LYNN — Lynn natives Estefani Orellana-Garcia and her parents, mother Fidelina Garcia and father Misain Orellana, opened Estefani’s restaurant on 106 Union St.just a year ago. A lot has happened since then.
The three opened the restaurant last Feb. 7, just a few weeks prior to the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown. And for a first-time business owner, Orellana-Garcia has endured more hardships in her first year than most.
Estefani’s is a Central American restaurant, and Orellana-Garcia says that the establishment’s birria tacos and pica pica wings distinguish it from other Central American restaurants in the city. Orellana-Garcia took the reins and spent months remodeling Estefani’s, decorating, and planning a menu. Since then, she has employed 12 people full time, hosted successful themed brunches, catered the KIPP Academy virtual graduation for hundreds of people last June, and provided an authentic Central American experience to thousands of guests.
Her success story was “not all peaches and cream,” as she said. Growing up in Lynn, Orellana-Garcia was exposed to the restaurant business as a child, having a cousin that owns Bleu Fin Bar & Grill in Middleton and Ebi Sushi in Somerville.
She attended KIPP and Lynn English before graduating with a degree in finance from Bentley University. She then went straight into the corporate world, working at Marriott in the management training program, but realizing she hated it about two years in.
“My family is used to the work-to-live, not live-to-work life. I had a good-paying job, I should be grateful, which I was grateful for. One hundred percent. It’s just not fulfilling enough,” she said. This triggered her decision to pursue a restaurant of her own, in hopes to find her passion, she said.
Estefani hit the ground running last August, spending 60 to 100 hours a week planning for her new “baby” and staying up until 4 a.m. on some days revising and editing the authentic menu. She credits one of her friends for suggesting the birria tacos. Her chef, Orlando Martinez, who is also her cousin’s husband, has had an immense impact on the restaurant’s success, being able to keep up with the high demand of the tacos. She said the restaurant was averaging about 300 orders per day.
Last year on March 13, Estefani’s closed due to the growing intensity of COVID-19.
“I was already trying to adapt to learning how to run a business,” Estefani said. She spent two months adjusting her business plan to cope with the changes the pandemic forced on her restaurant.
“I had to then adapt to the new norm. We didn’t originally have takeout or delivery but now we had to learn how to use Grubhub and Uber and get our own online delivery service,” she said.
Estefani reopened on May 1 for takeout and delivery only.
The pandemic has made it difficult to find certain products, and has increased the prices of some of the fan favorites, such as the elotes locos. Containers and straws aren’t as available, but Orellana-Garcia had the support of neighboring businesses to push through.
“It is kind of like a community,” she said. “I met Rachel Miller, who owns Nightshade Noodle Bar, because she’s another female entrepreneur and we opened around the same time.”
The restaurant’s strong presence on social media draws in customers from all over, even some coming from Maine. Orellana-Garcia runs all of social media but says that her mom has a big role in management as well.
“My mom has a great perspective, but I can communicate and cater to the younger generations, finding the next cool thing and building the hype on social media,” Orellana-Garcia said.
When asked where she sees herself in five years, Orellana-Garcia said, “to be honest, to even think that we’re here now is amazing.”
“I firmly believe it’s super important to first focus on what you have now,” she said. “Make this the best it can be, then I can focus on another project.” Orellana-Garcia wants her customers to know that she is extremely grateful, humble and appreciative of all the support that she has received.
“I cried. I didn’t know if I would survive this,” she said, speaking of when she was forced to shut down due to the pandemic. She is beyond thrilled with how her family’s restaurant has turned out, especially given the circumstances.
Estefani’s will be hosting another Sunday brunch on Feb. 21, this one having an old-school reggae theme. Reservations must be made in advance, as the last two brunches sold out.