Today we’d like to introduce you to Paulina and Cesar Chaidez. They and their team shared their story with us below:
It is a family-owned restaurant that open its doors in September of 2012. As a young entrepreneur, our parents, Cesar and Maria Chaidez, open a Hot dog stand outside a ballpark in the city of Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico, where our sisters Maria, Cesar, and Paulina were born and raised. Cesar taking care of the hot dog stand at a young age made our parents decided to open our first brick-and-mortar restaurant, which was called Sello Rojo; after a couple years of hard work, our business grew into 7 locations that served counter-style traditional Mexican dishes, and link our business into huge catering opportunities in local and state fairs, unfortunately, and fortunately for us, violence in our country made us migrate to San Diego, California.
After working in landscape, construction, and restaurants for about 10 years, we started to look for a restaurant to open, but being migrants in a country where you do not fully understand the language or culture was extremely hard.
Looking for the American dream, siblings Cesar and Paulina decided to open the first location in 2012 as La Loteria Comedor Casual, our father Cesar taking care of the construction of the location, Paulina taking care of the front of the house, and Cesar working in the kitchen including our parents’ recipes in the menu, which served breakfast and lunch to a business area with the same style of food as our parents’ restaurant in Mexico used to served.
Two years later in an effort to grow our business, and thinking that our business will thrive as the first one did, we found our second location in a business area in downtown San Diego, as Cocina 35; why the change of name? We wanted to have an original name; when we first step foot in our Otay Mesa location in 2012, our father, Cesar Chaidez, said this location would be ours, and we asked why, and he explain that the address of the location had a 35 in the number 9335 Airway rd., he said that is my lucky number, 3 days later we were receiving the keys by the landlord. When we found the second location in Downtown, he looked at the address on the door and said this location would be ours. Cesar and Paulina immediately look at the address only to find out that the address was 1435 again the lucky 35, that location became ours in less than 2 weeks.
After a couple of months of trying to make Cocina 35 work, and unfortunately, was not going good for the business, Cesar and his wife Maria decided to make a plate of chilaquiles verdes ( the most traditional breakfast in Mexico) with carnitas on top, at the moment they made two plates one to leave for display for the customers and the other on to enjoy. That same day we ran out of chilaquiles.
So the next day, we decided to keep on putting the Chilaquiles out in display for our guest to see; the next day, we sold more than the first, and the rest it’s just history; we became the only restaurant in San Diego to specialize in Chilaquiles and Mexican breakfast, 2 years later we decided to re-brand our LaLoteria Comedor casual to Cocina 35, and it was a huge success for the company and our family.
Thru the years instead of marketing our business in magazines, newspaper, radio, or social media, we decided to be where people could see us and could try our food in the moment; all of our marketing was done thru community events through San Diego, such as Cinco de Mayo, Taco Fest, Tacotopia, San Diego Pride, San Diego Padres Opening Day Fan Fest, Comic con, December nights, San Diego Brunch bash, Dia de los Muertos, Mexican independence day and much more where we got to experience our business as caterers and also let our customer try our food on the spot which made them come back to the restaurants.
In July 2021, we open our commissary kitchen, which help us to have same flavors and consistency in both stores.
In February 2023, we open our Cocina35 Food Hub which stands as a virtual/to-go kitchen with delivers food thru 3rd party deliver companies, Cocina 35 food hub carries 8 more sister brands that derive from our Cocina35 menu; our sister brands are Chilaquiles store a fast grab and go chilaquiles stop, Burritos la linea- mini breakfast and lunch burritos, Tortas Lola is all about Mexican Sandwiches, Antojitos de el norte- traditional Mexican dishes, Mi Dulce desayuno- All sweet breakfast, Sandwich Town- deli, Good morning Mexico- a breakfast taco eatery and Omelette bar. All served derive from the same menu as Cocina 35.
In Summer 2023, our four location will be opening in Liberty Station San Diego, which would deliver to our guest a new design and would add a cocktail menu to our brand.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
We are happy to say that our journey has not been easy because we learn from every single mistake, rock on the road, and struggle that we have encounter.
The most difficult thing for us was probably the beginning of the journey; we did not had a single dime, and to keep a restaurant open, we had to walk miles putting out flyers car by car all around Otay Mesa in order for our customer to notice us, at that time there was no social media, we did not had enough money for a marketing campaign, and we were working against all odds beings in an office area that has 0-foot traffic, or public transportation around us.
We’ve been impressed with Cocina 35, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Cocina 35 is a Mexican Breakfast Restaurant that specializes in Chilaquiles de most traditional Breakfast. We set apart from other because our mission is to welcome every guest as they were family; we cook and treat them as one of us.
We are really proud of the team that we have build because every single member of our organization puts a lot of feeling and enthusiasm into being their best to make our guest feel welcome.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
Our brand in growing in so many ways; now we have capture a new brand of Cocina 35 (Brunch) that would cater to a new crowd with a full liquor license, table service, and specialty coffee and bread.
Our traditional Cocina 35 brand is expanding into different venues in the county, north, and east, and also looking to grow in the LA.
We have open a virtual kitchen in Barrio Logan that Madde a shift into a delivery platforms that would help us cater to more customers in different areas of the city.
In a couple of months our virtual store would be ready nationwide to deliver food to every single home in the United States
Contact Info:
- Website: cocina35.com
- Instagram: cocina35
- Facebook: Cocina35
- Yelp: Cocina35
