Small restaurants can help rejuvenate areas and serve a vital need in a commuity. Checkout this develpment in northeast Portland, called the "Ocean micro-restaurant collective". We ate at the Pie Shop, 521 NE 24th Avenue. Yumm! We had chicken pot pie, but they also had all types of sweet and savory pies. Around the corner, in the same development are a number of other small restaurants, Slowburger (2319 NE Glisan), 24th and Meatballs, a taqueria: Bibiano's Uno Mas, and a bar. All mini-restaurants with casual outdoor seating. Some of the restaurant storefronts have roll up doors in what looks like small warehouse spaces. This is a great idea for inexpensive development of restaurants. 
According to The Oregonian (Nov 9, 2012 by Michael Russell), this was a $1.45 million dollar project where the eating establishments are bigger than food carts, but smaller than a typical restaurant. Each space is about 600 square feet and purportedly could be built out for $40,000 to $80,000 each. The developer is Kevin Cavenaugh.
