Home restaurants are supposed to help entrepreneurs. In one Bay Area county, half have closed. “You can’t live a feasible lifestyle just on a MEHKO,” Nancy Chang said, referring to Micro-Enterprise Home Kitchen Operations, the official term for home restaurants. This is a common situation among Bay Area cooks who decide to operate a restaurant out of their homes — a business model that has helped many immigrants and low-income people of color earn a living for years, despite it not being legal until recently. The issue gained steam during the pandemic, when many laid-off chefs served food out of their homes in order to make ends meet, then got shut down by county officials. Now, some home restaurant operators are questioning whether the strict regulations and financial realities are worth the trouble. Read more with the link in our bio. 📸: @aweilo