MOVERS & SHAKERS
La Latina is a family business in all senses of the term"
location with the Cambridge Retail Park: I approached them about the space, but it took four months – they had to ask the city council to change the licence – so we missed that first summer. We’ve now been trading here since October 2017 and it’s getting better: people know where we are, we have free parking, it’s close for us as well – obviously we pay rent, but the good thing is that the bus stays here permanently.” La Latina is open Tuesdays to Sundays, and definitely keeps the couple on their toes. The day begins at 6.30am, when Catalina wakes up for a few moments alone with her coffee. She takes her sister to the station, to commute to her studies in London, then returns to wake and breakfast their two children before the school run. “Between nine and ten, I do all the emails and admin while Nelson is busy with his chilli plants in our greenhouse. At ten we arrive at La Latina. We open at 12pm, and have two rush hours: one for lunch and again for dinner, but we don’t close between. We stay open from 12pm until 9pm. At three I leave to get the kids; sometimes Nelson goes. At 4pm our other staff member arrives, and they work with Nelson or me for the evening. We close at nine: if I’m with the kids at home, I put them to bed while my sister arrives back
from London. She stays with the kids while I come back to help Nelson close down the kitchen, get everything ready. We go back home about ten, have a cup of tea, go to bed about 11pm… and then do it all over again!” La Latina provides full-time employment for Catalina and Nelson: as the business has become more successful, they’ve started bringing in part-time support. “At the beginning, our plan was not to hire employees, so we could recover our pocket quickly. We didn’t have any help for the first year: it was just Nelson and me, all the time. That was… hard.” Catalina says. “I was reading a book that said: ‘Finding your first employee is like finding your first love: it’s very special, they have to bond with your business.’ Obviously no-one’s going to feel the same way about your business as you do, so it’s tricky – but last summer we had two, three girls helping us.” When La Latina’s business plan involved moving from place to place, social media was essential to keep customers informed of the bustaurant’s whereabouts: though the permanent site means this is no longer a challenge, social is still crucial to their marketing strategy. “At the beginning we didn’t have any budget for marketing: social media is the only marketing we do, because
IMAGES (Above) Nelson Rodrigues and Catalina Uribe, the owners of La Latina Bustaurante. (Below) The delicious arepas, empanadas and tostones served up by the couple
ISSUE 03 46
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