The most important challenge was to first of all, survive. We were hearing that a lot of places were closing down, so that was the first thing we wanted to do. We also wanted to make sure our employees got their check every week.

I would say our biggest achievement what we did in sales last month. We did better than before the pandemic. Whatever we’re doing, it’s working. 

Looking back on my career, I would say that I wouldn’t choose anything else. At first, I wasn’t sure if this was something that I wanted to do. I was really young when I started here. I missed a lot of weekends with my friends because the busiest times were the weekends, and I missed a lot of birthdays, a lot of parties growing up, a lot of events, important events. But I think that everything paid off at the end, and I learned that our work pays off.

I would like to say to my customers that, first of all, thank you so much for coming to the restaurant for the past 15 years because I know a lot of customers that have been coming to the restaurant since day one, and I know there are some that come to the restaurant three times a week with their family to dine with us. Thank you for that, and we want to keep treating them like part of the family. We like to treat our customers like that.

To our employees, we also want to say thank you for staying with us through this pandemic. It’s been hard for all of us, and we had to adapt, maybe more work than before. There was a point where we didn’t have a lot of employees, they were scared to come in. Understandable because of the pandemic, so we had to work even harder. Thank you for that because we recognize that because of their hard work, we are able to be successful.

My message for aspiring entrepreneurs is to work very hard. I guess that’s our secret. At first, it’s going to be difficult, but just focus on the work. That’s all we do is just work, work, work, and it’s working out.