We recently connected with Sofia Garcia and have shared our conversation below.
Sofia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Any thoughts about whether to ask friends and family to support your business. What’s okay in your view?
I always find it easy to ask my family and friends for help, I’m so lucky to be surrounded by the most supportive community. For me, I lean on my friends to help me post about my business, to help me if I’m short staffed or even coming to an event I have planned, but the most they can do for me is giving me feedback to help me improve in my business.
I always draw the line on asking them to help me financially, I feel like things can get a little sticky when you add that in the mix.
The best story I always share is that, when I was talking about starting my business, my biggest supporters were my family and friends, thanks to them I had the courage to move on with it. On the opening night I had one of my best friends helping me on the register and my partner was cooking next to me in the kitchen, when we open the first 30 customers we had were all friends and coworkers, even 3 years later my friends are still my best customers. That’s why I know that I can always count on them.
Sofia, 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?
I am a Mexican immigrant, I moved to Atlanta from Guadalajara, Mexico 6 years ago. My husband and I started our food pop-up Lupe’s, 3 years ago, specializing in traditional Mexican food. We love to cook for the people in Atlanta, this city has welcomed our food with open arms and I am so grateful for the community around us.
We are currently popping-up at the Grant Park Farmers Market on Sundays (once a month). Our menu changes a couple times a year but our best seller is definitely the Birria Tacos. We love doing catering events, specially weddings and birthday parties.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
In summer of 2020, during the pandemic, my husband got laid off from work, without half of our household income, we started thinking about ways to get some much needed influx of money, that’s when we started talking about starting our own business. It was not easy to say the least, we didn’t have any extra money to spend and the year had already been so hard on everyone. But we pushed through it and after a lot of blood, sweat and tears we finally opened Lupe’s in September of 2020, we definitely have had a lot of bumps on the road, and in those moments we always reach out to our community for support. This tiny business represents the strength that we have and reminds me that even when life gets difficult, I just need to keep my head up and lean on the people that stand by my side.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
My business partner is my husband Colin, we met in 2014 in Florida. I was doing my internship at this fancy hotel in Palm Beach and he had just moved there from Atlanta to start a new job at the same hotel. We very quickly caught eyes for each other and started dating, long story short it has been almost 10 years and we’re still each other best friend and still happily married!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @lupes.eatery