Bringing together community and culture with a variety of Mexican foods and products is what makes this family business thrive.
| 2019 Q3 | story by Joshua Falleaf | photos by Steven Hertzog
Owner Raul Perez of La Estrella
Owner Raul Perez greets a friend walking through the door of La Estrella Mexicana to shop the grocery aisles, send some money to family or, perhaps, get a couple asada tacos for lunch. Then he turns to another friend to ask how the day is going as he waits for his food. Ten minutes later, Raul jumps behind the counter to assist his wife, Adany, with a growing line of friends who are hungry and trying to take authentic Mexican products home to their families.
“We don’t have customers,” Perez says. “We have friends and family. All are welcome here.”
It has been a long and challenging journey for Perez. Originally from Querétaro, Mexico, he spent much of his life as a factory laborer with just a few years serving in the restaurant industry. To improve his situation, he moved to California to work. He endured for nine years before the threat of gangs became a concern for his family. A friend told him about a small college town in Kansas. With little more than a couple connections with a few people, Perez packed up and came east to Lawrence.
The good schools, pleasant neighborhoods and helpful neighbors of Lawrence would be perfect for the Perez family. “I fell in love with the friendliness of the people, the landscape, everything,” he says.
What he missed, however, was the truly Mexican foods he grew up enjoying. Much of what is available in the Midwest is generally more Tex-Mex than Mexican and bears little resemblance to the diverse ingredients and preparations of Mexican cuisine.
Having devised the idea to start a small grocery store, he would stock his shelves with the very particular foods and products he grew up with, knowing Hispanic and non-Hispanic friends would also crave them and enjoy the various and delicious Mexican flavors they could cook at home with the right ingredients.
Authentic Mexican food being cooked in La Estrella kitchen
The pursuit of this store offering authentic Mexican products proved difficult. Without any experience owning and running a business, it was truly a matter of trial and error for Perez. For instance, being a very small startup grocer, he did not need, nor could he afford, the massive quantities larger grocers require to stock innumerable shelves and racks. Distributors were only willing to ship those products to his store at a very high cost to the business.
But he persisted, traveling back and forth to Kansas City markets several times a week to stock his shelves. “It was bad for me at that time,” he says. “I wasn’t making any money from the grocery, so I was working labor full-time, too. No money to eat or do anything.”
Perez was confident, however, that in the end, his store would have a significant customer base with the same longing for the flavor of mango, cactus, coconut and tamarind. “I knew the needs of my people,” he says, “because I knew what I wanted.” So he worked tirelessly to satisfy those needs.
Today, Estrella Mexicana is a very busy grocer and diner. People come in morning to evening at a steady pace, because it offers the services and products they want. The Mexican music coming through the speakers keeps the ear aloft. The many colors, shapes and sizes of the packaging, contents and products throughout the business intrigues the eye.
On one wall, the bright sodas and nectars in the refrigerators with familiar and less-familiar makers like Manzanita Sol, Mundet, De Mi Pais and Jarritos; on another, dried herbs and spices in Mi Costeñita packages or plastic baskets for bulk purchases.
Even during lulls in friends visiting, employees are hard at work stocking shelves in the store and preparing food in the kitchen. One might call it hectic if not for the calm manner in which the staff moves, a way of being that comes only by way of experience. Included in the activity is the preparing and stocking of arroz con leche (rice pudding), gelatinas de sabores (flavored jellies) and various fresh meats for the coolers.
Now that the Perez family has added a small diner, the quality and authenticity of the prepared food is paramount. Señor Perez learned from others and otherwise taught himself how to make foods from recipes that are generations old. “I never had a business or was a cook,” he says. “I had to learn everything through experiment.”
Using products sourced through numerous relationships with others who provide just the right flavors, the food continues to grow in popularity. “We make our own marinades for the meat,” he says. And the pork, beef, chicken and other meats are infused with flavor for however long it takes to create the best plate for his friends.
La Estrella owners Raul and Adany Perez
Perez himself teaches his staff every step of the process as he learned it. They not only learn the practice of the business or simply how to produce high-quality food for anyone who walks in the door, he develops what he calls “our team.” I’m not their employer, he says, and they are not my employees. We are a team, a family that works together to support the community.
The menu does offer the tacos, burritos and other staples eaters have come to expect. The tacos, as simple as they seem, are very complex in flavor in large part because of the marinade used. However, the diner also provides options for those looking for something different, not your typical Tex-Mex items. Of course, the daily menu presents tacos, tortas, burrito, and quesadillas made with carnitas (fried pork) and asada (grilled steak), items available at many venues, but it also includes lengua (beef tongue) and cabeza (beef head) prepared perfectly by experienced cooks.
Some of these ingredients take a great deal of additional work to source for Perez. But his resilience and determination to have them in his store pays off. For instance, “It was very hard to find beef head,” Perez says. But now, it’s a staple in the market and the diner.
Raul Perez continues to work hard to bring not only the products but the culture to this community. While including Savilé soap, piloncillo (raw sugar cane) and Carlos V candies in the store, he’s focusing on the fact that, “We are a snacking people,” so he looks to grow the snacking options with an emphasis on ice creams, chicharrones, chips, ices and waters with the kinds of flavorings typical of the authentic Mexican market. “There are so many pops in Mexico,” he says, “that I can’t yet get here.”
Given Perez’s track record, his family and his determination, he’ll get those pops, ice creams and flavored waters here eventually. And the Lawrence community will be better off having them. p