There aren’t that many restaurants that have stayed open for over 40 years, which is what makes Nuevo Leon extra special. The Little Village staple has been around since 1977 and it was originally owned and managed by Emeterio Gutierrez, but for the past 18 years, Laura Gutierrez, his daughter has managed the restaurant.
Employees and customers are like family
The restaurant owners are from a northern part of Mexico called Sabina Hidalgo, Nuevo León, which like every part of Mexico, has a unique seasoning that makes it stand apart from the rest. “We are known for our refried beans, carnes asadas, machacado a la mexicana, homemade flour tortillas, and many other Mexican dishes,” she says. One of the things that make the restaurant unique is that you get complimentary salsa and chips. Since the pandemic, many restaurants have stopped giving away complimentary food. Nuevo Leon gives you free chips and salsa and even gives you something sweet, a dessert, to finish off your plate. 
Gutierrez explains that she loves working in the restaurant industry and she truly enjoys what she does. “I love what I do and I have the passion to do it,” she says. “My employees are my second family and we have many loyal customers that are like another family.”
“At Nuevo Leon, we know most of our customers by their first name. I’m a public relations girl, I love mingling and interacting with my customers. We have entire families, three or four generations sitting at the tables and we usually know most of our customers already.
Working with the Chamber for 15 years
One of the best things about working with the Chamber is that this is an organization that likes to connect people. As a Hispanic chamber in one of the biggest cities in the country, we know the importance of connections and know how much value our networking events bring to the business community. IHCC staff helps businesses connect and helps find the resources that you need to make sure your business is thriving. Nuevo Leon has been working with the IHCC for over 15 years and they know the value that they bring to small businesses. “They’ve been very helpful in introducing me to key people and helping me apply for resources and grants. One of the things about the Latino community is that we don’t like to ask for help, the Latino way is that we like to figure things out,” says Gutierrez. The good thing is that we have programs like the SBA Community Navigator Program that go out and talk to Latino businesses like Nuevo Leon and bring those necessary resources that they need to their place of business.
How has COVID affected your business over the last two years?
COVID affected every business differently, but most restaurants can agree that they were thrown a curveball when asked to shut down during the pandemic. “I think we were affected in every aspect of the business and we had to reinvent the way we did things,” she said. “We were trying to keep our employees afloat because when you have 15 families that depend on you, immigrant families, we had to worry how they were going to make ends meet, how to cover their rent, how they were going to put food on the table because, at the end of the day, they are part of our family.”
Gutierrez explains that they were crippled and used as scapegoats because the city never showed any numbers of the breakdown of how restaurants were affected by COVID. One of the most difficult things was asking for vaccine cards and IDs, especially when most people in the community didn’t carry these. “I had to work double shifts because I couldn’t leave my staff to deal with people alone. My employees got yelled at and spit at, and I was forced to shut down for three days after the second weekend of January,” she explains. Gutierrez felt like the illness was inside her head and she had to shut down to regroup because she knew that she had to follow the rules in order not to get fined. Gutierrez believes that there were lines that were crossed and she was doing an extra job that she didn’t sign up to do just because the city ordered her to do so.
Advice for women-owned businesses
Some words of advice for women: Don’t take anything too personal. “We can fix what we can fix, what we can’t, we can’t. Don’t take anything too personal and don’t take work home, so learn to divide and separate work from home,” she explains. “I always tell other business women to put a lot of Vaseline in the morning, that way everything slides, goes, and flows–don’t take anything too personal, you have to let things go.” Another piece of advice is to practice wellness because as an entrepreneur, you deserve some wellness time. “Find something that you enjoy doing for yourself, find groups to connect with because there are always people in the same boat, other people in the industry that you are able to connect with, and brainstorm when you have challenging moments. Life is simple, we complicate it, the simpler we live it, the easier it will get.”
Nuevo Leon in Little Village is located at 3657 W 26th St, in Little Village, visit https://www.nuevoleonrestaurante.com.