02/03/2024
HI Everyone,
It has been a few months since I have personally sent out a message. Sometimes you can take a 15 minute drive somewhere and once you arrive you have no concept of the trip itself. It has been like that for me lately. I show up for work one day and 3 months later I am surprised with how much time has passed and I have little recollection of meaningful actions while getting there.
25 years in the industry for me with the last 19 as an owner. Kristen , for her part, has battled with me not always side by side in the restaurant, but more often as a victim of my addiction to the work.
Truthfully, 2022 and 2023 have been difficult years. We have been fighting to get through each month. Up to this point we had become used to, and numb to, the demands and effects of the restaurant business. Covid woke us up some. We gained perspective about our lives and what is truly important, and since 2020 have been evaluating how to move forward in life and business. For many years I have told myself, and others, that I want the definition of my life to reflect my relationship with God, being a husband, and being a father. Well, saying it does not make it so, and owning and operating restaurants while trying to live up to that definition has not yielded the outcome I have always hoped for. We did a lot of pivoting during the first two covid years; believe me when I tell you that it is still shaping many lives and that is certainly true for us. As a result, everything is more expensive in our industry (true in many industries I'm sure): food, supplies, rent, interest on loans, and workers. And there is a limit to what one can charge for a plate to support these increases. I won't rehash everything we have done, or attempted to do, to keep things alive while also trying to maintain the life we want.
So. A chapter in our lives comes to a close. Friday, February 2nd 2024 was/is (depending on when you read this) la Bamba’s final day of operation, it is closed permanently (at least with us as the owners). We can no longer fight to keep it less than alive, and life is too short, and experiences with loved ones too precious, to let them slip by as faint memories.
My life as a restaurant owner has been fulfilling, even while oftentimes chewing me up and spitting me out. Some of you know me from las Fuentes in Somerville back in 2005 to 2007.
I have had a love/hate and contradictory relationship with this industry. It has given me much, but has, at minimum, taken an equal portion.
My fondest memories are the relationships forged with the countless people I have had the pleasure to work next to in my kitchens and restaurants. None of what I have accomplished would be possible without them and their efforts, and that is true of the current staff at la Bamba who all have remained to the last day/hour to support us in this. Thank you to all of them as they move on.
And of course, the people I have gotten to know through my food and restaurants have been a blessing. There is simply not enough time to reflect on the impact you have had on my life.
God does work in mysterious ways and no doubt His finger has been at play in our lives for many years. I am grateful to need Him, the way a child is grateful for a parent's hug when hurt or in need of affection
It is time for me to spend and enjoy time with my family, time that i could not spend when my kids were younger, time that will never come back.
Luis Orostieta.
