Margaret and William Mojica are infusing Chicago’s West Side with vision and creativity through their company, Kingdom Business Builders, the parent company of several ventures including the Artist Room Café (ARC).
“I’ve always been into arts and entertainment.” Margaret said of why they opened ARC, located at 5125 W. Madison St. “It was supposed to be about the arts with open mic and live music and stuff like that. The cafe part just kind of slipped in and never left. We have a breakfast and lunch menu and have entertainment on special nights.”
Their Picture Perfect Hair Studio, a salon that blends beauty, style and wellness, opened about six years ago, before the ARC.
Splitting the responsibilities between the salon and the ARC, William runs the cafe while Margaret runs the hair salon.
“I learned the basics on how to cook from my mother,” William said. “I served 18 years in the army and ran an EOD [explosive ordinance disposal] team who were from all over the country. Whenever we had downtime, I figured out a way to satisfy their hunger.”
William describes his dishes as home cooked. The ARC’s breakfast menu includes sausages, eggs, potatoes, pancakes, French toast. Their lunch menu includes their popular Caribbean chicken sandwich.
“It’s chicken breast seasoned the way I grew up eating it,” William said. “It’s pan seared and I put it on a craft bagel with lettuce and tomatoes, mayonnaise and two types of cheese. It’s delicious.”
Of Puerto Rican heritage, William’s Caribbean steak sandwich is also on the lunch menu.
“It’s a thinly sliced ribeye slow cooked in stewed onions,” he explained. “It’s super tender and served on French bread with lettuce and tomatoes. We also have basic lunch items like cheese burgers, chicken and steak tacos and deli sandwiches. Most of our menu items are made from scratch and each meal is cooked fresh.”
On the entertainment side, it’s usually the poets and other performers who reach out to the Mojicas, asking to hold open mics and other events at the Artist Room.
“Sometimes I’ll reach out to certain people I know and be like ‘hey we want you to come and do this event for us,’” Margaret said. “A few people locally have blessed the Artist Room Cafe with their presence. Cover bands that play all over Chicago have been here.”
Former Deathrow artist/actor, Danny Boy is one of the biggest entertainers associated with the ARC.
“He homed us so he’s the biggest one and just other local people,” Margaret said.
In spite of the challenges and disinvestment on the West Side, the couple continues to operate their businesses at those locations because it’s where they grew up.
“I have this thing where I’m like, ‘I’m going to be the one that’s going to make the West Side great and my community great,’” Margaret said. “To be honest it’s hard staying on the West Side. We definitely want to grow. It’s not that we want to leave the West Side but I feel like what we have is bigger than where we are, and we need a space to house what we want to offer.”
The couple would like to expand the ARC’s menu items along with the entertainment. There’s also the challenge of some people not wanting to come to that area which the couple said affects business.
The Mojicas have run their businesses on that corner of Madison for 12 years.
In addition to their for-profit ventures, they give back to the community in a big way.
“For 12 years on the Sunday before Thanksgiving we open our doors and feed [more than 200] people who walk in,” William said. “We feed them out of our own pockets. Just like what we eat at home, they get turkey, ham, fried chicken, Puerto Rican rice, greens and dressing. Everything you can imagine for Thanksgiving at home.”
Also, the Mojicas also hold a back-to-school event where they give away school supplies.
“Before COVID we shut down the block on Leamington and Madison and held a block party where we had seniors at Columbia College design clothes,” William said. “We had actresses and models model the clothes in the middle of the street as we gave away food and school supplies. This year is number 12 for us so we’re not going anywhere anytime soon.”
To help their businesses along, the Mojicas are trying to apply for small business grants and set up a meeting with Ald. Jason Ervin (28th Ward) to discuss a few things.
The Mojicas plan to do more promotion to get the word out about their businesses.
“Realistically, our daily customers come from outside the neighborhood by accident,” William said. “People are getting off the expressway and they Google coffee and we come up so that’s how we’re getting a lot of our customers. We get more outside customers than we do local customers at times.”
In addition to the cafe, the Mojicas also run a catering business.
“Our catering is fully customizable,” William explained. “We can create any menu you can think of. I’ve catered for Chicago Bulls College Prep High School. They had a Caribbean style lunch with Puerto Rican rice, Caribbean steak and chicken, fried plantains and salad.”
Soul food catering is also available with the usual items like fried chicken, baked or fried catfish, baked macaroni and cheese, etc.
“I’ve also catered for different nonprofits with multiple different trays of sandwiches,” William said. “It just depends on what kind of menu you want. We can create it.”
Beyond their brick-and-mortar businesses, the Mojicas are the driving force behind Mojica Media House, producing independent films, stage plays and other multimedia projects. The couple is currently filming a proof of concept for a vampire television series, “Shadows, Chicago’s Underworld.”
Their mission, they said, is to create spaces and stories that inspire, uplift and connect communities.
