Designer Couple Gives Healdsburg Victorian a Makeover

By Carole Kelleher

A designer couple revives a classic with personality. Click through the gallery above to see photos; read the full article below.  

You might have called it a Hallmark moment — Elizabeth and Rich Pembroke waving goodbye to Kansas City, Missouri, where they had worked for 10 years at the headquarters of the iconic card company. The couple was California-bound, having been offered impressive new jobs at a design firm in Santa Rosa, complete with a relocation package.

After settling for a short while in an apartment they soon despised, the Pembrokes’ weekend real estate searches led them to an 1892 Victorian for sale on Johnson Street in Healdsburg. Tickled by its potential and long history, they recognized it as the perfect place to build their own life story. Their offer was the lowest of six bids, but the sellers chose them as the new owners because they believed the Pembrokes would preserve the grandeur of the place. From the beginning they felt a dutiful tug to bring the house back to its earliest glory — a tremendous undertaking that now, nearly 20 years later, is still an ongoing passion.

“It’s never done,” Rich says, and with the familiarity of the longmarried, Elizabeth finishes his thought: “It evolves.” Rich, an illustrator, designer and fine art painter, is also very adept at DIY home projects, and Elizabeth, an art director and marketing pro, has innovative ideas and an eye for interior design.

What they can’t do themselves falls to general contractor (and good friend) Jaime Rodriguez of J J Rodriguez Construction. He remodeled the kitchen and, five years ago, built a second building on the property that is home to Pembroke Studios, Inc., the design and marketing company the couple founded in 2000 when the business that had brought them to California folded. One of their first clients was their former employer — Hallmark — for whom they designed Harry Potter merchandise like pens, calendars, notebooks, bookmarks, cards and stationery. Eventually they developed a local clientele, and they are now experts in designing wine labels.

Their office building replicates all of the historical details of the main house, and the wood siding was milled specially so the board width would be same. The oak floors were reclaimed from a barn in Kentucky, and the entry door was made to match the main home’s front door.

The Pembrokes’ three-story home, complete with covered porch and windowed turret, was the long-ago residence and medical office of the original owner, Dr. J.R. Swisher, and his family. Just as the doctor saw patients in his home and even delivered babies there, the Pembrokes originally worked in the home, setting up shop on the third story, reached by a narrow and very steep stairway. Even though their new studio is only steps away from their home, they love that their work and home lives are now in separate buildings.

The Victorian housed a long list of inhabitants after the Swishers, and in later years the large house was divided into five apartments rented out as individual units. The owner prior to the Pembrokes began transitioning the structure back to a single residence, and the Pembrokes completed the job. The first floor has a living room, formal dining room, kitchen and bath. There are three bedrooms and two baths on the second floor and the former workspace on the top floor now stands empty. All the plumbing and wiring have been replaced, and all four fireplaces are now working and converted to gas, including one in the master bedroom that warms them all winter. While they’ve honored the original integrity of the home, their furnishings are modern and create a contemporary feel.

When they bought the house, the Pembrokes were told that it was a Halloween hot spot, and they now decorate and have candy ready for about 2,000 trick-or-treaters. There are four black rocking chairs on the porch, which is also enjoyed by their Scottish terriers, August and Tibi.

“We don’t want to live in a museum,” says Elizabeth. “The house is quirky. We have eclectic taste.” Rich’s oil and watercolor paintings grace the walls throughout the home.

They designed the kitchen with entertaining in mind and included two sinks, one for prep and the other a cleanup area. The island has a copper top that Rich made by wrapping sheet copper around a thick base built of plywood and then mounting it on cabinets. A seating area in the kitchen, with two linen-slipcovered armchairs and a round ottoman nested in front of a large window with an orange tree in view, is their go-to spot for coffee and conversation.

Rich meticulously restored a wooden staircase that rises from the entry hall to the second floor with a window seat at its landing. He was rewarded for his efforts not only by its beauty, but also by the discovery of a treasure found under a floorboard.

It’s a letter from a teacher of one of Dr. Swisher’s children, warning his parents that his schoolwork is not up to par. Hidden for more than 100 years, the schoolboy’s secret is still safe — as is this majestic house, so maintained and protected by the Pembrokes that it may well last another 100 years.

Cruffle Crazed? Sonoma Bakery Gives Cake a Sweet Twist

By Carey Sweet

First, there were cronuts, those cleverly named deep-fried croissant-doughnuts that had everyone buzzing.

