Where the dream opened its doors.

Ten years ago, a magazine told the story of La Churrería for the first time. On that cover was a man wearing an apron, a smile, and carrying many ideas waiting to become real. Behind the photograph were enthusiasm, preparation, and the desire to build a place where coffee and churros could bring people together.

At that moment, everything seemed to be beginning. There were plans, recipes, projects, and the belief that hard work would quickly be enough to turn that dream into a solid business. We did not yet understand the full weight of difficult nights, bills that would not wait, unexpected changes, or the number of times we would have to begin again.

Looking at that interview ten years later brings many emotions. There is joy in remembering the beginning. There is also nostalgia for everything we imagined that has not yet happened. But above all, there is one certainty: despite everything, the dream still stands.

La Churrería has not followed a perfect path. It has experienced moments of growth and seasons of uncertainty. It has changed, adapted, and learned lessons no manual could have taught us. At times, we felt we were moving forward; at others, it seemed that all our effort was barely enough to keep the doors open.

Yet every difficulty left us with something. It forced us to understand our products more deeply, listen to our customers, correct our decisions, and rediscover the true reason we wanted to continue. The 2016 interview is not simply a memory of who we once were.

It is a testimony to the moment when we decided to believe. Today, ten years later, we do not want to pretend that we have already achieved everything we dreamed of. There are still fruits we hope to harvest and important challenges we must overcome. But now we have something more solid in our hands.

We have experience. We have a clearer identity. We have customers who return. And we have a story that was tested without disappearing. That is why we decided to return to that interview and tell what happened after the photograph. This is the story of a dream born around a cup of coffee, a dream that learned to endure and still has much left to write.

Ten years later... The dream still stands. And now, its greatest chapter begins. — Alberto Mata

Before La Churrería existed, there was a kitchen. And in that kitchen, beside the wood-burning stove, stood a large blue enamel pot that always seemed to be full of coffee. It was my grandmother's kitchen. It did not matter what time of day it was or who came to visit.

There was always hot coffee ready to be shared. Sometimes it carried the sweetness of cinnamon and piloncillo; at other times, the aroma of firewood blended with the coffee and filled the entire house. I never asked why that pot was always there. It was simply part of the home, like the voices of family, the conversations around the table, and the way my grandmother welcomed everyone who arrived.

Years later, I understood that the pot held much more than a beverage. It held hospitality. It was a simple way of saying, "I am glad you are here." A cup of coffee could accompany a conversation, warm a cold day, bring the family together, or make an unexpected visitor feel welcome.

Those days are gone and now live in my memory. But whenever I smell Café de Olla, I return to that kitchen for a moment. I return to the stove, the blue enamel pot, and the warmth of a home where there always seemed to be time to share. When we began imagining La Churrería, I wanted to recover that feeling.

I did not want merely to serve a drink. I wanted to offer a memory, a little warmth, and that comforting embrace for the heart that can be found in a cup prepared with love. That is why our Café de Olla was not born from a marketing strategy. It was born from memory.

It was born from the desire to prepare for our guests the same coffee my grandmother always had ready for anyone who came to her home. Many people may never have known that kitchen or seen the blue pot beside the firewood. But a part of that place remains alive every time we serve a cup.

Before the business, before the menu, and before the name, there was a grandmother who always had coffee to share. That is where our story truly began. — Alberto Mata

The idea for La Churrería began with a simple question: What has the power to awaken memories and bring people together? For us, the answer lived in two flavors deeply connected to memory: a good cup of coffee and a freshly made churro. Coffee accompanies conversations, mornings, farewells, and reunions.

Churros remind us of town squares, fairs, family, and the small moments that remain in the heart. We decided to create a concept that combined that nostalgia with an experience of our own. We did not want merely to open a place that sold food. We wanted to build a space where people could slow down, talk, and share.

We began to research. We discovered that fried dough has a history stretching back thousands of years and that different cultures have prepared it in many ways. We traveled, observed, asked questions, and experimented. We were searching for a churro that was not soaked in oil, that was pleasant to eat, and that offered the texture we imagined: Crispy on the outside.

Soft on the inside. Light and enjoyable. At the same time, we wanted the coffee to have an identity of its own. It could not be merely an accompaniment to the churros. It needed its own story, quality, and ability to create an experience. That is how the first sketches, recipes, tests, and conversations about the name, image, and atmosphere of the business began.

