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