Closed // Open
with Rosio Sanchez - Restaurant Sanchez, Hija de Sanchez
While working at Noma, Rosio Sanchez didn’t initially have ambitions of venturing out to start her own restaurant. Her desire was decidedly different, a longing to create a local and casual spot with food more emblematic of her heritage and culture. Tacos seemed daring in Copenhagen, but she wanted to create food from a very personal place. She launched Hija de Sanchez in 2015, a taco stand interspersed among a handful of stalls at the Torvehallerne food market in the center of Copenhagen. That was followed by a second, more permanent location in the city’s old meatpacking district, Kødbyen. But it was her participation in Noma’s Mexico pop-up that began to stir ideas of a more robust restaurant offering, cooking the food she wanted to cook, but with a more wide-reaching menu. That vision, Restaurant Sanchez, opened its doors in 2017.
I meet up with Rosio on a sunny Sunday afternoon seven weeks into the pandemic. Sanchez and the taquerias are still closed. Rosio is lively and flashes a disarming smile when she pops her head out the door to let me in. She says we can set up the tables, which have long had chairs stacked on them, in an attempt to have it resemble its open self. But this is perfect, a visual reminder that no diners have been in the restaurant for some time. Her energy makes it evident she can’t wait for that to change. Throughout our talk, her sense of calm and positivity is palpable. We even manage our fair share of laughs, which feel needed more than ever right now.
CS - It seems like Sanchez and the Hija locations are more than restaurants, they feel like very personal expressions of you. It seems they come from a personal place, a need to create this food for people. What sort of emotions does it stir sitting here, knowing that you can’t share that vision with people, that expression of yourself?
RS - Honestly, it’s taken a while for me to figure out my feelings. It’s been a roller coaster, and the best way I could describe it is going through a period of grieving. It’s been a few weeks. But once I started going out, walking around the city, which has been very vacant, I started to remember why Copenhagen needs a place like Hija de Sanchez and Sanchez. It made me remember why we opened. I opened this so that people could have a place of familiarity. To have that neighborhood place you go to a few times a week for a quick meal at Hija or a special meal at Sanchez. It’s actually made me feel confident about what we’ve created these past 5 years.
CS - That it’s needed?
RS - Yeah, that it’s needed, and that it was a good direction for me. It’s also been quite difficult because it would be sad if it were to all just close. I have a strong connection with it and I think it’s made the city a lot better by adding variety and community.
CS - I think that’s what I was thinking about. This feels very personal. That you don’t want to just make food, but rather that you want to say something or express something about yourself.
RS - Yeah, we put a lot of effort into how we produce our food. I think that makes a big difference! There’s so much effort put into it by our team. The day we were closing, me and Laura [Cabrera, Head Chef at Sanchez] almost started tearing up, getting upset. She’s been with me since the beginning. When you have to just stop and it’s not your decision to do so, it’s not a good feeling. But you know, I’m very confident, and I recognize the strong community we’ve created. The community of Laura, my other managers, the other team members, in a funny way I realized I’ve made my home here. I realize we’ve created our own family here and that makes me feel proud. We’ve been apart most of the time, we don’t get to see each other like before. We stay in touch with Zoom, and we even did a little taco dinner here the other night. We made fish tacos and all sat in the back. It was great to sit there, and even though we sat apart from each other, that we could enjoy the food we love so much, tacos!
CS - We’re now seven weeks into this. Are there signs of positivity you can identify? Now that there have been a few weeks to process what’s happening, is there any clarity, or a bright spot now that maybe wasn’t present in the beginning?
RS - Now that there’s been some time and I’ve spoken to some local chefs, there’s definitely more positivity and even enthusiasm. Everyone is open to doing whatever they need to do to adapt to the new environment. I think that we may not have all of the tourists, but I think hopefully we’ll have more locals. When we opened here, I always pushed to have more locals. It just so happens that most of us also rely on tourism.
“ I opened this so that people could have a place of familiarity. To have that neighborhood place you go to a few times a week for a quick meal at Hija or a special meal at Sanchez. It’s actually made me feel confident about what we’ve created these past five years.”
— Rosio Sanchez
CS - That seems to be the thing bubbling up, more of a focus on the locals.
RS - Yeah, but you can’t control it. When we first opened I wanted to focus on being that local spot, because I didn’t want to be that restaurant that relies on visitors. I genuinely wanted to add a place to the city where Copenhageners could get their taco fix like I did growing up. But then you realize, when you look at the numbers, that we still rely on visitors. But I do feel very positive. Even today, walking in the space, I feel like I’m ready to open at any moment. Talking to my team, I get the sense they’re at the edge of their seat, ready.
CS - You’re the leader and the face of the business, but there’s a team that makes this all possible and I’d love to ask about them. How are they? How do you all stay in touch?
