The restaurant business is the number one failing

Business type in Canada," says Ana Jimenez Jenkins.

So how has she, along with her husband and business

Partner Wilson Jenkins, managed to run such a successful

and popular restaurant?

"I think it’s because we’re both very stubborn," she says,

then looks at Wilson and laughs.

He nods in agreement. "When other people would look at

the situation and say, ‘Okay, close the doors,’ we’d say, ‘Give

it one more day.’" The enthusiastic clientele they have built

up at their Halifax restaurant are grateful for the couple’s

persistence.

Mexico Lindo Café, located on Dutch Village Road since

November 2000,has been receiving favorable reviews from

local food critics almost since its inception. Ana and Wilson

have made numerous appearances on Breakfast Television,

and the restaurant will be mentioned in an upcoming guide

on places to eat in Nova Scotia by Halifax Herald reviewer

Stephen Maher.

Ana, originally from Mexico, and Wilson, from Newfoundland,

first knew each other as pen pals in 1993. They married in 1998

and moved to Halifax. Ana had a Bachelor of Accounting

degree and owned a women’s clothing store for 14 years

before coming to Canada.

"When I came to Canada, I thought I would keep on in the

line of textiles." She changed her mind when she realized the

market in Halifax wasn’t right for her idea." I was lost for a

couple of months until I decided to start baking, just for

something to do."

The couple started selling baked goods at the Halifax Forum

on Sundays in the fall of 1998.It wasn’t long before they

were getting request orders from store owners. In order to

expand the baking operations and comply with federal health

department regulations, they began working out of a

property with an industrial kitchen on Convoy Avenue.

One day in the summer of 1999,Wilson asked Ana if she

could cook traditional Mexican dishes. Ana said yes—she’d

learned how to cook at her brother’s snack bar back home in

Mexico. "My father was the kind of person who said you

need to learn all that you can because you never know when

you’ll need it," she says.

Wilson encouraged her to prepare samples of Mexican food

for her baked good customers. "As people tried it," he

recalls, "I was watching their expressions very carefully. When

I saw them, I knew that it was going to get to the point

where the baking was going to go into the back room and

the Mexican food was going to come to the forefront. And

sure enough, in August of last year, we found we were too

busy with the Mexican food to continue doing any baking."

"I never thought I would be in the kitchen or be a cook,"

Ana says. She prepares meals twice a day, and tries to

maintain a balance between serving authentic Mexican

cuisine—that means no ground beef—and including enough

familiar items on the menu to entice people to try out Mexico

Lindo Café that first time. "I just don’t want to give people

an imitation. The biggest reward is seeing people coming

back on a regular basis."

They both state that any couple going into business together

needs to know how important it is to separate marriage

issues from business issues. "What’s inside the business

doors remains here and whatever problems are at home,

we don’t bring in here," says Wilson.

"Sometimes it all combines, though," Ana adds. "I think you

need a sense of humour to survive."