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The Latino Restaurant Association, a national trade organization for Mexican/Latin restaurants, has expanded recently from its base in Los Angeles and now has offices in Houston and New York. In this interview, CEO Lilly Rocha explains the organization’s successes in 2023 and plans for next year.
el Restaurante: What has been the LRA’s most successful program in 2023?
Lilly Rocha: The Business Bootcamp. It’s made up of six classes including how to create a business plan, how to make a marketing plan and how to handle permit applications — basically everything that is important for a restaurant owner to know. They don’t build upon each other so people can drop in on any class, and all are offered in English and Spanish. We’ve been able to, from surveys we conduct after the bootcamp, make everything better each time.
ER: You also have the Dine Latino program that encourages people to dine at Latino restaurants during a given week. Has that also been a success?
Rocha: Yes, that is our second most popular program. Between 150 to 200 restaurants in Los Angeles have participated. We don’t charge our restaurants, so they can join in without having to reach into their pockets.
ER: How does the LRA promote Dine Latino?
Rocha: Each restaurant that signs up gets a media kit that includes the Dine Latino logo and Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok graphics they can use. We do a lot of social media, and we hire a public relations professional to help us. That has helped us get on TV. We do live demos during the week, and have a kickoff event where we invite the media and six or seven participating restaurants. This year we were at Casa Vega [in Los Angeles], out on the patio with all the media. Next year we plan to expand Dine Latino to New York.
ER: Beside expanding Dine Latino, what are your plans for 2024?
Rocha: We would like to expand our educational options because we feel that’s what people need most. Often people open a restaurant, but don’t know what they’re doing. We can help develop the skills they need.
To learn more about the LRA, visit latinorestaurantassociation.org.
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