Genuine hospitality. We experience it in many ways. It’s the friend who embraces you in the open doorway; the extra chair casually added to an already crowded table; the authentic exchange of joys and sorrows over heaping plates of simple fare; or the unabashed gift of tradition.
Certain restaurants create that magic. Buena Vista Mexican Cantina restaurateur and business owner Glen Garcia embodies it. Glen and his son, Nathan, oversee the family's many businesses to include ice machines, laundromats, and mini storage units, to name just a few.
"We had a liquor store for awhile. If I don’t see there’s a good return, I just don’t pursue it. There’s opportunity everywhere – you just have to look."
Glen Garcia's most well-known businesses are the family's four authentic gourmet Mexican restaurants - Buena Vista Mexican Cantina - located in four locations: Hampton Cove, Madison, Cullman, and Scotsboro.
From the moment I enter Buena Vista Mexican Cantina I feel like part of the Garcia family, five in all: Richard, Gladys, Glen, Fannie, and Alonso. Glen’s cousin seats me in “the meeting booth” and delivers chips and salsa before I even consider wanting them. Nathan urges me to try a bite of one of the newest menu items, a decadent, cheesy double-layered enchilada topped with a sunny-side-up egg, “Would you like to try it? Try it before I do,” he says, handing me a fork. As new photos of Alonso’s brand new baby daughter circulate the table, I feel part of the love that ignites the Garcia family.
Buena Vista serves authentic gourmet Mexican cuisine. Many of the entrees came from the restaurants the family worked over the years. Others come from the family vault. The popular chicken soup belongs to Glen’s mother’s.
"This is my mom’s recipe, the chicken soup. It’s a real old Mexican recipe. Alonso created that enchilada."
The tradition continues into the dining room’s design where international Interior designer Marta Figueroa brought in Mexican pattern and materials. Each Wednesday the music is authentic.
"We have Salsa Dancing lessons on Wednesdays at 6 on the back patio. We even dance with our customers. It gets packed."
Things weren't always so easy. Glen Garcia is a man of humble roots.
"Where I was born was the poorest part of L.A. – the projects. Growing up there was tough. I took Nathan to see where I grew up, and showing him makes me proud that I did grow up and was born there. I’m not saying I would like to go back and live there again. But I came from that type of lifestyle into this lifestyle. There’s so much opportunity in life."
When Glen was 14 the family moved to Atlanta to be near his father’s family, and began work in restaurants. He attended five different high schools during that time period but still manged to earn a soccer scholarship for college. He didn’t finish school. Instead, he built a life for he and his wife, Victoria. Hard work, an optimistic approach, and integrity are the ingredients of Glen’s success.
"When I first got married me and my wife were sleeping on the floor of my brother’s house. I couldn’t get a job. I was going to hotels. I was going to restaurants. Going, going, going. Couldn’t get a job. My family offered me a job. I told them 'No.'"
Finally, Glen approached a restaurant owner and offered to work the entire weekend for free. If he wasn’t good enough, the owner didn’t have to hire him. At the end of Friday night, the owner hired Glen to start the next day, with pay, but Glen stood by his word: “No. I said I’d work the weekend for free.”
Whether it be taking care of his family or encouraging others, Glen Garcia’s generosity feels limitless. “You come to a certain point in your life, where you have to ask, what’s next? Am I just going to be selfish and keep it to myself?”
"My kids never had Christmas."
I look to son Nathan, seated to my left, clad in an immaculately-cut dress shirt and gold watch, for affirmation. He nods and smiles.
“Well, we did,” grins Nathan. “But we gave it away.”
Their Christmas tradition involved loading the truck to the top with toys and gifts. Then they would head “home,” giving gifts to all the poor children in towns along the way. I say the image reminds me of a kind of Mexican Santa Sled. Nathan nods in agreement.
A self-made man in every sense, Glen Garcia is making a difference in his community.
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