Mo's Chowder, a family business

Mo's Chowder, a family business to cherish

Newport, Oregon: In this episode of the show, we continue our walk down the Main Streets of America to see how one person with a vision has transformed the town where she was born and where she has chosen to stay. Life here is so rich with the intangibles that even her children have returned to this little seaport town and are helping to build the business and family legacy.

Here you find an extraordinary employer-employee partnership.

Our cities and towns are looking more and more alike because big business tends to homogenize. Entrepreneurs diversify. They reach into their soul to find something new. Wherever Cindy McEntee opens a restaurant along the coast of Oregon, she adds uniqueness, personality and charm.  Mo's is an icon on the West Coast, and it is just a chowder house.

But this is also a place where over 200 people (during high season) will generate $3.5 million in annual sales. It is a home away from home. And, it has become a destination eating place. It is Mo's Chowder. And, the person who made her grandmother's "business" a business is Cindy McEntee.

Cindy McEntee came to our attention because she was the state of Oregon's Small Business Person of the Year. Then, when we looked further, we found many more awards and citations. To be selected as the study for a show, a business must come up on everyone's list as being " ... loved by their community and respected within their industry."

We first met Cindy in the White House in June of 2001 when she was named Oregon's Small Business Person of the Year and she was the first runner up for the National Small Business Person of the Year award.

From a little joint on a narrow little street to the big White House on Pennsylvania Avenue, we discover how a fisherman's hangout becomes a national treasure.