San Diego's Kroran Uyghur Cuisine Launches GoFundMe To Assist With Financial Hardship

May 19, 2022

San Diego's 4-year-old Kroran Uyghur Cuisine is seeking community assistance and has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help with ongoing financial hardship stemming from the pandemic. 

Kroran Uyghur Cuisine opened in mid-2018 within Liberty Park Plaza a stone's throw from the Clairemont DMV in San Diego's Clairemont neighborhood. Pronounced "WEE-goor", Uyghur refers to a mostly-Muslim, Turkic ethnic culture native to Xinjiang, an enormous region in the westernmost part of China between Mongolia and Tibet that was an important area along the historic Silk Road between China and the Middle East. Known as San Diego's only Uyghur restaurant, Kroran Uyghur Cuisine was purchased right before the pandemic in early 2020 by Azimat Ghayret and family. 

"Our family took over Kroran Uyghur Cuisine in January 2020, right before the global pandemic started," explains Ghayret in his GoFundMe campaign. "In the past two years, through all the mental and financial difficulties and challenges the pandemic had brought us, our team/family worked extremely hard to introduce our food culture to the San Diego Community while maintaining the quality and originality of our cuisine. We take pride in our genuine Uyghur-style family meals, from only using hand-slaughtered halal meat produce to avoiding any kinds of MSG/food additives and unnatural chemical food substances. We only want to serve what we have grown up within our Uyghur family homes. We are incredibly grateful to receive many positive feedbacks, support and acceptance within the community. We wouldn’t have survived the pandemic without you all. We appreciate you from the bottom of our hearts."

Kroran Uyghur Cuisine ownership has launched its GoFundMe campaign with the goal of raising $50,000, which they will use to pay back rent and utilities. The restaurant remains open and operating under normal hours. Kroran Uyghur Restaurant serves traditional, central Asian-style Turkic/Uyghur food, a rare cuisine that includes hand-pulled laghman noodle dishes, dumplings, roasted kebabs, stews, and rice bowls, along with new modern varieties influenced by cooking styles of neighboring cultures.  

"The landlord and Utility company has been accommodating in the past two years by waiving late charges and not raising the rent," continued Ghayret in his GoFundMe campaign. "Given that, the landlord is giving us one last chance to settle our debt and keep our business open. We must pay the balance of rent plus utilities ( $50,000 ) by January 2023 to renew our lease or face permanent closure. If we make the payment, we will be able to continue with a five-year lease agreement. Any money raised will help us with subsequent rent/utilities to give us time to get on our feet. It would be a heartbreaking and significant loss for the community to lose Kroran- the mark of the existence of Uyghur culture in the San Diego community."

Kroran Uyghur Cuisine is located at 4310 Genesee Avenue in San Diego's Clairemont community. For more information, visit kroransd.com.