CONSTELLATIONS // The End and the Beginning
Photos by Eva Wo and Ash Richards
by Diana Lu
This story bookends in recessions.
Cesar Gonzales and his family moved to the U.S. from the Philippines in 1990. During the first Gulf War. During a recession. He was 17, weighed less than 100 pounds, and had a high school degree. Schools and employers rejected the young applicant because he couldn’t speak English. Thirty years later, Gonzales owns and operates four businesses (two restaurants and two bed and breakfasts) and has established a foundation with his family.
This story bookends in recessions, but in-between is creativity, humility, and creation in spite of disaster, racism, and xenophobia.
Gonzales, who is a partner for a local investment management firm, had always wanted to open a restaurant. Together with his brother John and business partner Ricky Hicks, they purchased the historic Gables B&B, a meticulously restored Victorian mansion in West Philadelphia. Hicks, who owns a construction company, has a background in hospitality and
restaurant management. Gonzales,
with his finance background, runs the business end. His sister and nieces joined and it became a family affair. When a space opened up at the corner of 46th and Woodland, two blocks down, they decided to open the Gables Café. It didn’t have a kitchen, so they leased another space down the street. This commercial kitchen would become Gonzales’ dream—he named his Filipino restaurant Kusina.
A year and a half of licenses and paperwork later, they got the approval to open. The day after, the city issued the emergency stay-at-home order. They continued to work behind the scenes and decided to open Kusina on Memorial Day.
A week after they opened, cities across the country erupted in rallies calling for justice for George Floyd. Like many businesses on commercial corridors, they boarded up their windows, which made it hard to signal that a new restaurant was open. The coronavirus has forced many small businesses to close for good. Pre-COVID, the tenacity, financing, and grit required to open a bar or restaurant separated the entrepreneurs from the dreamers. To open two businesses during a pandemic, in one of the industries that has been hardest hit, might just be crazy.
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