The two men diligently hosing down the patio of a Silver Spring restaurant one lazy, hot Monday this month weren't the hired help. The toilers, who were awaiting the day's customers, were the restaurant's owners. Married to Portuguese sisters, Jose Alvarez, 48, and Albino Castro, 35, are immigrants who worked their way up the restaurant business ladder, washing dishes, bussing tables, assisting chefs.
Today, when they drive to Mi-Rancho Restaurante from their homes in Prince George's County -- Alvarez in his blue Mercedes sedan, Castro in a sporty Land Cruiser -- they can look back at their ascent from owning nothing in a foreign land to owning a business that has made them comfortable enough to consider opening a second restaurant.
In 1969, Alvarez fled a war zone in El Salvador for the United States, leaving his mother and sisters behind.
Advertisement
He bussed dishes in a restaurant and worked day jobs in construction, slowly getting promotions until he became a chef in restaurants such as Au Pied de Cochon in Georgetown and Bethesda's Le Caprice, which has since closed. By 1980, he owned two houses and had opened a Brazilian restaurant in Georgetown with a partner.
Then it all fell apart. He and the partner parted ways, with Alvarez buying the partner out in 1983. The restaurant failed, forcing Alvarez to sell his houses and leaving him $120,000 in debt. As if his business woes weren't enough, someone stole his car. And he had a wife and three children to help care for.
"Everything came at the same time," he said. So he started over.
The family rented a house in Silver Spring, and he started day jobs again. Soon, he started his own painting and construction business, which blossomed.
Advertisement
"An old lady in Chevy Chase came to me asking can I do a stone patio, and I never did that in my life," he said. Rather than say no, he summoned his wife's sister's husband from New York.
Albino Castro and his wife had been living there since 1984, when they emigrated from Portugal, but the pull of family was strong. They packed their bags and moved south.
It proved to be a wise financial move. In 1987, the families bought a fixer-upper house in Washington and the brothers-in-law spent weekends remodeling it. Then they bought another. And another. Today they own seven properties, in addition to their own homes -- the Alvarezes' in Mitchellville and the Castros' in Upper Marlboro. They have bought and resold another five.
When the real estate market slowed, Alvarez's thoughts turned again to restaurants, and he asked Castro to go in with him on a burned-out, scarred building in Silver Spring, a building he dreamed would be a Tex-Mex restaurant, a success story to make up for the Georgetown loss.
Advertisement
"I was kind of scared," Alvarez said, "because the first time I didn't do too well, and I lost everything."
Castro also was unsure, Alvarez recalled.
"I looked for another friend to be my partner because he refused," Alvarez said.
How long did it take to convince him? They laughed remembering.
"Months," Alvarez said.
The laughter is easy now because Silver Spring's Mi-Rancho, which opened in 1991 and floundered for the first few months, is a smashing success. The colorful, stone-floored rooms are adorned with Mexican tapestries and hats, and the outside patio feels nestled and cozy despite the restaurant's proximity to the busy intersection of Georgia Avenue and Colesville Road.
They fill the tables every night, seven days a week, and weekend nights the brothers-in-law say they feed 600 to 1,000 people.
Advertisement
Their wives, Maria Ascencao and Maria Fernanda, run the bar. The Alvarezes' daughter is a waitress. The Castros' son shyly acknowledges his tortilla-making ability. One of the owners is always at the restaurant, from 9 in the morning to 11 at night. And they say they never argue.
"It tells you the tenacity of successful immigrants," said Jorge Ribas, a scientist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Ribas knows the restaurateurs through Latino community ties. That's also how Ernesto Clavijo, news director at Radio Mundo, came to know Alvarez.
"He helped other business people, people that were trying to make it in the business community," Clavijo said. "He'd lend money and advice and anything else he could do. He was very much involved in helping the community, like donating food and lending his place to community events, like a Christmas party for the kids."
Advertisement
Alvarez and Castro belong to Empresarios Unidos, a network of Latino professionals who support one another and the community through such projects as raising scholarship money for a Latino student to attend college.
"They always want everything to be perfect," Silvia Mastrangelo, a friend, said of the brothers-in-law. She owns Enrico's Flowers in Rockville. "For birthdays, they come to you; they use those Mexican hats, singing happy birthday like mariachis." Alvarez believes the key to their success is a good work ethic. "We're hard workers," he said, waving his hand to the now-sparkling clean patio. "We have enough money to pay somebody to do that. We do it." CAPTION: Waiter Nelson Mata serves food during lunch. The Silver Spring restaurant serves 600 to 1,000 on weekend nights, owners say. CAPTION: The family behind Mi-Rancho Restaurante, from left: Albino and Maria Castro, their daughter, Jessica, and Maria and Jose Alvarez. Maria Castro and Maria Alvarez are sisters. CAPTION: Franey Alvarez, whose family owns Mi-Rancho Restaurante, takes orders from lunch customers Bud Chell, left, Mary Pellarin and Dallas Bishof.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZK6zr8eirZ5nnKSworiOanBybV9lhXB%2FkGidmqWZocZurc2dZKGZopl6uLvRpGSmmZuaerOxwqKnnmWWpL9uv9Scmp6ro2SEdIWRnWiab12asaKFjG2bnXFdboFyfYxxaGpqZZaDpLCSn5xo