Then, there were baissants (bagel-croissants), and croizels (pretzel croissants). There’s the chiweenie, too – oops, no, that’s actually a dog, an official American Canine Hybrid Club-recognized cross of a Chihuahua and a dachshund. But surely it could be a pastry, as well — perhaps a churro stuffed with a hot dog?

So are we really surprised that the groovy kids these days are scarfing up another confection called a cruffle? It’s a cross between a cupcake and a truffle, and it happens when bakers mix cake, filling and frosting together, form them into little balls, bake them, then dip them in white and/or dark chocolate.

At Santa Rosa-based Sift Dessert Bar, customers are “cruffle crazy.” The company crafts the sweet treats in about a dozen flavors plus seasonal ones like a chocolate-covered strawberry cruffle. Two of the best-sellers include the Pink Champagne, of raspberry cake and champagne buttercream dipped in white chocolate, and the Samoa, of chocolate cake, chocolate ganache and caramel frosting dipped in dark chocolate and sprinkled in toasted coconut.

“I created the cruffle because I’m always on the lookout for some place new to use our cake,” says Sift founder Andrea Ballus. “They’re especially popular with our guests who want something more bite-sized to satisfy their sweet tooth.”

Some cruffle flavors can be made gluten-free, and Ballus invites custom flavor requests.

“We once had a custom request for a mango mojito flavor for a destination wedding, because the bride was from Miami,” Ballus says. Yet her own recipes already take the prize, quite literally. In 2011, Sift won Food Network’s Cupcake Wars, and today, Ballus and her partners Jeff Ballus and Corey Fanfa operate stores in Santa Rosa, Cotati, Petaluma, Napa and San Francisco.

siftdessertbar.com

The Hottest Restaurants in Sonoma County Right Now

By Heather Irwin

Dining editor Heather Irwin celebrates late spring with an ode to mindful eating for the masses — plus tips on where to satisfy your cravings for edible foliage and virtuous fast food.

Pleasure for Purists, Sans Dogma at Petaluma’s Drawing Board
It’s not every day that you find vegan smoked carrot lox and cashew cream cheese on a menu next to roasted bone marrow. But at a culinary moment when diners want a combination of the familiar and exotic; decadent and healthy; conventional and sustainable, Petaluma’s The Drawing Board feels like a road map to the future of dining.
Ironically, the future looks a whole lot like the past here, with a focus on ancient grains, fermented and foraged foods, Middle Eastern spices and cuts of meat that utilize the whole animal including lamb belly, duck, chicken livers and the aforementioned marrow bones.

“This is food that fuels rather than just fills you,” says Rosie Wiggins, co-owner of the downtown eatery. The 26-year-old, who heads the front-of-house operations and designed the space, struggled with chronic illness for years. She claims a more wholesome diet improved her condition.

Sitting in a sunny window on the corner of Kentucky and Washington streets in downtown, the industrial-chic space could hold its own in San Francisco. On a busy weeknight, the restaurant is a cross-section of Sonoma County: older couples, families, millennials cocktailing at communal tables and friends out for a shared bite at the bar. Already, word is out about Drawing Board, as a place where everyone can find something to suit their dietary wants and needs.

Billed as “seasonal new American,” the restaurant relies predominantly
on the diets of the world’s longest-living cultures along with ancient food preparation techniques. “Minimally processed ingredients, rich in phytonutrients, often showcasing heirloom varietals, sourced locally — without sacrificing flavor,” Wiggins says. Even the cocktails follow the theme — woodland fantasies with spruce, spirulina and even porcini mushrooms as ingredients from mixologist Jennifer Grossbard.

Chef and co-owner Ariel Nadelberg, an alum of several high-profile San Francisco and Brooklyn restaurants, showcases the oldis- new cooking with carefully orchestrated dishes, each a small work of art incorporating different colors, textures, flavors and design elements. As pretty to look at as to eat, they’re ephemeral edibles Instagrammers capture to torture their followers.

Granted, nothing is labeled “vegan” or “vegetarian” or “gluten-free,” leaving staff to guide diners when needed, or just let a meatand dairy-free dish like carrot lox — one of our very favorite dishes of the night — turn into a happy discovery for omnivores.
“We want to satisfy all types of diets without being dogmatic,” says Nadelberg, who sees the project as nourishing both body and community.

