A taste of El Dora-dough Empanada venture Winnipeg-born, but is deeply imbued with flavours of home country, Peru By: David Sanderson Posted: 2:00 AM CST Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/11/2024 (333 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Before we begin, Jonatan Laos Zegarra would like to apologize to anybody who has ever searched the name of his livelihood on their device, only to be left scratching their head as to its precise whereabouts.

You see, despite its bricks-and-mortar-sounding tag, Café Lima is strictly a home-based enterprise, the same way it has been since the day 16 months ago when the married father of one launched his venture, which specializes in Latin American-inspired empanadas.

“I get that question all the time — ‘where’s your café?’ — and people look at me kind of funny when I tell them there is no such spot… that it’s imaginary,” Zegarra says, seated next to his wife Nicole and their three-year-old daughter inside a Pembina Highway coffee shop, 20 minutes from their home in Howden, a rural community situated about halfway between St. Norbert and St. Adolphe.

“I guess I could have picked a less confusing name but at least if we do open a spot of our own somewhere down the line, I won’t have to spend time wondering what to call it.”

Zegarra, 34, was born and raised in Lima, Peru, the fourth-most populous city in South America. Post-high school, the eldest of three siblings attended the National University of San Marcos, where he studied environmental engineering. He spent a few years working in his chosen field before switching gears entirely, to follow in his father’s entrepreneurial footsteps.

“My dad owned a candle factory in Lima and it was there, performing sales and administrative duties, where I first developed my passion for business,” he says, noting his first language is Spanish, but that he was taught English in school from an early age.

In 2017, Zegarra signed up for a webinar offered by the University of Manitoba, which introduced foreign students to its one-year certificate program in management and administration. He knew where Winnipeg was in relation to Vancouver and Toronto, he says, but that was about the extent of his knowledge of the city, when he arrived here in December 2018, to begin his tenure at the Fort Garry campus.

He laughs, mentioning he had previously spent time in the state of Maryland during the winter months, but the eastern U.S. seaboard didn’t exactly steel him for -30 C temps and waist-high snowbanks.

“I survived, obviously, thanks in large part to layering, a style of dress I had no concept of until I moved to Manitoba,” he says.

It was Zegarra’s intention to remain in Winnipeg and work for a year upon completion of the course, before returning to Lima. That plan changed one evening in July 2019, however, after a few of his friends persuaded him to accompany them to a samba night being held at St. Boniface’s Coronation Park.

As luck would have it, Nicole was there, too, and the pair started dating, almost immediately, he says, reaching for his wife’s hand.

Zegarra was employed in the sales division of a large packaging firm in the spring of 2023 when he was informed he was being laid off. He took the news in stride, telling himself since he had always dreamed of being his own boss, what better time than the present to turn that into a reality? Only what type of business should he pursue, he wondered?

After narrowing his decision to something centred around food, he and Nicole put their heads together to try and decide what direction he should take. Before meeting her husband, Nicole had spent a year in northern Peru teaching English. While she was there, she was shown how to make a number of native dishes, including empanadas. Perhaps that was an avenue he could explore, she suggested. (Good idea, that: according to a recent survey by food-ordering platform Grubhub, the half-moon shaped hand pies are the eighth-most ordered food item in North America, behind burrito bowls, burgers and pizza.)

Despite having had limited experience preparing empanadas himself — in Lima, there is a street vendor peddling them on every corner, pretty much, so few bother to learn, Zegarra explains — he turned out to be a quick study. Within a matter of weeks, he was confident enough in the beef variety he was turning out that he and Nicole began hosting weekend tasting parties for family and friends, to solicit feedback.

While everybody agreed he had nailed it in regards to his pastry, some suggested his filling could use a little more “this or that.” Not only did he heed their advice, he went a step further. To differentiate his empanadas from others that were commercially available in the city, he began importing various spices directly from Peru, in an effort to make his output really “taste like home.”

Zegarra officially unveiled Café Lima in June 2023 at the Wolseley Farmers’ Market. He sold every last empanada he brought along, and replicated the feat again and again in the ensuing weeks, despite doubling, then tripling, his production.

“Every country in Central and South America has its own version of an empanada, so when people who are originally from that part of the world stop to say ‘hey, you’ve got something here,’ that fills me with more joy than I can tell you.”–Jonatan Laos Zegarra

“It wasn’t long before I had many repeat customers, which gave me the confidence I needed to come up with other flavours besides beef,” he says, listing cheese, chicken and a concoction he calls Manitoba (farmer sausage, bacon, dried blueberries, onions and garlic) as some of the types he currently produces on a near-daily basis, out of a commercial kitchen in La Salle, not far from he and Nicole reside.

Zegarra, who has also become a familiar face at the ever-popular St. Norbert Farmers’ Market, almost has to pinch himself to believe how far things have progressed in a little over a year.

A couple of store managers have approached him about supplying their locales with frozen empanadas, which is an opportunity he intends to explore just as soon as he has the time to undertake such a responsibility, he says. To that end, he recently invested in a piece of machinery that will greatly assist him with the dough-making process, which to date he’s been doing exclusively by hand.

“Because my wife is busy taking care of our daughter, it’s all me at the moment — not that you’ll ever hear me complaining,” Zegarra says. “Being kept so busy that I sometimes have a hard time keeping up with demand is definitely a good problem to have.”

Besides empanadas, Zegarra has also added dipping sauces and Peruvian-flavoured beverages such as hibiscus tea and hot chocolate to the mix. And as pleased as he is homegrown Manitobans seem to be enjoying what he has to offer, it’s the compliments he receives from former Argentinians, Columbians and fellow Peruvians that lead him to believe he is on the right track, thus far.

“Every country in Central and South America has its own version of an empanada, so when people who are originally from that part of the world stop to say ‘hey, you’ve got something here,’ that fills me with more joy than I can tell you,” he says, smiling from ear to ear.

By the way, if you’re reading this and have an extra spot on your soccer team, you may want to give Zegarra, who can’t say enough good things about moving from a metropolis of 11 million to a community of under 100, a shout. He played the sport extensively growing up, he says, but is still searching for a permanent squad here in Manitoba.

“I played a bit when I was at U of M but for sure, if there’s one thing I miss about home, soccer would be it.”

For more information, go to instagram.com/cafelima_manitoba

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca