My grandfather, mom, and dad started this business and had also opened taquerias in Arlington, Texas before. When my grandfather was older, my family moved to Denver where we all helped with the business, including my Aunt Berta and Uncle Francisco who helped in the bakery. I was eleven or twelve months old when they opened the store in 1993 on 38th Avenue. I grew up there—they put a blanket that acted as a wall, and when I was sleepy, I would just go to sleep!
Our bakery is the second oldest in Denver. We sell food for parties or to businesses for meetings, and also we sell our rolls to surrounding restaurants. Panaderia el Alamo or Alamo Mexican Food, is well known for the tripe we prepare with pork feet on the weekends. We make carnitas, pork rinds, barbecue, marinated or grilled steak, basically a little of everything even up to tripe tacos.
I really like seeing families in our restaurant. Seeing people’s smiling faces make me happy because you should enjoy what you eat. We treat our clients like they are family, and we also do the same with our employees. I always remember every Sunday that I went to work, my aunts and uncles and all of our friends and family would get together in addition to our customers. These Sundays were like a little family reunion, even though we were all working.
To the merchants who are newly starting out and who are under a lot of pressure, I recommend that they have patience. The good is yet to come with all their blessings, so they should keep pushing forward and ask God to give them strength to continue. The sign that the fruits of their labor is paying off is like popcorn in a pan, they’ll make noise and burst with abundance.