“It’s important to us that everything has a story, and align with brands whose moral compass aligns with ours,” Wiggins adds. “We’re sourcing primarily from small local farms, reaching out to the little guys who do it right. We want to put them on a pedestal.”
Which is all great, but maybe a little precious? After all, pushing the boundaries of how we’re eating out isn’t a new idea, especially in Sonoma County.
Here’s the difference: The Drawing Board, with its under-40 owners, is looking toward the future of restaurants, where everyone can come to the table together, regardless of diet, with food as nourishing as it is beautiful and delicious. Let’s call it mindful eating for the masses.

The menu is divided into small plates, entrees, snacks and sweets, with nothing over $30 and most dishes hovering between $11 to $18. Snacks are all under $8 and desserts are all $9. Favorites from our winter visit included smoked carrot lox ($12), charred sweet potato ($12), grilled chicken kofta ($13), shepherd’s pie ($18), duck cassoulet ($18), the BBQ veggie burger ($16) and sheep yogurt panna cotta ($9). Specialty cocktails are also not to be missed.

The menu is highly seasonal, so don’t be disappointed if these items aren’t available. We’re pretty confident you’ll be impressed with the bounty of whatever season they’re celebrating.

190 Kentucky St., Petaluma, 707-774-6689, tdbpetaluma.com

Flower + Bone
Chef-owner Dalia Martinez forages through her neighborhood for of-the-moment produce, from Santa Rosa plums to tender baby pinecones.

With a focus on ancient food traditions, the menu is a modern interpretation of classic Middle Eastern, Eastern European and Indian dishes — each made with artistic precision.

A wall of preserves is the focal point of the space, but more than window dressing, it serves as a seasonal larder. Go for the six-course tasting menu, orchestrated to showcase the restaurant’s tandoor oven, fermented fruits and vegetables, edible foliage and pasture-raised meats.

640 Fifth St., Santa Rosa, 707-708-8529, flowerandbonerestaurant.com

The County Bench
There’s a whole new vibe at this downtown Santa Rosa restaurant after a chef shuffle.

Fussy small plates have given way to entirely approachable small plates (beet salad, buttermilk potato rolls, potato Parmesan fritter), bar snacks like their homemade quinoa cracker with house-cured steelhead and hearty dinner entrees that include steak with potato puree, pan-roasted petrale sole, crispy chicken breast with ham hock dashi, and farro risotto with with grilled green garlic, kale and Parmesan that was a meatless standout.

It’s food that Dad will recognize, but impressive enough for a swanky date night. Leave room for dessert, because their pastry chef always impresses with dishes like chocolate and cajeta bar with sour cream mousse or caramel apple tart with Cognac brown sugar ice cream.

535 Fourth St., Santa Rosa, 707-535-0700, thecountybench.com

Retrograde Coffee Roasters
We first met coffee-roasting enthusiasts Danielle Connor and Casey Lanski at a farm market, where they were hawking both fair trade pour-overs and homemade chicory syrups. Now they’ve grown their microroastery business into a full-fledged brick and mortar in downtown Sebastopol.

Though coffee is certainly the star here, we love their turmeric latte, a comforting mix of turmeric and cinnamon paste served with steamed milk, and their unique chai latte with turmeric and fresh ginger. Simple panini get the star treatment, filled with cheese and mushrooms, and homemade soups are just the ticket for a light lunch. Breakfasty? Grab a pastry from Red Bird Bakery — one of our favorite bakeries in the North Bay.

Doing their part for other entrepreneurs, Retrograde sells locally made tea from Tea and Trumpets and bouquets from B-Side Farms, and it hosts pop-up dinners by Matteo Silverman of Chalk Hill Cookery.

130 S. Main St., Unit 103, Sebastopol, 707-827-8065, retrograderoasters.com

Negri’s Original Occidental
This historic Italian restaurant has been serving family-style Italian dinners since the early 1940s, with classic family recipes handed down for generations. Ravioli are made the old-fashioned way, with 10-foot sheets of fresh pasta rolled onto a wooden table, and 50-pound ravioli presses.

Family matriarch Evelyn Negri, now in her 80s, still makes the minestrone each morning, working with her daughter and granddaughters to keep the family traditions alive. The attached Joe’s Bar, a longtime west county watering hole, has been taken over by granddaughter Amanda, who renovated the space and now serves up craft cocktails and casual bar food like meatball sliders, fried chicken, pizza and arancini, along with Nonna’s Ravioli and spaghetti Bolognese.

