We were lucky to catch up with Blanca Melgar recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Blanca thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights 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

For many years, my husband and I always talked about opening up a restaurant in the future and would always brainstorm and share ideas. Approximately a year ago this idea began to look more like an in the very near future kind of thing and we began to look at this goal more aggressively. As a Peruvian and a coffee lover I knew I wanted to bring both components together, coffee, and authentic Peruvian cuisine. The vision was for a place to offer both a café shop ambiance and the restaurant ambiance, a home felt place where guests can feel right at home with the product and hospitality offered, a place to serve the community. The naming of our business was also very important, I wanted to reflect our faith in Christ as well as to reflect what our business is about. We chose the name Abide as in our walk with The Lord we have like many gone through various seasons in life and we can only do one thing but to Abide in His great love, trusting Him every step of the way. The logo design was also an exciting part as we went from a homemade digital sketch of a coffee cup to an amazing logo design in the form of a llama coffee cup! Each step of the way built more excitement as our dream was beginning to become a reality. Choosing the location was incredible as we landed in a very busy main intersection that we believe would bring forth high visibility for a new small business, it was also a bonus that the location had been operating for over 30 years as a sub shop. The next big factor was our coffee beans, after research and shopping around we found a great partner that also came alongside to spend time training our staff and the involvement and support has been incredible. The interview and staffing selection process was also thrilling as we wanted to instill our passion to serve to our team members. We wanted them to understand that when people come in they are choosing us over another place, therefore with grateful attitude we serve! The greeting/slogan that came from this is as followed; “Thank you for choosing Abide Café & Eatery today! how may we serve you?” Finally, we approached the last 2 weeks which consisted of training and the big day! Ongoing interviews with different vendors and purveyors as well and finalizing the team. We made it to January 13th and officially opened our doors for the very 1st time. The turnout was amazing, great support from our family and friends and the opportunity to serve the community in this way has been such a rewarding experience. We look forward for Abide to become a go to spot in the community we’re in and to serve with great love, food and coffee!

Blanca, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

A little bit about myself, I am a follower of Christ, a wife to a wonderful and supportive husband, and a mother of three beautiful children. My husband and I have three children, Elijah who just turned 13, Sarai is 10, and our little peanut Isaiah who will soon be one. I have my master’s in health services administration, and I have served in leadership roles for the last 10 years in this field. The health field is another passion of mine. However, my husband and I always talked about opening up our own restaurant one day; however, we didn’t think that day would be now. Last year, I gave birth to our son Isaiah at only 26 weeks. He went down to a pound and seven ounces, I remember that day after giving birth, the physician was very honest with us and said they weren’t sure if he was going to make it or not. They explained there was a 50% chance that he may or may not make it. Isaiah survived by the grace of God. He spent a total of four months in the NICU and the very first time his older siblings actually met Isaiah in-person was when he was four months old. My husband and I began to pray about our next steps. What does the Lord want us to do now? This really guided our decision for me to resign from my career to actually executing our plans in opening up our own business.

At Abide Cafe & Eatery our mission is to serve our guests with an exceptional service highlighted by our menu of Specialty coffee, authentic Peruvian cuisine and American favorites for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We, as a team, satisfy our guests cravings and hunger along with building friendships. What sets us apart is our hospitality, our authentic flavors, we aren’t a regular Peruvian restaurant, or just a cafe shop. We are a hybrid style restaurant with different settings. You can work remotely here and enjoy a cup of coffee, and others can book the space to celebrate a special occasion.

I am most proud of when guests tell me how they feel at home when they are here, and how they feel they just ate a home cooked meal. This brings so much joy to my heart.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

The craziest story to date was for one of our events in which a large crowd was expected. On the day of we had two employees that ended up having to be out on emergencies and we were left short-handed. It was too late to reschedule this event. The dynamics of our operations consist of line cooks handling one part of the menu and kitchen cooks handling the other part of the menu. On this occasion both kitchen cooks for the Peruvian menu were out, and orders came in for both front and back kitchens. The crowd started coming and I had to shuffle around to fill numerous roles. It was nerve wrecking as at that moment we were dealing with a “worst case scenario” situation. However, I had to make some changes and I myself had to jump into the kitchen and take care of the Peruvian side. The problem became the delay in orders coming out later than expected. We did work as best as possible to provide complimentary items and remedy the delays with the customers. Overall, the experience was crazy as these are things, we’ve come to find out that do occur. From this experience we have grown tremendously, and we understand that it will be tests like these that will make us better as we press forward.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The kindest thing

Since opening our business and understandably experiencing various trials such as staffing and callouts during some of our busiest times and assuming various roles which comes with the territory. One of the kindest things I’ve received were some very sweet comforting and encouraging words from a first-time guest that came in following a challenging week. After welcoming her and sitting her down she simply stated, “Trials are good reminders to Trust in The Lord”. These words were so meaningful and refreshing for me at the moment. It brought me great joy and another great reminder from God to abide in Him. I will never forget this moment and it’s one the blessings of having this type of business where we can connect with different individuals, getting to know each other and eventually grow genuine friendships overtime.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.abidecafe.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abidecafeandeatery/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AbideCafeAndEatery @AbideCafeAndEatery
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/abide-cafe-and-eatery-hollywood?osq=abide+cafe