11/08/2026
JOURNAL ENTRY #5 — THE REMONTADA
There was a time when Restaurant Amigo almost disappeared.
In 2005, my father passed away. My mother took over Amigo and carried it forward with even higher standards.
Then came 2010.
A period of unfair competition began—one involving family, greed and malicious marketing that led people to believe Amigo had closed and relocate.
That story deserves its own journal entry.
The consequences were very real.
Customers disappeared. Revenue collapsed. Assets were sold just to keep the business alive.
Amigo went from successful to fighting for survival.
In 2011, while still at school, I started helping at the restaurant every day after classes.
By 2016, my brother Yovissen and I decided to go all in: we invested our entire education insurance into renovating Amigo.
Amigo 2.0 opened in November 2016.
Some guests loved the changes. Others didn’t. Sales initially dropped even further.
It took us two months just to get back on track.
In April 2017, at 20, I officially took over Amigo.
That was the beginning of The Remontada.
It took until February 2018 to pull Amigo out of the danger zone—and another year before I felt we were playing in the Premier League again.
Then we started building.
Amigo Bar followed. Catering followed. Then Nenban.
By 2025, eight years after taking over, our businesses were generating approximately 15× the revenue of 2017, while providing work to around 40 people, directly or indirectly, full-time or part-time.
That was our Remontada.
In 2026, we made another major move.
That story is coming soon.
