Today we’d like to introduce you to Linda Barragán
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Casita Linda was born from a collection of reasons. Just before the recession, my family moved to Worcester county in 2005 due to a boom in construction for work while my dad was in drywall. We noticed Mexican cuisine and basic groceries were non-existent in this county compared to prior places we’ve lived. There were two tiny tiendas at that time that both no longer exist.
I am a 1st generation Mexican-American. Half of my family reside in Chicago, IL, where I was born. The other half of my family reside in Mexico (Guanajuato and Queretaro). When I was little we lived in Irapuato, GTO when my dad opened up a paleteria that was then sold to my abuelita on my mothers side, then sold to my tio Beto, my dad’s brother, who still owns it today. I grew up smelling fresh fruit and fresh dairy products. The paleteria vendors were all walking distance or a short drive away. Both my father and mothers side of the family in Chicago have had experiences operating butcher shops, grocery stores, restaurants and tiendas. In Mexico, my family has had corner stores and multiple paleterias through the years. Today, two of my tias are working on a mobile espresso cart with baked goods.
For all of my teenage years I wanted to open a new concept paleteria in this county to serve paletas, aguas frescas, ice cream and fermented yogurts just like my family has in Mexico. In my early twenties I had multiple jobs where I served the spanish speaking population in 3+ counties. I realized that unlike my Chicago family who lived in Mexican populated towns, I lived in a small town with a small percentage of a mixture of latinos. While getting to know these surrounding counties I realized that most latino tiendas serve basic needs like money exchange, produce, medicine, and imported basic household products. These tiendas are vital for the latino community new to the area but I also realized that the stores were not food oriented. From what I remember reading in the 2019 census in my county was 5% latino/hispanic the majority being puerto rican.
In 2019 with the help of my husband, I called my parents, brother, and sister who were at the time living in Colorado and told them we must open up a new type of Mexican cafe/ bakery in downtown Ocean City, MD. They packed up and drove across the country to create Casita Linda. We had a rough start in 2019, for our first summer was full of misunderstandings and embarrassments of our concept cafe. We closed for the winter season and two weekends into our second season, we had to close up the dining room due to the covid pandemic. The paleteria never got to its full potential for we had to acclimate and serve a larger food menu in order to make any sales. We then created a new concept that we still follow today, “a day in a mexican household” homestyle cooking. We serve aguas frescas, homemade horchata and chocolate abuelita ice cream to complement our espresso menu. We serve nixtamalized corn totopos for our chilaquiles and nixtamalized corn tortillas for all of our tacos and platos. I bake pan for tortas, pan dulce, and Mexican inspired pastries. My mom cooks the food menu including salsas caseras. My dad has learned to handle meats and make michoacan inspired carnitas. Fast forward 5 summers later and we were the only Mexican owned Mexican restaurant in the resort town of Ocean City, MD. I spoke 90% spanish as soon as summer hit and we had lines out the door successfully serving locals and returning Ocean City tourism. We have since relocated to Ocean Pines which is a town just on the other side of the bay of Ocean City. Aside from having a profitable summer in Ocean City, my family and I realized we were doing too many concepts into one location and feared losing quality control. Serving the local market and in a way being educators of our culture was always our mission. We have become a Mexican coffee shop with breakfast, lunch and bakery. The majority of our products are handmade. We have noticed a major increase in local recognition and more potential to collaborate with fellow food industry friends. We have also been visited by annual tourists who specifically drive to us from out of town. The evolution has not been without emotional, financial and culturally responsible struggles. Casita Linda was created as a need to be a space for unity, proper representation, and to serve traditional Mexican comida.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Overcoming the impacts of the pandemic 7 months into opening a new business was brutal. I was 5 ½ months pregnant. My parents and my sister were all dedicated to sustaining ourselves full time with the cafe. My husband and I have made huge financial sacrifices to keep the cafe open. Our advantage was working with family and customer word of mouth within the hispano community, which took a couple more years to gain. In 2021 we were not prepared for the explosive summer we had. We had no new employees due to covid. We had to go from only direct family working to training 8 people at the same time, all with second jobs and no experience in Mexican food. We had a fast casual set up and quickly realized large familias were expecting to dine in service with our new food menu (created to survive the pandemic).
