Pampas Café Becomes Chamber of Commerce’s 300th Member

(l to r) Chamber executive director Gary Slate, Pampas owner Pablo Vergera, Chamber president Todd Anglin, and Chamber VP Gary Howard at Pampas Cafe.

On Thursday, the Castro Valley and Eden Area Chamber of Commerce celebrated its 300th membership with the addition of Pampas Café.

Recently relocated to its new location on Redwood Road next to Trader Joe’s, Pampas offers a selection of coffee, food, beer, and wine. Their specialty is empanadas. Patrons can also enjoy live music in the evenings, which is often performed by artists affiliated with Smalltown Society.

“We dreamed of building a place not only with high-quality food, but we hoped to create a space where everyone feels welcome and safe. I think we are getting there,” said owner Pablo Vergara, who, along with his wife Shannon, has built a unique community gathering place.

Adding Pampas brings the Chamber membership to 300 members, up from 220 a year ago.

“We welcome Pampas to the Chamber and love seeing all the great things they are accomplishing in their new space,” said President Todd Anglin. “This is a terrific milestone for the Chamber. More members mean the Chamber can do its job even better in connecting and growing local businesses.  We are on a serious growth spree right now as the pandemic is mainly behind us, and our businesses are rebounding and excelling.”

Anglin adds that the job of the Chamber is to promote the economic well-being of the business community in the unincorporated areas. In doing so, it also improves the entire community. They accomplish this through many activities. They promote businesses through ribbon cuttings and mixers. They sponsor community events like the Fall Festival, Fam Fest, and Light Parade. They offer developmental classes on topics of interest to the business and greater community. Some activities are less obvious but work behind the scenes to help promote our business economy.

The Chamber board of directors just completed its first annual retreat in years to plan for improving their business impact even further next year. They target areas with fewer members and look beyond their traditional activities for new ways to support economic development. For example, they are deeply involved in revising the Castro Valley Downtown specific plan. That plan is the key to the next 20-plus years of development of Castro Valley.

“We have had a good year for many reasons,” said Board Chair-Elect Janella Anguiano. “We have very stable finances, new offices, a great full-time staff, and a terrific board. I hope we will be celebrating 400 members at this point next year.”

More information about Pampas Café can be found at www.pampascafe.com, and more information about the Chamber is at www.edenchamber.com.