Local Kitchens
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By Maximiliano D'Onofrio
Grow your profit and expand without losing the initial essence of your restaurant. That was the challenge that Chef Gonzalo Guzmán, owner of Nopalito, a beloved San Francisco Mexican restaurant, solved by partnering with Local Kitchens, a “micro” food hall concept with 10 locations in northern California.
“The idea was to produce our food to sell to other places where we couldn't reach,” Guzmán says. “Due to staffing, menu and other issues, it is difficult for us to go from here to there. They do have the ability to take Nopalito to other places.”
Local Kitchens – which allows customers to order meals from a variety of local restaurants under one roof -- is offering a a taqueria-style menu of Nopalito favorites available as bowls, tacos or burritos. For example, the Chicken Tinga includes chicken with chipotle and tomato, Mexican rice, pinto beans, roasted vegetables, citrus slaw, crema, and cilantro and the Cauliflower features that vegetable with poblano pepper, Mexican rice, pinto beans, roasted vegetables, citrus slaw, spicy salsa roja, and cilantro.
Local Kitchens
Chef Gonzalo Guzman
Although the essence is the same, Guzmán explains that this version of his restaurant is “lite.” “Perhaps it is not the experience that people know, where we make everything from the nixtamal to the tortillas, pastas, chorizos, breads. But without a doubt it helps us make ourselves known. It is a menu inspired by Nopalito but at a slightly more affordable price.”
Guzmán’s recipes are offered at Local Kitchens locations without his day-to-day effort.
“Right now I see it as an experiment, but it is something where I simply put the knowledge and work at the beginning to create the menu, and from now on I don’t have to intervene anymore,” he explains. “It is profit that continues without my direct effort.”
Regardless of the fact that it is a light version of his original location, Guzmán’s demands are high: “I like to try the food. I order to check the quality and if what we agreed to is being done.”
The chef, a native of Colonia El Águila (in Veracruz, Mexico) and author of the book “Nopalito: A Mexican Kitchen,” arrived in the United States several years ago. When he decided that the existing Mexican restaurants lacked a certain artisanal origin, he leaned on the “farm to table” concept.
He spent many hours working on the concept until reaching “something that suits me but also the people,” he says. The time spent perfecting the idea made the growth of the project “totally organic,” he says. “I want to offer something that satisfies me. I don't want a Michelin Star or awards, although I have received some."
The knowledge, commitment and perseverance behind that idea made Guzmán realize his dream, and now, in this partnership with Local Kitchens, he has taken the flavors of Nopalito to ten new locations.
Maximiliano D'Onofrio is a regular contributor to el Restaurante.