We recently connected with Jose Antonio Calderon and have shared our conversation below.
Jose Antonio, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.
When we decided to open the restaurant, we had the idea offering the most traditional food, coming from family recipes, and have a modern twist to it without loosing it essence.
Cielito is a concept of a Mexican Modern Cuisine Restaurant for authentic food and drinks. It is based on traditional Mexican ingredients and dishes, with a modern expression of a combination of flavor and personality.
The idea came out some years ago of having a new concept of a Mexican Restaurant when Julieta and Antonio Calderon, along with Julieta ́s husband, Omar Rodriguez, dreamed of having a place where people can eat and drink and feel fascinated about the flavors and presentation of the dishes.
The Mexican Cousine consists in vast menu of dishes that has been declared by the UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, so the idea of Cielito is to combine the traditional cuisine with the evolution of ingredients, along with a new presentation with colors and flavor.
So the concept of Cielito has to be understood as an evolution of the traditional cuisine, it is the conceptualization of the dish from its preparation to the aesthetic design. The idea is to present a defined and innovative ideology taking the basics of the traditional Mexican dishes and modified them. Thus, the flavors remain, the memory of those homemade aromas are still there, but the shape has changed.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I majored in Economics and have a MBA from the University of Utah. Most of my background comes from the Finance Industry as I worked as a Securities Analyst in Wasatch Global Investors, then moved back to Mexico and worked for a Development Bank, finally I was Chief of Staff for a Governor in my home state of Puebla. Along the way, I started several business, like a microloan company for women in rural areas, started a Galvanizing company for the automotive industry and I have been active in doing consultancy for governments and companies.
I enjoy creating business and making them work. Starting and operating a business is not an easy thing. It requires a lot of discipline. My value added comes in the form if innovation and being creative, because if you don’t follow trends or forget about your final users, then you may not be successful. Also, innovation is an important part for the business. This is our first year at Cielito, so now that people are starting to know us, we will be adding monthly specials. We started last month with Chiles en Nogada, with a family recipe.
We want our clients at Cielito is to feel like they are eating in Mexico, in a place completely different and full of Mexican art. We have art from Fernando Andriacci, a famous Oaxacan artists that puts a lot of color in his work. We also have paintings from Mahum, he is a modern artists from Mexico City with a lot of creativity. We show as well the art from Casiano, he is an artist from the mountains of Guerrero, despite not knowing how to read and write, he developed a technique for painting flowers. And finally, we show an aquarelle from Jose Luis Cuevas, a Mexico City writer known for his eccentricities. So we feel proud of our place, and making different from our clients.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
For growing clientele, the most effective strategy is to be consistent and high quality. We want our customers that come back to have the same food, flavors and experience like the first time you visited us.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I believe that we have built our reputation based on consistency. We are consistent in our kitchen, in our bar, and how we present the dishes and drinks, and most importantly in our flavors,
We are also consistent with our people. Most of the people have been with us since the beginning and they are happy to work for us. This is also very important, because if people are happy at the restaurant, they will treat our clients accordingly.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cielitomexicanflavors.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cielitomexicanflavors?igsh=OWk5eW1lbGpsd2w0
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CielitoMexicanFlavors?mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Yelp: https://m.yelp.com/search?find_desc=Cielito%20Mexican%20flavirs&find_loc=Irving%2C%20TX%2C%20United%20States
- Other: Trip Advisor
https://www.tripadvisor.com.mx/Restaurant_Review-g56032-d26695923-Reviews-Cielito_Mexican_Flavors-Irving_Texas.html
