The Pica Pica Arepa Kitchen story starts in 2008, at the Napa, CA Oxbow Public Market. Adriana Lopez Vermut was on a mission to introduce Californians to Venezuelan flavors, and more specifically, to the Arepa. Her father had been a successful restaurateur in Venezuela, so when the opportunity arose for Adriana to open her first restaurant in Napa, she took the chance. The immediate success at the Oxbow location led to the addition of a bar. Her next opportunity came South of Napa, in San Francisco’s Mission District, on Valencia. Soon after, a third location opened in the Castro. 

Running and managing three properties quickly began to take a toll. As the mother of a growing family and CEO of a growing business, Adriana decided to outsource her business solutions to an accountant. It was a good first step, but after a few costly mistakes the firm proved to know very little about the restaurant business which lead Adriana to reach out to Vine Solutions. 

SERVICES APPLIED

Human Resources / Accounting / Monthly Advisory

RESULTS

A relationship with Vine Solutions was established quickly and together they went about getting the accounting, taxes, human resources and legal forms prioritized and organized. Vine took all of the important details of her businesses and converted them into efficient processes and procedures. In Adriana’s words “without Vine, we would not have survived.” 

Survive she did, but there were difficult decisions to be made along the way. Adriana had a very strong emotional attachment to all four locations, but the reality was that one property was supporting all of the rest.  Locations needed to be closed. By analyzing the monthly trends, and applying Vine Solution’s knowledge of industry standards, budgets and benchmarks, they identified which location needed to be saved and focused all resources there. The Valencia St location of Pica Pica not only survived, but was able to grow and become a pioneer of the Delivery movement, cultivating an impressive 60% of off-site revenue. 

What Adriana respects the most about Vine Solutions is that they provide a voice of experience that hints or “teases” the decisions out of her, and allows her to investigate how her decisions will affect the bottom line. She values the relationship and says, “I feel they are empathetic, and act as Advisors, Accountants and Therapists. We would have closed without Vine. We went from simply trying to make payroll to using a feasibility assessment to chart our next moves”. 

And as far as Adriana’s mission to bring the flavor of Venezuela to California? Pica Pica’s Arepa Pabellon won Best Beef Sandwich in America 2019! 

Thank You, Adriana, for being our partner and we are happy to be a part of the Pica Pica Arepa Kitchen family.