PHOENIX — You can smell the pastries and handmade tortillas the moment you walk through the door. It's the same authentic food Albert Sanchez Adame would eat in between his construction shifts, after his family immigrated from Mexico over 30 years ago. Back then, the restaurant off 7th Avenue and Van Buren St. was called Azteca.
"It was cool just to show up and eat and go to work," he said.
He later built his own construction company and he and his wife Adriana helped Azteca's owners remodel.
"Working with the owners is how we noticed after the pandemic she was struggling. She was ready to retire and it was just a conversation like, 'Hey, why don't you guys take it over?' And we were like, 'Ok!'" said Adriana.
"It was so cool, it was like, I wish my mom was here," Albert said.
Albert's mom, Yolanda, passed away not long before this construction family turned into restaurant owners. But Albert says she loved to cook and is proudly watching from above.
"I put all my family to work and she was so happy I think, up there, she was so happy," he said.
The couple renamed the restaurant to Cocina Adamex, paying tribute to their family name. Along with some additional family members coming in to help out, the original staff stayed and what's on the menu remained the same.
The US Census Bureau says there are now over 4 million Hispanic-owned businesses across the country. That number has grown over the past few years.
To learn more about Cocina Adamex, click here.
