It’s 10 a.m. on a Saturday at the farmers market in downtown Phoenix and there’s a line for burritos as usual. Despite the 95-degree heat and the pandemic that still severely affects Arizona, others need their weekly burrito breakfast; some wait for the shadow of a tree, wearing masks, in a well-spaced row.
Pablo Osete serves burritos as he does, but this time he has his face covered with a cloth mask dotted with small colorful flowers. Instead of cooking burritos on site as before, 3 Mi Catering workers prepare burritos in advance in their advertising kitchen, heat them early in the morning and bring them prefabricated to the farmers market.
Mi Catering is a business in the circle of family members formed by María Inés Castellanos, founder and chef, and her two sons Manuel and Pablo Osete. Although his activity was affected by the pandemic, especially the restoration part, Paul said they remained afloat due to their unwavering clientele.
“There’s something special about the farmers market and the network around it,” Paul said. “So we’re very fortunate to be part of this network that just allowed us to continue.”
He said they felt more like serving in the open-air market with new rules, adding a eating ban on the spot. Now they have to staple the bags full of burrito so that other people don’t dig while they’re at the market.
They have been busy on the market this summer, which is usually low season due to scorching heat. Although they sell burritos at most on Saturdays, they also bring less food to sell.
The circle of relatives left Mexico 16 years ago and Castellanos began running to start his catering business in Arizona. First, he basically hosted parties, weddings and lunches in the workplace. Castellanos is originally from Guadalajara, so it cooks Mexican dishes, but has also reveled in Spanish, French and Mediterranean cuisine, encouraged through its travels around the world.
Then, the family business circle expanded beyond restoration when he moved to the farmers market to sell his sauces and burritos about 12 years ago.
My Catering has a staple of downtown Phoenix’s farmers market and the Valley culinary scene. Earlier this year, they served their signature burrito in Devour Phoenix at the Desert Botanical Garden.
Although they closed for a few weeks in March, they temporarily returned to the farmers market to offer burritos and sauce to their unwavering customers. Paul said they were also delivering orders online that other people went straight with them, but catering orders slowed down noticeably.
“Until recently … Every weekend we had several occasions,” Pablo said, adding that they left the farmers market and organized more occasions in the afternoon and evening. He said they’d only have 35 or 40 weddings a year. And, of course, the weekly lunch days at the workplace are also over, at least for now.
But that doesn’t mean My Catering is in demand.
“We have been invited to host catering events through many customersArray … and we reject them,” Paul said of being invited to organize rallies as parties in the pandemic pool. “We don’t have to be irresponsible just to make money … it’s not worth making other people sick.”
He said that while they hand over recovery orders, they do not need to serve the parties in the user and do not know when they will do it again.
The pandemic gave them the ability to help the network through a connection they established at the farmers market: Paul said they were going to supply food to Andre House, a Phoenix-based nonprofit that serves more than 700 night meals six days a week.
Prior to COVID, food was ready through volunteers, however, to lessen the threat in the early days of the pandemic, local businesses, adding My Catering, left food.
“It’s something we’re very satisfied with because you feed other people in need,” he said.
But as summer adapts to autumn and cooler weather arrives, Paul knows he will have to be creative. They can expand to offer their food through delivery like GrubHub and Postmates, but for now, Paul said he could concentrate on the salsa trade.
Customers in the country request that My Salsa be shipped home.
“Many other people ordered salsa in the most random places, but it was great to see other people do it,” he said, noting that he had even shipped salsa to Montana recently.
However, your next new visitor may be Whole Foods.
Pablo said they were in talks with the company to sell their sauce at local stores. Due to the slowdown in the business during the summer and the cancellations similar to the pandemic, he stated that a credit is that they manage to expand this from their business.
“You’ll have to take it almost as a positive thing. I know it’s not the most productive scenario we’re in, but if you can see the bright side, maybe it’s something we can focus on.”
“The last 3 years, 4 years, have been pointless,” he said. “Everything’s going to change. We just have to adjust.”
Please contact the reporter at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @DrShaena.
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