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German Sierra, laminitis of Pana Food Truck successful Santa Cruz, California, ne'er imagined his craving for a puerility comfortableness nutrient would lead him to build a thriving business pinch a loyal pursuing and the favoritism of Yelp's Top 100 Food Trucks.
"My relative and I came to the United States successful 2016 [from Venezuela]," he says. "There weren't immoderate arepas. We really eat arepas each time successful Venezuela, truthful we needed them. My relative was like, 'Hey, why don't we make immoderate arepas and return them to the streets, and possibly group will bargain them?'"
Armed pinch foil-wrapped arepas and homemade Venezuelan juices, the brothers group up extracurricular a supermarket. They didn't waste a azygous one. A constabulary serviceman stopped them, asking for a licence they didn't cognize they needed. Instead of giving up, Sierra gave the nutrient distant and kept searching for a measurement forward.
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"Sometimes there's a small miscommunication betwixt entities. Sometimes the wellness section will [have] different rules than the city," Sierra says, describing the challenges he faced trying to get his business off the ground. "There are circumstantial places to park. You cannot parkland everyplace because there's gonna beryllium title pinch restaurants."
As a business pinch 1 halfway offering, Sierra had to waste the worth of arepas to customers who had ne'er heard of them.
"It was difficult successful the opening — and [is] still difficult — to person group why we don't person different dishes," Sierra says. "We wanted to attraction connected arepas [so] location is nary disorder of what we sell, and it's memorable."
Small adjustments, for illustration listing arepas arsenic "chicken" aliases "beef" connected the menu, helped present the crockery to American diners and trim disorder without losing cultural authenticity. "When customers come, they want 30-second decisions — nary half an hr figuring retired the paper and what to get," Sierra says.
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As connection spread, Sierra focused connected making connections pinch customers, pairing acquisition astir the nutrient pinch free samples to promote repetition visits. Early on, he recognized that an fantabulous customer acquisition made group much apt to take Pana complete different restaurant.
"I didn't wanna beryllium conscionable successful the food motortruck business," he says. "I want to beryllium successful the heart-warming business, because the nutrient makes your bosom warm. That's the emotion I want to create each time."
Now celebrating six years successful business, Pana continues to turn while staying existent to its roots. In 2025, Sierra and his wife, Gabriella Ramirez, opened their first brick-and-mortar restaurant successful downtown Santa Cruz. "It wasn't an overnight success, and we're still increasing and improving," Sierra says. "We are conscionable a baby, and there's truthful overmuch that we tin alteration and improve."
For Sierra, each arepa is simply a chance to stock a portion of home, and to build what he calls "an arepa empire, 1 arepa astatine a time."
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After turning a craving for arepas into 1 of Yelp's Top 100 Food Trucks of 2025 and opening a brick-and-mortar, Sierra's proposal for existent and early business owners is clear:
- Start mini but enactment consistent. Break overwhelming challenges into smaller steps and perpetrate to showing up for your customers each day.
- Adapt to your assemblage while staying authentic. Customer education tin thief your assemblage understand caller offerings and turn goodwill successful your community.
- Lead pinch generosity. Warm work and meaningful interactions matter conscionable arsenic overmuch arsenic what's connected the menu. Customers return not only for flavor, but besides for connection.
- Think astir the large picture. For Sierra, trading arepas was ne'er conscionable astir nutrient — it was astir creating heart-warming experiences. Any platform, whether it's a nutrient motortruck aliases restaurant, tin beryllium a conveyance to share your mission.
- Play the agelong game. Building thing meaningful takes time, patience and passion. If your business isn't an contiguous success, investigation the steps you'll request to return to execute smaller goals that get you person to your vision.
Watch the section supra to perceive straight from German Sierra, and subscribe to Behind the Review for much from caller business owners and reviewers each Wednesday.
Editorial contributions by Jiah Choe and Kristi Lindahl
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