We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Guillermina Ibanez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Guillermina below.

Guillermina, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Chilakillers is born with the idea of bringing traditional mexican mercado food to Central Texas, I am always looking to bring the authentic flavors and we spend enormous amounts of time researching our ingredients to make sure that the flavor in our food transports our customers all the way to the little corner restaurant of the oldest mercado in San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

Guillermina, 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?

You can find me on social media as the Sexy Chef, that is a nickname that I got many years ago by a colleague who started calling me the sexy chef because even though it is an industry dominated by male chefs, one day, he was pleasantly surprised when I took off my chef apron, and I was dressed up in what he thought, was a sexy outfit. I started working in restaurants when I was 16 years old, I was a hostess, then a waiter, and then a restaurant owner. Together with my husband, we started a restaurant in Georgetown that grew as one of the most important Mexican food restaurants in Central Texas. Dos Salsas has grown to 3 locations and it continues to be a community staple. In 2010, right after my divorce, I launched a second business, Los Chilaquiles in Cedar Park, it was a great business, but a bad partnership; right out of my failed marriage, I jumped into a partnership that was not very well planned, and together with my restaurant, my menu and business idea, I lost everything. I had to file bankruptcy due to all the legal and business losses incurred, but I learned a lot, and most importantly, I found me, my voice, and the vision to develop my newest and most ambitious restaurant proposition, and that is how, Los Chilakillers was born. Los Chilakillers is unique because it is a fusion of mexican flavor with the essence of Austin, and the Central Texas community. The ambience is upbeat, but the food has a traditional mexican mercado flavor.

When you ask me, what I am proud of, my mind goes into several directions, first of all, I am proud to be a female restaurant business owner in a male-dominated industry. I am also glad that we launched right in the middle of the pandemic, and we succeeded, and what takes the cherry on the cake, is that I launched my business right before my 50th birthday. At 50, some people are getting ready to retire, and I feel younger, wiser and stronger than ever, it seems to me that this is only the beginning.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

My personal trainer is one of my dearest friends, we have been through thick and thin, and a couple of years ago, while brainstorming on my brand, he said, you should be retiring by now, which was a blunt statement and I am pretty sure wasn’t meant to do no harm, it did however, ignite something inside me that stated, “I’m so hot!” and that is how, in the verge of my 50th birthday, I pivoted my personal branding to use the slogan, I’m so hot! I invite you to visit my social media, https://www.instagram.com/thesexychefmina/ and https://www.instagram.com/loschilakillers/ to learn all about my social media statement. 40+ and 50+ year old women, can still rock social media.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The best strategy to grow your clientele and maintain customer loyalty is making customers feel at home, from the entrance, to the food, and the experience they have at Los Chilakillers needs to be all about home and family.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.loschilakillers.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loschilakillers/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesexychefMina
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/los-chilakillers-austin

Image Credits
In home pictures, no image credit needed