Ricardo Hernández began selling Sinaloa-style seafood in the patio of his house in the city of Lynwood. Seven years later, he and his wife, Silvia Cruz, have two restaurants. The Plebe #1 and The Plebe #2.
“In Sinaloa, The Plebe It is a word that we use for everything and that identifies us,” says Ricardo.
The Plebe or the plebes It is a very popular term in Sinaloa that is used to refer to children or boys.
Ricardo was born in Culiacán, Sinaloa. He grew up on the Juan Aldama ranch in the municipality of Navolato, Sinaloa. Silvia was born in Lynwood, but her parents are from Sinaloa and Jalisco, Mexico. They met in Los Angeles.
“I made a living as an electrician here in Los Angeles, but since I had worked in restaurants since I was 17 and I really like seafood, in 2017, I started selling ceviche, cocktails, mixed snacks with shrimp, octopus and crab in the warehouses and factories where he had friends. “I prepared and distributed.”
When combining the work of an electrician with the preparation and sale of seafood became too much for him, he says that his wife Silvia motivated him to sell in the patio of their house.
“I was scared, but I encouraged myself; I saved several of my work checks to buy tables and chairs; and we put up a tent in the yard to sell seafood on the weekends. We lasted from 2017 to 2022 selling seafood in the house.”
Four years later, so many people arrived, and with two girls in the house, and his wife pregnant with another daughter, it was difficult for them to continue selling and serving food in the patio.
“We started saving and bought Tacos Chente in the city of Paramount. This is how we opened Mariscos The Plebe #1 in 2022. It went well, but since people started asking us for live banda and norteño music, and since the city of Paramount does not allow it, we decided to open The Plebe #2 in Lynwood where they do let us bring music to the restaurant.”
Ricardo says that The Plebe #2 They opened it in November 2023.
“Here we have four cooks and four waitresses. And if I include myself, we are five cooks; in The Plebe #1 “We have three cooks and three waitresses.”
What makes different The Plebes of other restaurants that sell seafood in Los Angeles?
The Sinaloan says that first of all, direct dealings with the client. “That makes them feel comfortable and comfortable.”
Another of its distinctive signs is that the seafood they offer is fresh.
“There are places where, for example, they make large quantities of ceviche, I don’t. Our style is cart-loaded seafood, where whoever orders a ceviche, it is prepared on the spot; Another thing that is very important is that I do things as if they were for me.”
Silvia who has played a key role in the success of The Plebe, She is in charge of administration, but she works as a waitress and in the kitchen, depending on what she does. She says she quit her job of 13 years in March to dedicate herself full time to serving The Plebe #2.
“I thought a lot about quitting because I had a very good job. I really encouraged my husband to sell seafood at home when he was very afraid; “When he tried to open the restaurant, now I was scared.”
He says that the first months were difficult to increase sales. “First we paid the employees and then ourselves, and in those first months there was nothing for us, it was just investing.”
Ricardo’s dreams
Ricardo reveals what he wants to do with restaurants The Plebe a place where the immigrant of Sinaloan origin finds all the appetizers of traditional Sinaloan cuisine, from breakfast, seafood and dinner.
“El Plebe is a place where you can enjoy a chilorio, a machaca, chicharrones, asadera, freshly made tortillas with seat and cheese; at noon, seafood, sushi, hot dishes; and at night, a good dinner with a Sinaloan barbecue, golden tacos, some toast,”
He says that his main dish, and the one he receives the most, is a ceviche he created for his wife, which has shrimp, tomato, onion, cucumber, cilantro and mango accompanied with black sauce, and garnished with slices of mango.
“I did it for my wife because she asked me for something different.”
Another of his dreams is to make The Plebe a franchise, which allows him to work hard for his retirement and have more time for himself.
The love story
Few know that behind The Plebe #1 and The Plebe #2 there is a love story.
Ricardo was working at a seafood restaurant in Los Angeles, when Jairo, a customer from Jalisco, Mexico, ordered him some ceviches to take to work.
“It’s for very pretty secretaries,” he told me. Shine! She asked me. Then she came back and told me that they liked it a lot.
But even more, he showed him how much they had loved it, that a girl sent word that she wanted the ceviche with everything and a cook.
Ricardo responded that he was very comfortable, single and without commitments, enjoying life.
“That thing about enjoying wasn’t so true because in the United States, you come to work from dawn to dusk. But she gave me the girl’s phone number and I started talking to her and we sent photos.”
Then she went to meet him at the restaurant.
“I didn’t know what she looked like, I only knew her by photo; I thought, what if they are lies. I saw that she arrived, I looked out from the kitchen, I said, is it the one in the photo; but I didn’t want to go out, I came from the ranch, I was shy. “Silvia ate and left.”
Silvia says they spent two months texting and talking. “Suddenly, he didn’t answer me anymore, oh well I said, no way.”
Until one day she gathered her courage and asked him out.
“I stopped by him on his day off, and we went to the beach in Santa Monica.”
There the romance began, today they have three daughters, plus two daughters that Silvia already had, and two of Ricardo’s who are in Culiacán, Sinaloa, the couple has seven daughters in total.
“I didn’t want a commitment. She was very comfortable, saving money. But now I feel blessed with so many daughters.”
A sacrifice worth it
Ricardo confides that the most difficult part of having two restaurants is sacrificing time with his daughters. “I go out and they’re asleep, I come back and they’re asleep. That makes me sad, because when you turn around, they are already big.”
It comforts him to know that with his effort and dedication, he is teaching them the value of work.
He says it also makes him sad that his parents aren’t here in Los Angeles to see his accomplishments.
“I would very much like them to see what I am doing, and to say look mom, look dad, what I have done.”
Furthermore – he says – they are fulfilling the wish of his father-in-law, now deceased, who wanted Silvia and him to own a restaurant.
Ricardo confesses that there are days when he returns home exhausted, and sometimes the pain in his arms from working in the kitchen wakes him up at night.
“No matter what, I have to get up the next day to come to the restaurant. “Anyone who owns a restaurant should understand me.”
It encourages him to know that every sacrifice has its reward; and as the day comes when he can delegate more and work less, he says that there is nothing that fills him more with joy than seeing his clients, tasting his food.
The taste of his food was precisely what his wife fell in love with, before meeting him in person and seeing his face. “When I tried his food, I said, “Oh my God!”
Silvia admires her partner Ricardo, his culinary knowledge and his ambition to grow.
“When we open The Plebe #2 I didn’t sleep worried about so much money we were going to invest. The typical Mexican wants to save and never invest. My sister was the one who calmed me down. She told me if things go badly for you, they can go back to selling seafood in the yard of your house.”
Nearly seven months later, he says it’s been worth it. “Nothing ventured nothing gained; And the best thing is that as a business owner she has more time for her girls, ages 7, 6, and a year and a half.
The couple agrees that The Plebe #2 has been more successful than The Plebe #1 because their customers really enjoy eating and listening to music. Of course, both businesses They are your plebes (in Sinaloan language, their children).
- Seafood El Plebe #2. Sinaloan cuisine. 3570 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Lynwood, CA 90262.
- Seafood El Plebe #1. Sinaloan cuisine. 15000 Paramount Blvd. Paramount, CA. 90723.