New Latin Foodscape: The New Generation at Mercado de la Raza
The Latin grocery store has been around since 1995. After changing hands two years ago, it has become a hub for the Latino community.
Editor’s note: This is part five of a five-part story from HONOLULU’s April issue exploring Honolulu’s new wave of Latin restaurants.
Peruvian Corner | Guaiqueri | La Casita | San Paolo Pizza & Wine | Mercado de la Raza
Things you’ll find at Mercado de la Raza:
- $1 bottles of Tajín
- Paçoquitas Brazilian peanut candy
- Colombiana La Nuestra sodas
- Piñatas
- Prayer candles
- Vitacilina ointment
Mercado de la Raza is where you go when a recipe calls for fresh nopales, gandules or Colombian sour cream. If you are Latino, it’s a nexus. Martha Sanchez Romero opened the Makiki store in 1995 and estimated that 90% of her customers were local. Two years ago, Megahn Chun and her husband, Alex Villarino, bought it; now two-thirds of customers are Latino.
Megahn Chun and Alex Villarino at Mercado de la Raza. Photo: Olivier Koning
“We have a lot of Latinos who come in, maybe they just moved here, maybe they’re just searching for their own people. So a lot of what we do is referral. Sometimes it’s ‘Do you know somebody that has a truck’ or ‘Do you know a lawyer?’” Chun says. “Part of our mission is to empower local Latino entrepreneurs to have the tools that they need.”
Chun, from Kaimukī, had worked in fashion and marketing. Villarino, from Mexico, is a principal in a management consultancy with Fortune 500 clients. Chun brushed up on Spanish after meeting Villarino in New York; since then, with the store and a toddler son to teach about Latino culture, she’s made herself fluent. Neither had run a store, but the couple jumped into the center of a fractured and growing Latin scene. Mercado’s Instagram shouts out other Latino businesses; in-store events connect vendors with customers.
Here’s what else you’ll find, all of it made on O‘ahu:
- Argentinian empanadas by Tango Empanadas
- Aloha Alfajores’ Colombian dulce de leche cookies
- Raíz heirloom corn tortillas
- Conchas sweet breads from Sabor a la Mexicana
“It goes beyond the food and ingredients; it’s about the community. The value of a small business like us is you don’t need to prove that you’re gonna order $500,000 of a product. You can say, ‘Hey, I’m really trying to do this thing, can you help me?’ And we’ll be like, ‘Yeah, we’ll bring in a case of this and keep it for you,’” Villarino says. “That’s why this place is such an anchor of the community. It’s much more than just a store.”
1315 S. Beretania St., (808) 593-2226, @mercadodelaraza