RS – I check in on them quite a bit, especially my managers. I have the closest relationships with them, I think that’s important. We have a Slack community. Not everyone participates, but it’s there. I think it’s important to keep in touch. We try to talk about things, not necessarily about work, but talk about how we’re doing. I don’t think of them just as co-workers. I’m genuinely concerned about them, that they’re okay. And they are okay, actually. Some are handling this differently, and I respect the space they need during this time.
CS - It’s interesting, when you become a business owner, you don’t think about having to take on a role like this, suddenly you’re emotional support.
RS - Yeah, I think it hurts everyone, but it hits the owners personally the most to be honest. To have your staff stripped away, coming into an empty restaurant that you worked so hard to create and maintain. That was really tough for me in the first couple of weeks. It’s getting better now. As an owner, you’re putting so much work into it, and for it to close and suddenly everyone’s gone. It’s hard to not have your team and guests around.
CS - You spend so much time with them, it’s almost like family.
RS - For me, it really feels like that. As the leader, I feel like that’s your job to try to take care of everyone the best way you can. It’s a bit like being a like a parent, I assume, because I don’t have kids. You know, that maybe doesn’t always get appreciated, maybe they don’t call to say “hi.” [laughs]. But that’s okay. I can’t hide those feelings, of missing everyone, of missing having a full restaurant. The music, the energy, the vibe is what I really miss and of course the food. I miss hanging out. Just being able to have a glass of wine or mezcal. Honestly, these weeks have been quite stressful and you think “I need a to have a drink with someone.” It’s not the same sharing a drink or hanging out together on zoom, but it helps.
CS - A lot has been written about the precarious nature of businesses within the service industry. Through all of this, what do you hope customers and diners learn about restaurants and bars, the business of keeping these vital places open?
RS - The thing that comes to mind is value. What people should pay for food and service. Which is not just about the food costs. It’s also about the salaries, staff, materials, and other services. Everything that makes a restaurant work is so much more than just the food. I hope that people better understand how the business works. That those who own restaurants have to push really hard to make it. I realize many people won’t. But everyone’s cost will change after this pandemic. Why restaurants need to have their costs a bit higher than those of a takeaway, and also, I hope people understand quality. I also hope that, with any changes that need to be made, that guests can adapt to that just as we will have to.
CS - Meaning changes in terms of keeping the business open based on the new reality?
RS - Yeah, the way a restaurant operates in general, the feeling, the ambiance. Ambiance is going to be altered after this. What kind of ambiance is there if you can’t sit next to each other, or waiters need to keep their distance? I hope we have guidance on how to do that, we need that from authorities before we open so we are all on the same page.
CS - This can all seem overwhelming so that makes me wonder what you’ve done for yourself? From a pure happiness point, what sort of things have you done to create a positive space for yourself during all of this?
RS - Coming to the restaurant every day makes me happy. Even if it’s just to come and walk around, work on my computer here, anything like that, just being here. My Shiba dog Kuma makes me happy. She’s getting a lot of extra attention these days.
CS - She must love this new reality.
RS - I wonder if we’re smothering her. [laughs] Martin [Ho, co-founder of wine bar Pompette] told me yesterday that she hasn’t been alone since quarantine and that maybe we should leave her for a bit. So, we try to give her some space too. Martin is still working full time, as Pompette is selling wines for takeaway. I’ll still come to work even though he’s off, just so he can have some personal space and so I can stay focused on work for the business. And I’ve been keeping a journal. I started it immediately when the quarantine started. I’m always working from a schedule and I always try to organize my time, even when quarantine started. Sometimes days can be long and I feel like “What happened today?” So, if I look at my journal, I think “Okay, I’ve been to the taqueria, I did ‘x,’ I had phone meetings” and I can figure out what happened. I feel like that helps me not lose any time. Keeping a schedule has been helping me manage my time.
“Everything that makes a restaurant work is so much more than just the food. I hope that people better understand how the business works.”
— Rosio Sanchez
CS - Finally, when restaurants are able to open again, what do you look forward to most about coming back to Sanchez and the taquerias?
RS - What I look forward to the most is recreating the energy in our restaurant and taquerias. The energy is something that definitely comes from the team and the guests respond to that. It’s naive to think we’ll have the same as before, but I look forward to working with the team to build up a new version of that energy. There’s just something about having the right people together that feeds creativity and inspiration. I really miss the day-to-day conversations with guests and staff. A lot of times it's through these encounters that an idea is sparked. I'm looking forward to building our new community and to the challenge of reopening. The reopening will not be easy, but I'm sure we’ll learn a lot from it. Just as we were during our first restaurant openings, we should get excited for the challenge of the unknown and prepare for it as much as humanly possible.