Each idea led to another. A cup of coffee could nourish the soul. Churros could nourish the heart. And together, they could become a reason to gather around a table. There were no open doors or waiting customers yet. There were notebooks filled with ideas, many questions, and a dream just beginning to take shape.

From that time came an idea that still describes the way we work: We keep cooking up ideas and preparing them from the heart. That is how La Churrería began. With a cup of coffee, a churro, and a dream to build. — Alberto Mata

When we first began imagining La Churrería, I understood that enthusiasm alone would not be enough. If we wanted to offer something truly special, we needed to prepare ourselves. That is why I decided to study to become a professional barista. I wanted to understand coffee as more than a beverage: to learn how to prepare it properly, explore its possibilities, and discover the combinations that could bring out its finest flavors.

Later, I studied coffee cupping. I learned to identify different types of coffee, their aromas, notes, flavors, textures, and places of origin. That training helped us choose the coffee we wanted to serve with greater knowledge and appreciate all the work behind every bean.

But La Churrería would not be complete without churros. I also traveled to Europe to study different types of dough and better understand the flours used to make them. Every class, every test, and every mistake brought us closer to the texture we were seeking: Crispy on the outside.

Soft on the inside. Light and pleasant to the palate. We did not simply want to copy a recipe. We wanted to understand it, perfect it, and turn it into an experience of our own. Studying did not remove the difficulties from our path, but it gave us the tools to face them.

It taught us that behind an apparently simple product are knowledge, discipline, patience, and countless hours of practice. Over time, I learned that preparation is also a way of showing respect for the people who place their trust in your work. Because when someone walks into La Churrería and chooses a drink or an order of churros, they are not receiving only a product.

They are receiving the result of years of learning, searching, and dedication. Dreams may be born in the heart. But to make them real, we must also prepare. — Alberto Mata

After imagining, studying, traveling, testing recipes, and preparing for so long, the day finally came to open the doors of La Churrería. Until that moment, everything had lived in our minds, in our plans, and above all, in our hearts. But a dream changes when the first customer arrives.

When someone walks through the door, looks around, chooses something from the menu, and places their trust in what you have created, the idea is no longer yours alone. It begins to become part of other people's lives. We started with a simple menu. Among our first beverages was Café de Olla, a recipe inspired by the large blue enamel coffee pot that always sat beside the wood-burning stove in my grandmother's kitchen.

It did not matter what time of day it was or who came to visit. In that home, there was always a hot cup of coffee ready to be shared. I wanted to bring that same feeling to La Churrería. It was not simply about serving coffee with cinnamon and piloncillo. We wanted to share a memory, offer a little warmth, and make every person feel welcome.

For our opening, we prepared our first 50 kilograms of Café de Olla. We thought it would be enough to get us started. But in only four days, it was all gone. We immediately had to prepare a larger batch so we would not run out again. That was much more than a successful sale.

It was a sign. People were not simply tasting our coffee. They were connecting with the story, the aroma, and the memories contained in every cup. For the first time, we felt that the idea we had protected and nurtured for so long was beginning to take on a life of its own.

Opening the doors did not mean we had reached our destination. In truth, it meant the real journey was only beginning. There would still be challenges, lessons, mistakes, and moments when we would need to remember why we had started. But during those first few days, something happened that we will never forget: The dream began to breathe. — Alberto Mata

The first few days were filled with excitement. Every customer who walked in, every cup we served, and every order of churros that left our kitchen confirmed that the dream had finally begun. But after the excitement of opening came a reality that no course can fully prepare you for: Keeping a business alive.

Opening the doors was the result of many months of preparation. Keeping them open became an everyday responsibility. We had to purchase ingredients, manage inventory, prepare products, serve customers, pay bills, solve problems, and begin all over again the following morning.

Many times, when the last customer had left and the shop became quiet, our work was still far from over. There were receipts to review, numbers that did not always add up, decisions to make, and questions that followed us late into the night. Are we doing the right thing?

Will it be enough? Can we keep going? Behind every cup of coffee, there was much more than a recipe. There were sacrifices no one could see, hours of rest we could never recover, and a family learning to walk alongside a dream that demanded more and more from us.