Take a few minutes to look at all the family photos lining the walls and to say hello to Evelyn, who’ll likely be swirling around the dining room or in the back stirring her industrial-size pot of minestrone.

3700 Bohemian Highway, Occidental, 707-874-0301, negrisrestaurant.com

Amy’s Drive Thru
Fast food without meat? Vegetarian food purveyors Amy’s Kitchen have created a drive-thru restaurant that serves up burgers, fries and milkshakes with a better-for-you bent.

We’re huge fans of the Amy’s Burger and coconut milkshakes, but now they’ve got a breakfast menu to start your day on the right foot. After months of serious R&D at the Amy’s Kitchen lab, the lineup includes veggie sausage, tofu and cheese breakfast sandwiches; delish yogurt parfaits; and the crave-worthy burrito bowl with baked tofu, spinach, mushrooms, carrots, potatoes, cheese, tomato, sour cream and salsa.

58 Golf Course Drive West, Rohnert Park, 707-755-3629

Beat the Midweek Blues at Santa Rosa’s Wednesday Night Market

By Estefany Gonzalez

The reunified Old Courthouse Square in Santa Rosa might look a bit barren upon first glance with its clean, concrete look. But, as the season’s first Wednesday Night Market proved, this new-old square does have potential. 

As a restless teen in suburban Santa Rosa, I always enjoyed attending the midweek market; watching the hustle and bustle from my seat by the old fountain together with my color-haired friends. We’d share a large Pasta King box, and leave our leftovers next to the homeless people who, surprisingly, always seemed capable of sleeping right through the noisy event.

When I first saw the new Courthouse Square, I had a hard time imagining this being the location for the vibrant Wednesday Night Market – it just looked too bland. But last week, as I attended the premiere of the market on Courthouse Square, I realized the new design works wonders for the seasonal market.

No longer divided by a street, the open green area in the middle of the square allowed people to come together and relax on the grass while catching some afternoon sun; the pop-up stage – complete with a dance floor area – showed that this can be a great location for live performances and midweek fun; and you could still smell delicious food in the air, find handmade goods in the market booths and even catch sight of a hula hooper or two.

A nice new addition to the market was the expansion of the craft beer and wine garden, which is no longer limited to a small closed-off section of the market, but instead takes center stage on the square – beer-lovers lined up, and cheerfully chatted with friends and strangers.

As I walked down 4th Street and across the square, there was definitely enough of a positive and playful vibe to convince even the most “square-skeptical” local that there’s more to this downtown spot than first meets the eye. Click through the gallery above to see some of the highlights from the Wednesday Night Market premiere on May 3. 

Wednesday Night Market, May 3 – August 16, every Wednesday night 5 -8:30pm, Courthouse Square, Santa Rosa, wednesdaynightmarket.org

 

Some Like it Hot: 5 Sonoma Beers to Pair with Chili

By Jess Poshepny Vallery

Can’t make it to Saturday’s Chili-Cook Off in Petaluma? Create your own-mini version of the event at home –  we’ve listed five Sonoma County beers to pair with your homemade chili (recipe from Peloton Culinary below). Click through the gallery above for all the details. 

Peloton Culinary's chili. (Tim Vallery)
Peloton Culinary’s chili. (Tim Vallery)

PELOTON CULINARY’S CHILI

Yields: 12 10 ounce portions (roughly 1 gallon)

  • Vegetable Oil, as needed
  • 1 Cup Onion, medium diced
  • 1 Cup Red & Yellow Bell Pepper, medium diced
  • 1 Cup Carrots, peeled, small diced
  • 1½ Tablespoon  Garlic, minced
  • ½ Pound Beef, medium diced
  • ½ Pound Pork, ground
  • ½ Pound Sausage, ground
  • ¼ Cup Chili Powder
  • ½ Tablespoon Cumin, ground
  • ½ Tablespoon Coriander, ground
  • ½ Tablespoon Mexican Oregano
  • ½ Cup Dried New Mexico Chile Puree (see below)
  • 32 Ounces Beef Stock, low sodium
  • 12 Ounces Your Favorite Sonoma County Stout
  • 1¼ Cups Diced Tomato in Puree
  • 1 Cup Beans, cooked until tender
  • ½ Cup Masa Slurry (see below)

Method:

Sauté the onion, rutabaga, carrot, bell pepper in the vegetable oil until the onions are translucent. Add the garlic and sauté for 2 more minutes. Remove the vegetable mixture from the pan.  Add a little more oil and sear the meat in same pan until browned. Add the spices and sauté for an additional 3 or 4 minutes. Deglaze the pan with the stock. Add the sautéed vegetables, beer, chili puree and tomatoes to the pan.  Bring the mixture to a boil then reduce to a simmer for one hour.  In about 30 minutes check seasonings and adjust with kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper if necessary. After an hour add the cooked beans and simmer about 10 minutes. Then add the masa slurry and cook for an additional 20 minutes. Check for seasoning and serve.

