Running a Local Bronx Restaurant During the Pandemic: An Interview with Altagracia Peña, Owner of Leche y Miel
Written by Kanisha DiCicco
Mofonguitos, cassava balls, and natural juices are just a few of the items you can find at Leche y Miel. Founded by Altagracia Peña and her husband Rideiby Peña, Leche y Miel in the Bronx aims to provide healthy Dominican food and support its local community. Altagracia tells us what running a restaurant in a low-income area amidst a pandemic has been like and how Feed the Frontlines NYC has helped keep their restaurant afloat. Read a transcript of her July 13th, 2020 interview with Kanisha DiCicco. The transcript below is edited for length and clarity.
(KD indicates questions asked by Kanisha DiCicco and AP represents Altagracia Peña’s responses.)
KD: Could you start off telling me about your restaurant, Leche y Miel? When you opened it, what kind of food you offer and who are your customers?
AP: We opened in December of 2014, and we are located in the Kingsbridge area of the Bronx. As a little recap, my husband and I both worked a good 10 years in the catering and the hospitality industry before we opened our own place.
When we met, we had the common goal of branching out and being business owners. So we saved up some money and we decided we would either get our first home or start our first business. We embarked in opening Leche y Miel, becoming the first business owners of our generation in our family, and it’s been quite a journey. We've had a lot of ups and downs, but what has kept us afloat in our business is that the type of food we serve is very healthy but very traditional Dominican food.
We have an array of clients. On a given day when we were open [before the COVID-19 pandemic], you can find such diversity in our customers—it’s pretty interesting. We've been here five years and we're known in the neighborhood. There are also a number of people who come to the restaurant from outside of the neighborhood when they're in the mood for some good Spanish food.
KD: What has running your restaurant been like during a pandemic?
AP: We were one of the last establishments to stay open when the COVID-19 pandemic started. We were fighting it and waiting it out, until we realized we needed to stay healthy for our families and customers. We made the hard decision of closing and my husband and I spent a week at home just so devastated by what was happening. We knew we had to do something. One Thursday, we had the idea of reaching out to our local hospitals to see if they need any food. We had food in the restaurant and thought we might as well go prepare and deliver it.
The next morning we came to the restaurant––just my husband and I––and cooked over 300 meals. We distributed them to our local hospital, New York-Presbyterian, right here on 220th Street and a few little clinics that were open. We put it on social media that same night and received an outpouring of comments from people who were in need and hospital workers. People were in awe that someone was thinking of them and it really changed our perspective. That really changed our perspective and we wanted to keep the program going.
One of our customers reached out and suggested we start a GoFundMe account to try and get funds. So that’s what we did. We did that for a month or so with donations from our local community and we were able to send out close to 3,000 meals. We were still closed for business but my husband and I would just come in and prepare food. Obviously we couldn't even afford to have our staff working, let alone bring them in and potentially put their health in jeopardy. It was very heartbreaking to see what was happening and we just needed to do something.
KD: Almost 3,000 meals — that’s amazing. So, how did you find out about Feed the Frontlines NYC? It’s similar to the work that you and your husband were doing on your own.
AP: Even though we were making it work with that little bit of money that we had, we were running out of money to sustain the program. In the beginning, the resources were so limited and it was so hard to get any type of help. It’s like everything was in limbo.
All of that food we made was coming out of pocket and we didn’t have any company helping us afford the meals. We heard about all these other restaurants and organizations in the city that were receiving help. I decided to search online and that's how I came across Feed the Frontlines NYC and a few other similar organizations.
I reached out to most of these organizations and knocked on a lot of doors. Isabella [Isabella Di Pietro, co-founder of Feed the Frontlines NYC] was one of the only people to respond. She was like, listen we're fully committed now with our restaurant partners but if, and when we do have an opportunity, I would be more than happy to work with you, because she had already seen the work that we had already done.
A few weeks after that, Isabella called me and she said, “Hey, we have a few hospitals in the Bronx that we would like to serve.” And I was like, great! That’s how the relationship started and it’s been such a wonderful opportunity.
