Picante Mexican Cuisine opened in June of 2023. Its owners, Eduardo Garcia, Laura Padilla, and Ismael Vasquez, have been working hard since then to keep the food served as authentic as possible with their traditional culture interwoven and inherent in their dishes. With a menu rich in taste, the customers keep coming back as the meats, spices, and other ingredients fill up the dine-in area with a pleasing scent.
Garcia grew up in the Valparaiso community. He attended elementary, middle, and high schools in his hometown. For most of his adult life, he’s been around those who have been in the restaurant industry for decades. Like his predecessors, he’s racked up his own half-decade working between providing a specific service inside and outside of a kitchen.
Garcia, his mother, and his stepfather came together to see Picante's potential for success. The three have worked as a team for about two years now to bring Picante’s best potential to fruition. None of them appear to have plans to slow down, especially Garcia, whose enjoyment is found in staying busy.
“One of my favorite things would probably have to be making the food because I love it when people have a good response to it,” Garcia said. “I know not everybody’s going to like it, but the people who do almost just warm up your heart.”
Some days are busier than others, so it’s not just the reactions to what he’s preparing that challenge Garcia at his job. He realizes maintaining a consistent taste isn’t as easy as some novice chef or cook might make it out to be. To combat the slower hours and difficulty in honoring the unwritten recipes, he starts simple, because it’s a matter of preserving principles.
“I love working with the clients, and a lot of them who come here are very heartwarming people. We greet them all with a smile, and then we try to be the best for them,” Garcia said. “We also try our best with the food. If it doesn’t come out how we want it to, be it salt-or seasoning-wise, we have to keep following the same steps and measurements.”
As for what he’d like to see out of Picante next, Garcia knows there are possibilities for expansion. Simultaneously, he understands that such things only come with time. He’s seen how operating a small business is like tending a child, since you have to grow and walk with it until it can do so mostly by itself. His hopes for the future are high, and the growth to be cultivated and witnessed is bound to be replete with brilliance.
“Our goal is that we can be here for as long as we can. We do want to open up more restaurants, but this one is obviously like our baby, so we have to take care of it,” he said. “We want to expand, but business doesn’t grow overnight. It takes careful consideration.”
In the meantime, Garcia stresses his restaurant will continue to donate food to local non-profit organizations. Picante with Hilltop Neighborhood House near Valparaiso University (VU). The police station is another place Picante visits, along with other stops where nourishment support is welcome and helpful. They’ve even participated in fundraisers, including ones at nursing homes.
Laura Padilla, co-owner and Garcia’s mother, relishes the chances she gets to put smiles on patrons’ faces. For her, owning Picante is about contributing something to the community. She uses her years of experience to perpetually enhance her capacity for delivering strong customer service.
Padilla’s been living in Valparaiso for longer than Garcia, having been a resident for just over 20 years. She’s come to feel a connection with the city’s people, even if they’re not actually in her family. Her priority is to give back to what gives to her, and she takes a motherly approach to providing through her vocation.
“I like to take care of people. I like to see their faces smiling when they eat our food, and it’s even better when they come back,” Padilla said. “We may recognize one another, and those times make Valpo feel more like a big family than a big town.”
Various hurdles exist in the restaurant-owning world, such as the proper licenses required to legally proceed with workplace operations or unhappy customers. Through it all, Padilla hasn’t taken many breathers and instead has persisted through even the toughest of trials.
“It makes me happy whenever we’re given a consideration because we had to fight for everything to open,” Padilla said. “I don't know if other places had it easy or not, but for us it was hard and complicated. We are working hard, and that won’t stop.”
Alongside Padilla and Garcia works Vasquez, Picante’s kitchen manager. He’s in charge of perhaps the most important room in any restaurant, assisting the cooks and ordering the merchandise necessary to prepare all the food. His position’s requirements don’t daunt him; rather, he’s quite familiar with them.
Vasquez’s journey in the United States began two decades ago. His first job was at a restaurant. He worked his way up the universal totem pole in restaurants everywhere, starting humbly as a dishwasher, then switching over to a food preparer, and eventually arriving in the role of cook.
“I always wanted to have my own business. Picante was a dream come to reality two years ago, and my partners and I have the responsibility to make it work—good services, better food quality, and contributing to the community are essential for our business,” he said.
Valparaiso is Vasquez’s home. He’s grateful for the welcome the community gave him back when he first arrived. Because of the city’s open arms, he’s made efforts to remain responsible for its residents, ensuring his restaurant’s services stay reliable.
“We are very grateful for the support that the customers have given us,” he said. “We have made changes in how we manage the restaurant, but everything is for the comfort of our clients.”
Like her son, Padilla wishes to grow the business over the next few years. She’s thought about what kind of opportunities relocating might present. No matter where she goes, she’s certain she won’t relent in taking care of each and every one of her co-workers.
“We want to make Picante grow in the future. We want to change our location, yet our current one isn’t bad. We have some things in the works, wanting something a little bigger,” Padilla said. “We just want to do something for our employees. What we have is like a second family, and we want to provide.”