Chile Puree

  • 1 pound Dried New Mexico Chili
  • 2 cups Water, boiling

Rehydrate the chilis in the boiling water, then puree in blender

Masa Slurry

  • 1/3 cup Masa flower 1 cup water

In a small sauce pot whisk in the water to the masa flour.  Cook at medium to high heat for 2 minutes.

Happy Cooking!

8 Awesome Sonoma Beer Events in May

By Jess Poshepny Vallery

Sonoma Beer Geeks: mark your calendars for these upcoming events. Click through the gallery above for details. 

 

Chili, Firefighters, Beer and Screaming Hot Salsa Heat Up Petaluma

By biteclub

The 20th annual Great Petaluma Chili Cook-Off, Salsa and Beer Tasting happens this Saturday, May 6 at the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds from 1-5p.m.

Voted on of the best chili cook-offs in the US, it’s a serious smackdown between restaurants, local businesses, service organizations and individuals vying for bragging rights in the categories of meat chili, vegetarian chili, traditional salsa and fruit salsa. The event also includes plenty of beer and wine tastings, including 20 breweries, belly dancers and Trader Jim’s Pineapple Whip trailer along with plenty of other fun and mayhem. Tickets are $10 for kids 5-11 (under 5 are free), $25 for all the chili and salsa you can taste and $50 to add 10 beer tasting tickets, plus all the chili and salsa tasting. More details online at greatchilicookoff.com.

Lagunitas Parent Company Heineken Releases Controversial Ad: Love It or Hate It?

By biteclub

News that Sonoma County’s Lagunitas has been wholly purchased by Heineken gave pause today.

While the nearly two-year relationship between the two brands (Heineken purchased 50 percent of Lagunitas in August 2015) looked like it was headed for marriage, many of us wondered if the inventors of irreverent beers like “Hop Stoopid, “Censored”, “Sucks” and The Waldos’ Special Ale were headed for corporate blandity. And ads with girls in bikinis. 

Who knows, maybe they are, but a recent advertisement for Heineken has us feeling hopeful (see video above). Maybe even a little tearful.

Unlike the ill-fated Kendall Jenner Pepsi ad that was soundly ridiculed for its ham-fisted, cotton candy take on the very serious subject of mass racial and political protests, Heineken took a real-person approach to some seriously deep, divisive issues: Transgender identity, feminism and climate change.

The ill-fated Kendall Jenner Pepsi ad: 

The spot brings together individuals with strong opposing viewpoints to first collaborate on a physical project (building an impromptu bar) before revealing their disparate opinions. After learning of their partner’s political views, they’re invited to stay and have a beer or walk away.

Everyone stays for a beer (which happens to be Heineken, this is an advertisement, not an after school special). They all find some common ground, and one even hopes to continue the friendship. Awww.

So okay, I’ll admit I’m a sucker for sap, and possibly the least cynical person in the world when it comes to emotional stories and people acting like civil homosapiens. Not surprisingly some folks even found it MORE offensive than the Pepsi ad.  Like really offensive. Mostly though, the ad has been lauded, and maybe in a time of so much divisiveness, it’s heartening to stumble onto a moment that shows humans at their best, rather than at their worst. (PS. I kinda didn’t hate the Pepsi ad, for as goofy and candy-coated as it was, it was just nice to see signs that said “Let’s start the conversation” rather than “God Hates You.”)

We’ll see what others have to say over the next few weeks about the merger and the advertisement. But at this moment, we’re pretty encouraged at the success of a local brand like Lagunitas hitting the really, really big time, and the positive messaging of their parent company. Win-win.

“During the 19 months of our partnership we have come to trust and truly believe in each other,” founder Tony Magee said in a statement about the merger of the companies today to the Press Democrat. 

Maybe believing in each other is something we all need to do a little more of.