KD: What has being part of Feed the Frontlines NYC been like and has it been helpful for your business and your bottom line?
AP: It has been such a blessing for our bottom line and our business in general. We were able to hire all of our staff to prepare these meals. Obviously the demand has kind of dwindled, but we’re still so thankful for the little bit of people it brought in. The restaurant industry is still being highly affected and there have been days where we just have hours with nothing to do.
Feed the Frontlines NYC and all of the meals that we prepare are keeping us afloat and keeping us open. Without it, I don’t think we would be able to keep our employees working. Our employees have families and not all of them have the means of going on unemployment or the leisure of staying home. They have families that they need to support.
KD: Do you think participating in a program like Feed the Frontlines NYC has changed your relationship with your community?
AP: It definitely has made it stronger, but the good thing is that ever since we opened, that’s been our model. We’re here to help not make big bucks, get rich and forget about where we came from. I'm a New Yorker. I was born and raised here. When we opened the restaurant we were clear that we wanted to be a changing factor to the community.
Sometimes people come here and we just feel it in our hearts to bless them with a meal. We hear what they have gone through and that they don’t have the means of paying for the meal. We just give a meal to them anyway, which means so much to them. So we've always had a good relationship with our community. People know that if there’s someone hungry outside the restaurant, we’ll just give that person food. We won’t even hesitate.
In the beginning of the pandemic, people kind of lost faith in one another. It's just a matter of reinforcing what we're here for and I think Feed the Frontlines NYC is on the same page. It's not about us, it’s about the community. We are figuring out how we become stronger and surpass all these difficulties together, while still being business owners and providing a service to our community and our city.
KD: How is running a restaurant in the Bronx, a more residential area, different than running a restaurant somewhere like Midtown Manhattan?
AP: I think it's tough to be a business owner in Midtown right now because their overhead is a lot more than ours. But then again, they are targeting different customers, who I feel like are more flexible and not as conscious of what they are spending. Whereas in our community, we do have to sell food at a lower price because we want to make sure that everyone can afford something.
Every demographic has its own challenges and its ups and downs. This community, the Bronx, is an area where people don’t have as much economic freedom [as the customers for restaurants in Midtown would]. It's an area that has been hit the hardest by the pandemic and you still see it in the streets. Even as we're coming home or going to work in the morning, you see the food pantry lines everywhere are so long. There’s such a high demand for resources, and it’s like that all over the city, it’s just masked differently.
KD: You mentioned that you have to sell food at a lower price and cater to your community in that way. I noticed you use delivery apps like UberEats, Seamless, and Grub Hub. How, if at all, have these delivery apps affected your business during the pandemic?
AP: It's been like a Catch 22. The apps are very good because they've been able to bring in a lot of business, but up until recently they were taking these crazy processing and commission fees.
Even when the law [capping fees] was passed, it still took these big corporations weeks to get the law in effect and stop charging large amounts of money. Before, out of $300, $70 or $80 was just commission and then they had the processing fee. So when it was time for us to get our cut, it was very minimal, you know? But it's the price we have to pay for that service.
KD: Are people showing more understanding of the importance of local restaurants now versus prior to COVID-19?
AP I believe so. We're still seeing a lot of our same, local customers. But I definitely think it is bringing awareness to people of their decisions and how sometimes we just make the rapid choice of going to a large chain restaurant. Large chains still have their costs but they don’t have as many financial restrictions as small business owners do. So I think it has been a rude awakening for people and seeing so many establishments closing has been really heartbreaking.
KD: What are the prospects for Leche y Miel in this time of uncertainty? What are your hopes for the future of the business that you and your husband built?
AP: I think this has been a very interesting growth for us and we’re thinking of ways to reach out to people from home. It’s all about opening our horizons to the different things that we can do to make more revenue, hire more employees, and just keep going.
The ideal thing would be to continue to run our business, make a little profit, and succeed. We want to show people that we're here for the long run.
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