Today we’d like to introduce you to Rodolfo Bianchi.
Hi Rodolfo, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Before embarking on my entrepreneurial journey, I spent 20 years at Pollo Campero, the renowned Guatemalan restaurant chain that expanded into the US market in 2002. My journey in the hospitality industry began in Guatemala in 1998, while I was still studying industrial engineering in college. Over the years, I took on progressively senior roles—including facility management, area manager, and franchise business consultant—positions that laid the foundation for my future leadership in the brand’s U.S. expansion. After relocating to Dallas, Texas in 2007, I was appointed director of operations services, where I oversaw key aspects of operational excellence, customer experience and innovation. During these years I played a pivotal role in opening 100 new restaurants, gaining deep expertise in restaurant operations, development and strategic growth. These experiences would later prove invaluable as I transitioned toward pursuing my dream of opening my own restaurant.
My educational endeavors combined with my experience in the industry have played a key role in my journey as well. I hold a degree in Industrial Engineer from Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, an Executive Master of Business Administration from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and expanded my knowledge and qualifications when I obtained a certificate in culinary arts from the International Culinary School at the Art Institute My education combined with my experience in the industry has been vital to this journey.
In 2017 I left Pollo Campero to pursue my dream. I had some restaurant concept ideas that wanted to explore and after extensive market research, traveling through Latin America, my love for the versatility of Empanadas, this amazing handheld pies that are so popular in many countries and not so well known in the Texas market, I decided to create the Empanada Cookhouse as an empanada shop that blends Latin inspiration, local and authentic flavors to make a variety of delicious empanadas.
Later that year I officially founded Society Restaurants as a restaurant concept development company and created The Empanada Cookhouse as its first concept. To do so I heard about a facility called Pilotworks, it was a shared kitchen space that was opening operations in Dallas early 2018 and I signed in as their first customer. I rented a work table in a fully equipped kitchen by the hour and started developing empanada flavors and fillings, making them tasty and operationally sound. I shared them with friends and family to get feedback until we had a delicious empanada menu.
Then I applied to become a certified food vendor for the Farmers Market and also with another company called Fooda, a lunch pop-up concept that allowed us to setup an Empanada pop=up at different office buildings around Dallas. Every weekday we prepared the empanadas and went to open the pop-up at the designated location to sell our empanadas and on the weekends, we went to the Farmers market, food events and fairs around Dallas. At this stage I needed help and hired my first team members. It was a lot of fun but also a lot of work to be on the move all the time. We did this thru 2018 and 2019 which was a great way to validate our menu and concept with a broader customer base in different areas of the city, with a minimal investment. Once we started renting the kitchen from by the hour to by the week, I decided to start searching for our first location.
I found a good space in Downtown Dallas, close to the Dallas World aquarium and with a diverse 350,000 daytime population, which was ideal to launch a new ethnic inspired restaurant we began remodeling the space in early 2019 hoping to have it ready by October. After many delays and challenges our brand new empanada shop was ready to open we did a friends and family event and 2 days later the pandemic hit and overnight the 350K population I mentioned went to work from home and Downtown Dallas became a ghost town. We couldn’t do the Grand Opening event due to the restrictions of the time,
Long story short, we have been open since that day and we just had our 6th year anniversary and continue to build our brand, get new loyal customers every day and serve delicious empanadas to our Dallas community and Dallas visitors.
In the coming years, I envision expanding The Empanada Cookhouse into airports and stadiums across the United States, introducing our delightful flavors of empanadas to everyone and begin the growth thru company owned and franchise location nationwide, committed to sharing the unique taste of empanadas with diverse audiences.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I strongly believe that resilience and determination in every area of our life are important traits for being an entrepreneur. It is never smooth and it’s never easy. But thru the journey we find sparks of motivation, validation and satisfaction that push us through to tackle diverse challenges and achieve great things.
Starting a restaurant from scratch has its own challenges as well as the usual operational daily problems but this are kind of known. and come with the territory. The unexpected challenges are the ones that get you, for example, opening your brand-new restaurant after years of planning and execution and watching the world come to a halt with the pandemic. Our opening timing couldn’t have been in more challenging times or walking up at 2am in the morning by the restaurant alarm and driving to the restaurant to find it surrounded by police cars and completely destroyed by the riots that happened overnight in the city.
Very important to navigate this roller-coaster ride, to have the unwavering support of my friends and family, particularly my wife, kids and parents who have stood by me during the triumphs and challenges.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about The Empanada Cookhouse?
We are a small business located in Downtown Dallas. Our restaurant has a great vibe and fun to stop by for a quick breakfast empanada, lunch with your coworkers or family style dinning. We are proud of the quality of our ingredients and the different techniques that we use to make them. All our empanadas’ fillings, veggies, salsas and drinks are prepped in in house. The empanadas are a great product to share with friends, colleagues and family, whether you are having a party, watching a game with some friends or a business meeting we have a fantastic catering program that has been very popular.
The beauty of the empanada is that you can get vegetarian, vegan, gluten free or all the different proteins to delight all your guests, they are easy to eat on the go and pretty much mess free.
We have been in business for over 7 years and we hope to start our growth soon.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
Dallas is a great city; it is centrally located within the US which attracts a lot of nationwide business to establish in the Metroplex bringing with it a lot of talented professionals and people from all over the US and the world, making it a very divers and multicultural city. I like how proud the Dallasites are of their city and the amount of entertainment available to all of us from great dining, music venues, arts and sports.
Summers are fun but it does get really hot! we do have creative refreshments at The Empanada Cookhouse to cool down.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.theempanadacookhouse.com
- Instagram: Theempanadacookhouse
- Facebook: @Theempanadacookhouse
- LinkedIn: Rodolfo Bianchi
- Twitter: @theempanadacookhouse
- Yelp: The Empanada Cookhouse
