Processing Your Payment

Please do not leave this page until complete. This can take a few moments.

May 19, 2008

Latin flair | A chat with Benjamin Galvez, co-founder of La Familia in Portland.

Founded: July 2007
Employees: None
Startup costs: $100,000
Projected revenue, year one: $100,000
Projected revenue, year two: $200,000
Contact: 761-5865
906 Brighton Ave., Portland 04102
www.906lafamilia.com

What kind of food do you offer at the restaurant?
We offer authentic Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican, El Salvadoran and basically Central American food. And these foods are, for example, Puerto Rican yellow rice and beans, pulled pork shoulder seasoned Puerto-Rican style, Cuban sandwiches, empanadas. Salvadoran food is like homemade tortillas [and] pupusas, which are like handmade tortillas with meat and cheese. We do a lot of stewed things, a lot of rice pots and things like that.

This is really different from anything else in Maine because in Maine a lot of Latin restaurants [are] usually Mexican, Mexican and Mexican. We're not Mexican. We don't walk around with sombreros. This is the kind of food you'd get in Miami or New York. People come and expect to find tacos and burritos and enchiladas.

Tell me why you wanted to open the restaurant.
My mother and me, we're both co-owners. We have a partnership. And we said, "How nice would it be for us to bring her kitchen to a lot of people." Because people would come over to our house and they would eat there and they'd be like, "Wow, if you guys sold this food I would buy it every day." So those kinds of remarks made us think, "Why don't we do something with it?" And I've always worked in restaurants, different kinds of restaurants ˆ— fast food restaurants, kind of slower-paced restaurants. But I like seeing people happy when they receive their food, I like to see food served in a nice place, and this is something so different. The area needed it.

You mentioned you and your mom are business partners. Do you have any employees helping out?
Right now we honestly don't have anyone employed. The winter season, which we just came out of, was our hardest season so we had to cut labor. And the benefit of having family is that there [are] certain exceptions to the rules. My wife sometimes helps us out. The lady you see right there [in the kitchen] is my grandmother, she's volunteering for a plate of food. And the gentleman you see over there [in the dining room], he's just volunteering as well for a couple hours to get some food. But there have been times when we've had people hired and formal paychecks. When the summer season picks up, we'll start formally hiring people [for] dishwashing positions, server positions. Primarily my mother, my partner, does a lot of cooking. So we're very tight-knit and we do a lot of everything.

How did you learn about running a business?
When I was working for other restaurants I was a shift manager. I used to be in control of the whole restaurant, which means giving people breaks, sending people home if there was a problem, addressing issues and taking care of cash procedures. And it gave me that head start. I knew what to do. There's a lot more when you're the owner. Now it's not just that the other manager picks up whatever I [left off] ˆ— there's no other manager. There's me.

[I've gained] knowledge also from school. I went to Husson College and I'm still finishing a four-year bachelors degree in business administration. I already have three years more or less in different areas of business. So I'm putting it into practice.

How did you finance the business?
We took out some loans. And my father is a painter and so he put a lot into the business. Probably about 60% of his help is what [started] the business. My partner is the one that did a lot of the loans, but we did go to a bank. It's more through the mortgage. I just know that it has to do with the mortgage and taking some from there. That's basically what we did.

How did you choose the location for the restaurant?
Well, it's my father's building. I live on the second floor with my wife and my son. And we used to rent out the third floor but now my sister lives up there. So it's pretty easy commuting for me. And so my father owns the whole property here and that's actually a plus for us. I had in mind renting a place in the city but then when my dad bought this place we said, "Well, why don't we do something here? It might not be a bad location."

Interview by Kerry Elson

Sign up for Enews

Most Recent

Most Recent

Comments

Order a PDF