Support Enrique and His Mom's Restaurant Dream

My name is Enrique Grimaldo, I recently graduated from the University of Houston, and I’ve done a lot of scary things in my life, but starting a business with my mom last December has been the scariest. It’s been her dream to open her own restaurant my entire life, but more than that, it’s been her dream to achieve economic mobility in a country that has made every step of her journey more difficult than it needed to be.

Starting the restaurant was scary not because we didn’t know what we were doing, but because we didn’t have the finances usually needed to take on a project of this size, but we made the leap anyway. We’ve made it this far without any bank loans or investors (because they rarely bet on businesses like ours), and we’ve built amazing relationships with the people around us. But last week we got an unexpected notification from the Texas comptroller asking for a $10,500 security by this Friday June 6 for our license to sell alcohol, and that has impacted our ability to pay rent this month.

The grand opening for the full restaurant is scheduled for June 20th, but if we can’t pay the rent, we might never see our hard work begin to pay off. I studied business in college because I wanted to help my mom with her restaurant one day. I’ve learned to navigate permits, licensing, taxes, accounting, branding, and hospitality, all while serving tables daily from 10am to 10pm. It’s been excruciating, and I’d be lying if I said otherwise, but I know we’re on the verge of something really beautiful if we can make it through this hurdle.

Every opportunity I’ve ever gotten is because of my mom, so I’ll never feel bad for putting my dreams on hold to pay back a sliver of what she’s done for me, but this is a problem I can’t solve alone. I humbly ask for any help you can give, if you can contribute even $5 or a share with someone who might be able to help, I’d be eternally grateful.