There were good days too. Days when the shop was full, customers returned, and a simple word of gratitude reminded us that all the effort was worthwhile. But there were also slow days, moments of uncertainty, and nights when holding on to hope was more difficult than preparing any recipe.

That was when we began to understand one of the most important lessons of these ten years: Entrepreneurship is not simply about having a good idea. It is about staying when the initial excitement fades. Getting back up when something does not work. Adjusting, learning, correcting, and beginning again.

Perseverance does not always feel like victory. Sometimes, it simply means opening the doors for one more day, preparing the coffee again, and trusting that every small effort is building something we cannot yet see. Those quiet nights are also part of our story.

Because while the bills remained on the table and exhaustion weighed heavily on our shoulders, there was always a warm cup of coffee reminding us why we had begun. Opening was exciting. But staying open demanded everything from us. — Alberto Mata

There is a beautiful version of entrepreneurship that is often told in just a few words: Someone has a dream, works hard, and eventually achieves success. That has not been our story. The story of La Churrería has been filled with progress, setbacks, changes, losses, lessons, and new beginnings.

Throughout these ten years, there were moments when everything seemed to be moving forward—and others when we felt as though we had returned to the starting line, only now carrying the weight of everything we had already been through. We had to change. We had to adapt.

We even had to move to another city and begin again among people who did not yet know our story. Starting over after so many years was difficult. Because you do not begin again with the same innocence you had the first time. You begin with experience, but also with scars, responsibilities, debt, and the fear that something might go wrong again.

There were days when the question was no longer how to grow. The question was how to endure. How do you continue when your efforts have not yet produced all the results you once imagined? How do you protect a dream when exhaustion begins to speak louder than hope?

How do you open the doors again when the previous day was not enough? I do not have a perfect answer. I only know that we continued. We continued preparing coffee. We continued making churros. We continued correcting mistakes, adjusting our ideas, and welcoming with gratitude every person who walked through our doors and gave us an opportunity.

After ten years, it would not be honest to say that La Churrería has already given us all the fruits we hoped for. Not yet. But today, we have something we did not have before: A proven concept. A clearer identity. Experience born from our mistakes. Customers who return.

And something much stronger in our hands upon which we can build the future. Enduring does not mean remaining exactly where you are. It also means changing without losing your essence, beginning again without forgetting what you have learned, and protecting the small light that reminds you why you started.

Perhaps the greatest achievement of these first ten years is not everything we have accomplished. Perhaps it is everything we went through without allowing the dream to die. The storm left its marks. But the door remains open. The coffee is still warm. And the dream that began ten years ago...

Is still here. — Alberto Mata

La Churrería today is not exactly what we imagined ten years ago. It is more real. It carries the marks of everything we have experienced, the lessons learned from our mistakes, and the kind of knowledge that can only be gained after having to begin more than once.

After moving to a new city, we had to introduce ourselves all over again. Every person who walked through our doors became a new opportunity to explain who we were, share our products, and show that behind this newly arrived business was a story built over many years.

Little by little, new customers began to arrive. Some came in out of curiosity. Others visited because someone had told them about us. And some began returning until we no longer needed to ask what they wanted because we already knew their favorite drink. Those returning customers are among the most meaningful signs that something is beginning to grow.

La Churrería today has a clearer identity. We know that we do not simply sell coffee, churros, pastries, or food. We want to offer a place where people can slow down, talk, work, meet someone they care about, or simply give themselves a few quiet minutes. We continue preparing our products with the same care.

We continue learning. We continue refining recipes, listening to our customers, and looking for ways to improve the experience of everyone who visits us. We are still a growing business. We have not yet reached everything we dreamed of, and important challenges still stand before us.

But after years of uncertainty, we now feel that we have something stronger in our hands. We have products people enjoy. Customers who return. A true story. An identity that is beginning to be recognized. And the experience we need to make better decisions and build the next stage with greater clarity.

La Churrería today does not represent the finish line. It represents a foundation. A place from which we can look back at everything we have overcome while beginning to imagine how far we can still go. A piece of our story lives in every cup we serve. Every order of churros carries the result of years of testing and learning.

And every customer who returns gives us another reason to continue. We are not yet everything we hope to become. But we are no longer simply an idea. We are an open door. A community beginning to grow. A dream with roots. This is La Churrería today. And perhaps the most exciting part...