Overnight Success for El Roy’s Mexican Grill in Petaluma Was Anything But

By biteclub
Yvette Vega, co-owner of El Roy’s Mexican Grill, in Petaluma. Heather Irwin/PD

The Marin County dump isn’t exactly the kind of spot budding restaurateurs often see as being ripe for opportunity, but for Yvette Vega and her brothers, the busy San Rafael waste and recycling hub had plenty of hungry customers eager to see their humble taco truck each day from noon to 3 p.m. Part of their route through Marin in 2004, the young siblings typically worked 100-hour weeks hawking tacos wherever they could find a place that would let them stop for a few hours.

But Marin Sanitary was the stop that put them on the map.

Our gasoline was that we saw the struggles of our parents.

– Yvette Vega

“It was most of our business,” recalled Vega, 29, who now sits in the brick-and-mortar restaurant, El Roy’s Mexican Grill in Petaluma, she co-owns.

Opened in 2016, the restaurant is just part of the growing El Roy’s empire that also includes three taco trucks and a thriving catering business. The popular eatery also will have a permanent hub in the Block, a soon-to-open Petaluma food truck court. Voted the “Best Taco Truck in Sonoma County” by Press Democrat readers in 2014 and 2015, Vega, a second-generation Mexican-American, still can’t quite believe how far she’s come in the past 12 years.

“We never thought we would have any of this. We’re just so grateful to even have a restaurant,” she said. “We just want to see where it will take us from here,” said Vega, who is one of the “three jalapeños” of the El Roy’s logo — the other two are her brothers and restaurant co-owners Roy and Fernando Cabrera.

These days, the young mother lets employees do much of the heavy day-to-day lifting while she manages the restaurant’s finances, permits and catering. But she also serves as cashier, dispatcher, cook or whatever else needs to be done as the business continues to expand. Opening the restaurant on a Friday morning, she pulls chairs outside and checks on the kitchen before sitting down to chat.

Though their fleet of bright orange trucks and cheery restaurant may seem to be an overnight success for newcomers who line up for their sopes and tacos in Petaluma and Santa Rosa, Vega said the welcome wasn’t nearly so enthusiastic in the early days, before food trucks became downright trendy.

“When we first started, people didn’t want a food truck on their property. We got a lot of pushback. We were turned down a lot,” she said. “They thought we were one of the ‘roach coaches,’ and that was the stereotype. Back then, that’s what people thought of food trucks,” Vega said. She admits that now, “there’s everything out there,” from questionably run operations to higher-end trucks with chef-types making gourmet burgers. For El Roy’s part, they’ve focused on keeping the quality high, prices low, and word-of-mouth advertising from happy customers to keep their operation growing.

“We knew we could be clean, quality, fast, efficient and priced well,” she said.

I want my kids to do what they want to do … No limitations. That’s what my parents came to this country for.

– Yvette Vega

A customer, seeing Vega, shared the description she and a friend have come up with: “We call it cheap and cheerful, or CC. We love it here,” she said. Which is exactly what Vega has worked for with the restaurant.

Hailing from the city of Celaya, in the southeastern Mexican state of Guanajuato, Vega said her father once owned a taqueria and brought his recipes to America — the basis of many of El Roy’s dishes. To support his family, he worked in landscaping and Vega’s mother cleaned houses, using food to bring the family together on weekends. Vega credits the constant hard work of her parents that fueled Vega and her brothers to succeed in their own lives.

“Our gasoline was that we saw the struggles of our parents. Every vacation, we learned that you better go to summer school if you don’t want to spend the summer cleaning houses or working with dad,” she said, laughing.

Brief visits to Mexico to see family were precious, however.

“We went once a year for four days, we drove the whole way. You keep all of those great memories,” she said.

The struggles of her family also helped her see a way through the bad times.

“When obstacles come your way, you have to find solutions. You can’t just stop and take days or weeks to think things through while everything is still moving. I learned that if you can’t do things one way, you have to find another,” she said.

But her biggest obstacles weren’t the 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. hours, dating her now-husband while working on the food truck (“Our dates were to Costco for supplies,” she recalled) or taking in just $18 for a full day’s work.

“Being a Latina, there are a lot of stereotypes of staying at home and taking care of the kids, and your husband taking care of you,” she said.

Vega hopes that her children, 6 months and 4 years old, will have an easier path to fulfilling their potential.

“I want my kids to do what they want to do … No limitations. That’s what my parents came to this country for.”