We also dealt with cultural misunderstandings. We were either compared to the local Tex-Mex or The hyper local Latino population which is a melting pot of ethnicities. Local Latino restaurants/tiendas include multiple Latino-American food menus based on who has or is in their kitchens.
2021 was a turning point for the better and for the worst. We were very busy and our menu finally felt understood/ very appreciated. However, we noticed a shift in tourist behavior that was affecting our family friendly customer’s experiences. There was a lot of aggression and poor behavior far too often throughout the day. I knew it was unusual because I have worked summers in Ocean City from age 14-24 (I was 28 in 2020). Lastly, price gouging and shifting ingredients due to shortages while keeping up with high volume demand was extremely stressful. Our reputation as the only Mexican food establishment owned by a Mexican family and Spanish speaking service was so rewarding yet I felt defeated by production challenges and my personal life’s stability.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a self taught panedera/baker. I am most proud that I was able to give myself the time to read books based on the science of baking breads and test out my own recipes. I became extremely fascinated with the history of baking in Mexico. I am most interested in the origin of things. I’m constantly asking myself things like; why did we inherit this style of baking?, why is a marranito cookie called a “marranito”?, where did we supply wheat from? I wanted to share my heritage in a special way in this town. We live in a place where freshly made conchas were non-existent.
Aside from baking pan dulce, I baked torta bread and I became the tortillera making an average of 400 maiz tortillas a day in the summer (all masa mixed by hand, tortillas hand pressed by a single tortilla press). After time, I was fortunate to get help from my tia from Mexico who also learned to bake when she lived in egypt and in Italy. We have since developed a few recipes together and she now bakes with her sister and my abuelita back home. They are currently working on a mobile espresso and pan dulce motorcycle cart.
Casita Linda has offered my family such a unique outlet for growth and connection. My parents create such a delicious food menu. My sister (who is now a full time spanish/english medical interpreter) initiated our first version of the espresso menu, my brother got to practice his spanish and be completely surrounded by it while in highschool, my tias, and primos on both sides of the family have all been a part of our growth, all of my abuelitos (including my recently deceased) have enjoyed our pan and food. My husband has also been with my parents and I every single step of the way. We are a relentless team that believes in the simple mission of having a good life while sharing food from our hearts with the community.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
I know what success doesn’t feel like. We had a remarkable breakthrough in 2023 where we profited for the first time and would be set to profit year after year in a remarkable way. It came with the price of being absent in my son’s summer life and emotionally unavailable. The price of being successful in a resort town is not for the weak. I am not remotely close to claiming myself weak, however, I value my motherhood more than anything in this world. I also value being present in my business and representing who we are. I never wanted to be an owner of an operation that I couldn’t proudly show my face in front of. The cultural responsibility took a toll on me. I no longer liked sourcing certain products just to keep up with high volume. I no longer felt that we were offering the best version of ourselves. It was incredibly difficult letting go of our location in downtown Ocean City in 2023. We decided we were too many concepts lumped into one small corner cafe size restaurant with no liquor license.
We let go and decided to relocate to the next town across our bay in 2024 to an even smaller space to focus on quality ingredients and community. It feels like taking many steps back to make slow steps forward. However, I know that we all needed to give our bodies a break and try for a more year-round location. Success for me and for us is in stability. Even though we entered a set back, we are resilient and feel proud to provide a healthy environment for others to join us on a day to day. We feel loved and have the energy to receive it again.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.casitalindaoc.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/casitalindaoc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/casitalindaoc/
Image credit:
Main photo is taken by Alexandra Ashman
