offers high-end TV dinners made with locally produced ingredients. The store, which opened four and a half years ago, will officially close in mid-April.
Until then, the company is liquidating its current inventory.
“Knowing when to say stop is a big deal and it was one of the hardest parts of moving on,” said Uglanica.
Only the frozen food aspect of Guerrilla is calling it quits, however.
Uglanica and his team also run the Guerrilla Pizzeria, which operates out of the Gladstone Brewing Company, on Fourth Street.
Starting in mid-April, the pizzeria will transition from its current space at Gladstone to a new location at 444 Fifth Street, while a taqueria will take the pizzeria’s place at the brewery.
The new pizzeria is expected to open within three months, says Uglanica, with the taco stand at Gladstone opening immediately after.
“I want to be open in June,” he said, of the new pizzeria. “The lease will be signed in the next couple of days. I’m figuring six to eight weeks from the middle of the month. That’s working fast and having everything lined up. That would be ideal.”
While the pizzeria at Gladstone was popular, Uglanica thinks a taco stand will actually fare better for the brewery than pizza did.
“As much as they love the pizza, I think pizza is more of a sit-down and dine experience,” he said. “The way I view it is that pizzas are daunting if you’re just one person, and we don’t do slices. They want to have a smaller bite, and tacos are kind of a response to that. You can have one or two or three, and it’s at a price point that’s somewhat more reasonable.
“I think it will actually provide more people coming in [to Gladstone] for lunches and more people coming in for late nights.”
The Guerrilla Food Company is located at 534 Fifth Street.