Is everything it can still become. — Alberto Mata

For a long time, I believed the most important chapter in La Churrería's story was opening its doors. Later, I thought the greatest accomplishment had been enduring. Today, I understand that those moments were not the end of the story. They were preparation. Every recipe we had to correct, every wrong decision, every returning customer, every difficult night, and every time we had to begin again was teaching us something that only time could reveal.

La Churrería did not simply need to survive. It needed to mature. We needed to understand who we are, what makes us different, and the kind of experience we want to offer whenever someone walks through our doors. After ten years, that vision is becoming clearer.

We know our story lives in the Café de Olla inspired by the memory of my grandmother. It lives in the churros that resulted from travel, study, and countless tests. It lives in the care with which we prepare every product. And above all, it lives in the way we want people to feel.

Today, we no longer have only an idea. We have an identity. We have experience. We have products our customers have tested and embraced. We have a community that is beginning to recognize us. And we have something solid in our hands upon which we can build. Now we want to grow.

But growing into something great does not simply mean selling more or opening more doors. It means creating a company capable of sustaining that growth. Improving our processes. Strengthening our products. Building a team that shares our commitment to serving others.

Reaching more people without losing what makes us authentic. And turning every new opportunity into an extension of the same hospitality with which this dream began. We do not yet know how far La Churrería will go. Nor do we pretend that the road ahead will be easy.

If these ten years have taught us anything, it is that meaningful dreams are not built in a single burst of inspiration. They are built every day. With patience. With discipline. With the humility to learn. And with the courage to try again. Everything we have experienced did not lead us to the final page.

It brought us to the blank page now resting before us. And this time, we are not beginning with enthusiasm alone. We are beginning with ten years of experience, a clearer vision, and the determination to turn everything we have learned into something much greater.

The first chapters tell how the dream was born. The following chapters tell how it endured. But the greatest chapter... Has yet to be written. — Alberto Mata

As I reach the final page of these first ten years, I realize that this story was never written by one person alone. A dream may begin in someone's heart. But to remain alive, it needs many hands. It needs those who believe. Those who walk beside you. Those who return.

And those who remain when the road becomes difficult. First, I thank God. There were moments when our own strength was not enough, yet somehow we found another reason to get up, open the doors again, and continue. Thank you to my wife and children. They did not simply watch this dream from a distance.

They also experienced its sacrifices, absences, worries, and every new beginning. Many times, La Churrería received time and energy that also belonged to them. For that reason, an essential part of this story carries their names. Thank you to our family and friends.

To those who helped us with their hands, advice, prayers, trust, and words of encouragement. To those who believed in us even when the results could not yet be seen. Thank you to every person who has worked at La Churrería. To those who were there at the beginning and those who joined us later.

Every drink prepared, every table served, every cleanup after a long day, and every difficult shift is also part of these ten years. And thank you to our customers. To those who walked through our doors when no one knew our name. To those who discovered us in a new city.

To those who returned. To those who brought their families. To those who recommended our products, shared one of our posts, celebrated a special moment with us, or offered an encouraging word on the exact day we needed it. Perhaps for you, it was simply a cup of coffee or an order of churros.

For us, it was often a reason to keep going. Every purchase helped keep a door open. Every recommendation allowed someone new to discover us. Every visit added another small piece to this story. Ten years cannot be fully captured in ten chapters. There are names, moments, tears, smiles, and acts of generosity that we may never be able to mention one by one.

But they live within La Churrería. They live in its recipes. In its walls. In the aroma of its coffee. In the conversations shared around a table. And in the dream that continues to grow. Today, we are not closing this story because we have reached the finish line.

We are closing this series so we can pause, look back, and recognize that we did not arrive here alone. The future of La Churrería has yet to be written. And we want to write it with the same spirit with which everything began: A cup prepared with care. Churros made from the heart.

An open door. And people gathered around a table. If you have ever visited us, worked with us, recommended our business, shared one of our posts, prayed for us, or simply hoped that we would succeed... You are part of this story too. Our hands helped build these first ten years.

But your fingerprints are on them as well. Thank you for believing. Thank you for walking with us. Thank you for helping us endure. And above all... Thank you for being part of La Churrería. The story continues. — Alberto Mata