CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — You might have seen them popping up in shop windows or in restaurants downtown, signs that read, 'This is Corpus.'
It's a campaign started by small businesses as a way to let others know that they take pride in calling Corpus Christi home.
The eye-catching phrase can be spotted in the window of the future site of the new Marty McPies.
Owner Martin Flores gave 3NEWS a sneak peek inside.
He first starting selling pizza out of his food truck and found success. He is now turning it into a brick and mortar business at the Best Western on Shoreline Blvd. It's set to open this summer.
He said he first saw the signs at other small businesses and wanted in.
"I just thought it was a cool idea, Boarri, Lucy's has one, I'm huge fans of both those businesses," said Flores.
The sign can also be found at Produce on People's Street.
For Flores it brings a sense of community pride.
"It's big city small town vibes, everybody knows each other, cool to get recognized just for pizza, super nice," he said.
Justin Gainan has helped bring new life to several old buildings around town, creating a revamped space for new business.
He came up with the idea a few years back after hearing this response from customers.
"Most people responded with, 'this doesn't feel like Corpus. This feels like, fill in the blank,'" he said.
"I got tired of hearing that, because this is Corpus, this is happening, it was a bit of pride for me, you know what, this is not anywhere else, we don't need to compare to other places," he said.
He said there are plenty of exciting things happening downtown and a lot of small businesses put everything they have to make their mark.
"It's play on 'This is Corpus' and of course 'us' is in Corpus," he said. "I really wanted to hopefully reach out to as many small businesses."
Gainan is also the co-owner of Lucy's Snack Bar.
You can find the signs there for sale so that the community can be part of it too.
"It's hard being a small business, look for every opportunity to represent yourself, have some pride, this is a way for us to band together," he said.
Gainan would like to see more businesses join in and eventually go big.
"I'd love to do a billboard," he said.
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