When Jessica and Josh Bufford opened Estilo in the suburbs of Richmond, Virginia, the most common question they heard from guests was, “Is this just fancy Mexican food?”
The restaurant opened in August 2013, and in January 2014 it won the “Best New Restaurant” award from Richmond Magazine. Now the mesa Latina is packed for lunch and dinner nearly every day of the week. Clearly the Buffords are doing more than a few things right, including riding the waves of two key trends—Latin American food and gluten-free kitchens—and managing the restaurant with the perfect balance of art and science.
Estilo's signature dish, Duck Confit Pozole (right).
Latin American cuisine, led by Peru.
The inspiration for Estilo started many years ago when Jessica traveled to Puerto Rico and fell in love with the Caribbean flavor. Then in 2008, Food and Wine Magazine ran an article touting Lima as the world’s next culinary destination, and Peru took up residence in the back of her mind. Last year, the Buffords traveled to Peru and came home with a deep appreciation for the country and its cuisine. Inspired by the ceviche, roasted chicken, thousands of varieties of potatoes, and of course, pisco sours, they open Estilo just weeks after returning from their trip.
In addition to Peruvian food, Estilo serves specialties from Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Costa Rica. The Buffords took some smart steps to help locals grow comfortable with the unfamiliar cuisine. Before Estilo opened, they performed a “menu-takeover” at their first restaurant, Toast, to introduce existing customers to their new venture. “Gateway dishes,” like the Peruvian roasted chicken, also offer a familiar introduction for the skittish. Perhaps most important, Estilo’s servers are impeccably trained and can answer questions about every menu item.
Gluten-free, naturally.
Estilo wasn’t conceived of as a gluten-free restaurant, but when Jessica looked at the first draft of the menu, she realized that only four or five dishes contained gluten. So she challenged her head chef to make the menu entirely gluten-free. “South America is the land of the potato and corn,” as Jessica put it, “Estilo just seemed like a natural for a gluten-free kitchen.”
Having seen the success of gluten-free menu offerings at Toast, the Buffords knew there was demand for the cuisine. Nevertheless, they did not initially advertise the gluten-free aspect of Estilo, fearing that some potential customers might assume that wheat-free meant taste-free. “But word gets out,” Jessica noted, “the celiac community is pretty tightknit and word about us spread.”
While the kitchen is 100% gluten-free, they do carry some beers that contain gluten, and at lunch they offer the option of enjoying certain sandwiches, like the Chivito from Uruguay, on bread baked fresh daily by La Sabrosita, a local Latin American bakery. As soon as the bread enters the kitchen, it’s placed in Tupperware and segmented in a special area that has a designated cutting board and special knives used only for slicing bread.
Recipe for a restaurant: equal parts art and science.
Oddly enough, neither Jessica nor Josh Bufford comes from a cooking background. Jessica studied theatre in college and made her way into the restaurant business by doing what many young actresses do. “I loved waiting tables, it was very theatrical,” she said, “and I think of our servers as actors—they have their own script, their own way.” Josh, an energy efficiency software salesman by day, is “a spreadsheet and numbers kinda guy,” Jessica says, and careful data analysis has helped them more than once.
For example, when Estilo first opened there were high-top tables lining one set of windows in the restaurant. As the couple started analyzing customer feedback, they noticed that “three-quarters of our complaints—about anything—were coming from those tables,” according to Jessica, “and I believe that the reason is that from the moment they sat down, these people were unhappy.” So although it meant losing seats, the Buffords removed the high tables and replaced them with the comfortable booths that make up most of the restaurant’s seating. Complaints plummeted. “What helps differentiate a successful restaurant from the many restaurants that have great food is that customer experience,” Jessica says, “and we look at each table we serve as a unique experience from beginning to end.”
Update: Estilo closed its doors in June 2015. You can read more about that in Style Weekly, a local Richmond magazine, here.
If you have a fun or interesting story idea or recipe, a story about your restaurant or a customer experience, we would love to hear from you. The best stories and recipes will be published on our blog and distributed to the HBC Community, nationally and potentially internationally. Further, we will reference your name and establishment for bringing it to our attention. A little publicity can always help to grow your business and awareness.
