ANA REYES · RESTAURATEUR · HOSPITALITY ENTREPRENEUR · CULINARY EDUCATOR · CONSULTANT
Rooted in culture. Built around the table.
Ana Reyes is a Washington, DC restaurateur, hospitality entrepreneur, culinary educator, and consultant whose work is rooted in Salvadoran food, hospitality, culture, family, and community.
Building meaningful experiences and businesses through food, culture and hospitality.
01 / THE BEGINNING
Soy salvadoreña, hija de inmigrantes salvadoreños. My story begins at El Tamarindo, the restaurant my parents built after coming to Washington, DC in search of opportunity and a better life for their family. I grew up in that family business, where small business became an important part of our story.
El Tamarindo was never just a restaurant. It was how my parents made a living, raised a family, created jobs, and built something of their own. It was also a place where they could stay connected to where they came from and share our culture with the community around them.
Since 1982, our little corner of Washington has welcomed people through Salvadoran and Mexican food, conversation, music, celebrations, and hospitality.
I grew up watching all of it. I watched my parents work incredibly long days. I watched regular customers become friends. I saw employees become part of our extended family. I learned that sometimes something as simple as feeding someone and making them feel welcome can create a real connection. That is where I learned hospitality
02 / WHAT I LEARNED
Not from a textbook or a hospitality program, but from my parents and from growing up in a family restaurant.
As I got older, I began to understand just how much a small business can make possible. It can be a way to make a living, but also a way to build a life: creating independence, providing jobs, supporting other families, and giving the next generation opportunities that may not have existed before.
It can also become a place where culture lives. For our family, the restaurant has been a place where our food, language, traditions, and stories have continued to have a home, even thousands of miles away from El Salvador. I am a product of that opportunity. In 2007, I stepped into a larger leadership role at El Tamarindo. Today, I help lead our family businesses while continuing to learn from and build on the foundation my parents started more than four decades ago.
03 / A PLACE FOR CULTURE
Over the years, my work has naturally grown beyond the restaurant. I became interested in finding ways for people to experience Salvadoran culture, not just through eating our food, but by participating in it. That has led to pupusa workshops, culinary experiences, community gatherings, and cultural activations.
It has also meant creating space in Washington, DC to celebrate traditions that are meaningful to Salvadorans, including helping start the celebration of National Pupusa Day in DC and bringing people together around one of the foods that most connects us to home.
Those moments are important to me. Because for me, a pupusa is never just a pupusa. There is corn and masa. There are hands shaping something that has been made for generations. There is a mother, grandmother, father, aunt, or someone else who taught you how to make it. There are memories of home and family tables. There are traditions that traveled with us and became part of our lives here. And there is a lot of joy in it too.
I think it is important that our culture is not only talked about through stories of immigration, struggle, and sacrifice. Being Salvadoran is also about food, music, laughter, family, creativity, entrepreneurship, ingenuity, celebration, and community.
It is about sitting around a table, sharing what we have, and making room for one more person.
That is the part of our culture I love sharing.
04 / THE WORK NOW
I am proud of what my parents built and of the role I have today helping lead our family businesses. I am also excited about finding new ways to share our food and culture and to create opportunities for other people along the way.
My work today brings together the things that have always been part of my life: food, hospitality, entrepreneurship, culture, and community.
Whether I am at El Tamarindo, teaching someone to make their first pupusa, creating a cultural experience, working on a new idea, or simply bringing people together around a table, I keep coming back to what I learned growing up:
Take care of people. Be proud of where you come from. Create opportunities for others. Always make room at the table.
My parents built a restaurant, but they also built something much bigger: a foundation I am grateful for and honored to keep building from.
Orgullosamente salvadoreña · Proudly Salvadoran