From a corner shop
to a neighborhood table.

It started with a single corner shop on Lougheed Highway. We were homesick — for the morning smell of nixtamal, for the corner-store concha that costs less than a dollar, for the salsa that bites you back. Nothing on the shelves of the Maple Ridge supermarkets tasted right.

So we did what our grandmothers did: we made it ourselves. Salsas roasted in cast iron, beans simmered overnight, recipes carried straight from home. The shop's regulars asked for tacos to go, then a place to sit, then a real kitchen.

Six years later, we're opening Lupita Mexican Cantina right around the corner — same family, bigger kitchen, more seats, room for everyone. The mercado still hums in its original spot with the same goods we started with. And the recipes — every single one — still come from the same notebook.

— Familia Lupita