In 2016, while scrolling through Facebook at work, a downtown building was listed for lease. As I had always wanted to do a “coffee shop or carryout type restaurant”, my husband and I decided to check it out. From our eyes, it was a perfect location had a kitchen, everything we needed to get started. Several people were interested in the building, but we had just so happened to click with the current tenant, Patty, and she spoke with the owner and forwarded his cell number to us. I texted him my ideas that night and he made arrangements to meet with us at 2pm the next day. I am specific to note this time because, when we showed up at two the next day, there were people that had been waiting outside to meet with him for several hours ahead of their scheduled time.
The owner however, honored his arrangement with us and did not meet with these people ahead of us. The evening prior to showing up to that meeting, I contemplated if I had enough money to even start a business, I had no plan, no real money, nada. I was excited at the prospect though. I called two people that night, my mom who lived two hours away from me and my uncle who owned a restaurant in that same town, Cuba. “Would you be willing to quit your job and move to Farmington and come help me open a restaurant’? I ask my mom. Immediately she says yes! My uncle, I ask “Do you think I can do this and is this enough money to get started”? He tells me the ups and downs and says he thinks it is enough to get started. I start moving forward by transferring some 401K and savings to my checking just to be prepared. I show up to this meeting at 121 W Main St and there is a couple sitting outside in their car, I walk in and the owner is waiting for me. We talk and I am not ready to do the deal, I am scared and unsure but I also know there is someone in a car outside waiting to do this very thing, so I sign on the dotted line. That day was January 28, 2016.