Calientes celebrates ten years with nonprofits

Calientes California Style Burrito Shop, located at 6255 Zebulon Road, recently celebrated
10 years of rolling burritos and helping local charities of the Macon community.
Calientes officially celebrated its 10th anniversary from Sept. 10 to the 14 by helping a different local charity every day. The theme of the week was “Local business for local charities.” The restaurant supported a different charity each day and a portion of their proceeds went to the local philanthropy.
The restaurant opened on Sept. 12 of 2002 and was the first of its kind located in Macon. It originally started hosting fundraisers to help schools. Later on, the restaurant branched out and supported charities around the Macon community.
“It’s the right thing to do, I want to help out,” said Cal Garretson, owner and manager of
Calientes. Garretson graduated from Mercer’s Business School in 1999 and became an investment banker in Atlanta. When he moved back to Macon, he opened Calientes to give back to the community.
“We have always tried to do what we could to help the community. It is part of my responsibility to be a good corporate citizen,” said Garretson.
Throughout the week, Calientes celebrated and supported the work of five local non-profit organizations. 10 percent of all proceeds from collected receipts were donated to The Arc Macon, Middle Georgia Down Syndrome Society, Jay’s HOPE Foundation, Campus Clubs of Macon, and Young Life Macon.
The restaurant helps and supports schools and local charities during the year by hosting different fundraising events. They partner up with different organizations and have a gift card program where the charities keep a percentage of the profit.
Calientes also has certain nights throughout the year to dedicate a portion of the proceeds in the store back to the featured philanthropy of that day.
Right now, the shop is looking to start selling franchises to expand the business and the concept of giving back to the community. The manager expressed that their main goal is to start selling franchises and teaching people how to run a business like Calientes.
On its 10th anniversary, Calientes celebrates its success and keeps welcoming anyorganization that would want their support.
“We are trying to be a good corporate citizen of Macon and if there are ever any groups that would like to partner up and work with us, we would welcome the opportunity to help them and help support their organization as well,” said the Garretson.