When Nika Shoemaker Machado opened Georgia’s in the Anaheim Packing House 10 years ago, she had no previous restaurant experience.
“When we first started, we had no preconceived ideas. We were new to the restaurant business,” said Machado, a shoemaker.
Georgia’s, a soul food concept serving fried catfish, red beans and rice, and jambalaya based on a family recipe, was an idea inspired by her mother’s delicious home cooking. Machado, a shoemaker, her husband Marlon and her mother, Gretchen, were working at the Small Business Development Center in Santa Ana when they learned of an opportunity to be part of an innovative new two-story food hall in Anaheim.
“Actually, our consultant had another client, and that client ended up being our connection. That client is Adia,” said Machado, a shoemaker.
Adya is an Indian street food restaurant from chef Shachi Mehra and, like Georgia’s, was one of Packing House’s original tenants.
Mehra and her husband, Maneesh Rawat, were looking to open their own restaurant when they contacted Camp in Costa Mesa. Although she didn’t see any vacant stores, she told Mehra about a new store that was slated to open in Anaheim. The couple visited the packing house.
“They’ve got the basic outline done, but sometimes when you walk into the space, you just get a feeling. It feels good,” Mehra said. “It felt right to us. The location felt special.”
In the coming weeks, Anaheim Packing House will celebrate its 10th anniversary, with Georgia’s and Adya being among the vendors also celebrating their 10th year in business.
Georgia’s owner, Nika Shoemaker Machado, stands next to Georgia’s Restaurant in the Anaheim Packing House.
(Don Leach/Staff Photographer)
Anaheim Packing House opened on May 31, 2014, in the 1919 Anaheim Orange and Lemon Assn. Packing House. Nearly 5,000 people attended the food hall’s grand opening. Today, the location remains a thriving business, employing nearly 30 culinary artisans and hosting events such as live music and monthly markets.
“These food halls have evolved into these big gathering places,” says Shaheen Sadeghi, owner of Packing District. “We love the fact that this is an entirely international selection of culinary arts.”
To celebrate its 10th anniversary, Dreamers Market at the Packing House will host a Citrus Carnival from 5-9 p.m. on May 31, featuring Valencia orange-themed vendors paying tribute to the site’s history as a place where Sunkist fruit was washed, sorted and packed. Festivities continue on Saturday, June 1 with a classic car show from noon to 2 p.m., live music by Big Butter Band and a rockabilly revue featuring Anaheim native Amber Fox. Additionally, the Anaheim Historical Society will be conducting guided history tours from 2-4 p.m.
As part of the celebration, Georgia’s will be offering two pieces of chicken and a side for $10 on May 31st, and will also be running another $10 special starting Monday, June 3rd for five days.
Adia will be hosting a special four-course anniversary dinner on May 31st for $125 per person. This dinner will include a combination of new dishes and popular choices that have appeared on the menu over the past few years, including a fan favorite, watermelon chaat, made with fennel. Lobster curry with lime and chat masala. It’s this dish that helped Mehra win the Food Network cooking competition show “Chopped” in 2019.
“Everything on the menu has a story,” Mehra says.
Chef Shachi at the Packing House, filmed for Food Network’s “Chopped.”
(Mona Shah)
Georgia’s and Adya are just two of the original stores still operating in the Packing House. The Blind Rabbit, Black Sheep GCB, Hammer Bar, Popbar, the Kroft, Chippy Fish & Grill, Hans’ Homemade Ice Cream, and The Iron Press all opened in 2014 and are still operating today.
Mehra and Shoemaker Machado acknowledge that the past decade has not been without its challenges. First of all, both companies had to weather the storm of the pandemic.
“COVID brought us to a complete halt and it felt like time stood still,” Shoemaker Machado said. “We were the only store open inside the packing house for many months.”
In 2022, Georgia’s received funding from the Restaurant Cares Resilience Fund through the California Restaurant Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to California restaurants and their employees.
As a chef with experience in fine dining, Mehra said he has to learn when to put on his chef’s hat and when to put on his business owner’s hat.
“Over the course of 10 years, I realized that there is a ‘chef brain’ and an ‘owner brain,’ and that sometimes they want different things,” Mehra said.
Despite the challenges, the two business owners said they are lucky to have found a home at the Packing House. Due to its proximity to Disneyland, there is a constant revolving door of tourists.
“We set up a website in Australia promoting our ribs and told people in Australia that if they went to Disneyland they had to come to us for the ribs,” Shoemaker Machado said. “It was just mind-blowing.”
Mehra said it’s not just the visitors who have contributed to her success, but also the friendships she has made with other vendors at the Packing House.
Spicy crispy chicken sandwich and fries at Georgia’s Restaurant in the Anaheim Packing House.
(Don Leach/Staff Photographer)
“What really made this place special in the beginning was the community of people who started businesses there,” Mehra says. “It’s nice to be in a building where if you run out of salad you can just go across the building and ask someone if they have any salads you can borrow. It’s like a little village.”
The success Adia and Georgia’s have had with Packing House has also allowed the women to expand their business: Georgia’s is set to open a second location this summer at Irvine Spectrum in Orange County, and Mehra launched a line of Spice Girl sauces in 2021, first with a small-batch signature hot sauce, followed by a tomato chutney.
Both are happy with their decision to open a store in Anaheim.
“I know it was a big risk at the time,” Mehra said. “It was a risk for everyone involved because we didn’t know what was going to happen.”
Machado, the shoemaker, said he couldn’t believe they’d made it this far.
“It’s surreal that we’re here with no experience in restaurants and that we’re thriving to this day,” says Machado, a cobbler.
