Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ana Beaven. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Ana, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

Loving Mexican food as much as I do, I found it hard to believe that no place in Houston had the flavors I grew up with. I decided to explore the idea of opening an authentic Mexican restaurant to show the city that everything they considered Mexican was actually TexMex.
It took me exactly two years to conceive the menu, source the ingredients, find the space, architect, design, art, staff and everything needed to open Cuchara.
Looking back after almost 12 years, it seems like a crazy blur! The months prior to opening while we were training and practicing the recipes were the most challenging and fun, I will never forget how amazing you can feel when you see the final concept with all the necessary pieces in place.

Ana, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a native of CDMX who fell in love with authentic Mexican food at a very young age because of my grandmother, who I consider the best cook I have ever known.
With retail experience, passion for design and a never-ending addiction to Mexican food, I ventured into opening an authentic Mexican restaurant that served more than food. Mexican culture and holidays were a big part of the conception of “Cuchara”. Art played a big role too, so I commissioned my sister Cecilia Beaven (who is an amazing artist) to embellish the space with murals and playful art everywhere; even for special events, when she creates graphics, and we make sure to exploit every event visually. Our clients love to have a memento of each party, so these graphics are put into T-shirts, coasters, menus, etc.
Cuchara has become one of Houston’s favorites for the last almost 12 years.
Noticing the need to expand our kitchen to catch up with the growing catering business, “Cucharita” was born. It is a cozy bakery, breakfast and lunch place with fresh juices, coffees and cocktails.
Just like Cuchara, it represents Mexico at its best, in a more romantic and old school way.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

It’s hard to believe in authenticity, especially when it comes to Mexican food in the USA. It’s a polemic subject because TexMex has been around forever impersonating the real Mexican cuisine.
The biggest challenge for us was to make people try the food with new taste buds. Specially because our food is prepared fresh every day, with no conservatives or frozen ingredients. A simple salsa is totally different than those used in TexMex that usually have a canned base. Making people understand that we barely use cumin in our food, that we don’t use sour cream, yellow cheese or jalapeños in our food…
Little by little Mexican started spreading the news: Cuchara IS AUTHENTIC!
Sourcing everything in Mexico, inviting traditional cooks and chefs from Mexico, celebrating all the Mexican holidays, adding specials from different regions of Mexico, having the bar serving only Mexican beer, crafting cocktails from scratch using only fresh ingredients, having created the proper contemporary space and ambiance where people really feel they are in CDMX, everything helped to start spreading the news about us. But the most important part: All our cooks are moms from Mexico! That truly propelled us; everyone in Mexico believes that moms cook best.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

We have chosen to be very active on social media as well as engaging with our clients.
We send some emails as well to inform about special events, but we never intrude too much with our email campaigns. I personally hate to get overloaded with email blasts and end up unsubscribing from companies that I like for that reason.
We have been open for almost 12 years and kept the same staff and clients. We know them in a more personal level, we know what they like so we prepare their favorite specials often and make them feel special. We have seen their kids grow; we have been part of happy moments in their lives as well as sad ones. We treasure our clients and they know it. They love us and have seen us grow too.
Our clients consider us for special events, caterings, parties because they know that every time they will get quality, beautiful displays and amazing service; just as if they were at the restaurant.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cuchararestaurant.com
• Instagram: cuchararestaurant
• Facebook: Cuchara Restaurant
• Twitter: cucharahouston
• Other: Instagram for Cucharita: Cucharitabakery
  Facebook for Cucharita: Cucharita

Image Credits

One photo is by Sofia van Der Dys and has a watermark with her name