{"id":28507,"date":"2017-08-02T16:30:56","date_gmt":"2017-08-02T20:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom2\/2017\/08\/02\/looking-for-food-entrepreneur-to-replace-coco-rays\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T17:10:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T21:10:43","slug":"looking-for-food-entrepreneur-to-replace-coco-rays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2017\/08\/02\/looking-for-food-entrepreneur-to-replace-coco-rays\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking for Food Entrepreneur to Replace Coco Ray\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2017\/08\/Coco-Rays.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-16166\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2017\/08\/Coco-Rays-300x250.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" \/><\/a>For the past ten months, Coco Rays has been dishing up delicious tacos, burritos, and quesadillas\u2014at very affordable prices\u2014 for Northern Essex Community College students, faculty, and staff, and the community out of the Revolving Test Kitchen (RTK) located at 420 Common St.<\/p>\n<p>Owner Ray Gonzalez is now looking for permanent space for a full-scale restaurant in Lawrence, and the search is on for a new food entrepreneur to replace Coco Ray\u2019s, beginning as early as December of this year.\u00a0 Coco Rays plans to remain open at NECC, Monday through Saturday, 10:30 am to 9 pm, and Sunday, 11 am to 7 pm, until the search is completed.<\/p>\n<p>A partnership between, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.necc.mass.edu\/\">Northern Essex Community College<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lupolicompanies.com\/#developingsignaturebrands\">Lupoli Companies<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lawrencepartnership.org\/\">the Lawrence Partnership<\/a>, and the city of Lawrence, the Revolving Test Kitchen was created to provide an opportunity for budding restaurant entrepreneurs to build their business with the expectation that they will eventually open in Lawrence, contributing to the city\u2019s economic development.<\/p>\n<p>In less than one year, and with help from the RTK partners, Ray Gonzalez has turned Coco Rays, a former restaurant food truck business, into a brick and mortar destination for many in Lawrence.\u00a0 He received help with branding, marketing, business development, food production planning, finance, accounting, and developing a solid business plan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe college is so proud to be part of this,\u201d said Lane Glenn, NECC President.\u00a0 \u201cHaving Coco Rays on campus satisfied a need for delicious, affordable campus food, and, at the same time, we\u2019re helping a really deserving entrepreneur to get his start.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Food entrepreneurs interested in learning more about this opportunity, can visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lawrencepartnership.org\/rtkapply\">website.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>With campuses in Haverhill and Lawrence, Northern Essex Community College offers over 60 associate degree and certificate programs as well as hundreds of noncredit courses designed for personal enrichment and career growth.\u00a0 Each year, 8,500 students are enrolled in credit associate degree and certificate programs on the Haverhill and Lawrence campuses; and another 2,600 take noncredit workforce development and community education classes on campus, and at businesses and community sites across the Merrimack Valley.\u00a0 For more information, visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.necc.mass.edu\/\">website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the past ten months, Coco Rays has been dishing up delicious tacos, burritos, and quesadillas\u2014at very affordable prices\u2014 for Northern Essex Community College students, faculty, and staff, and the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":28509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - 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