The Lazy Gringo

Many of you know that Ryan and I started a mexican restaurant here with some other American friends and we continue to help run it. It is called, "The Lazy Gringo". In order to live in the country for a long period of time you need to have a long term visa. We decided to partner with a few other families and start this restaurant in order to receive a business visa which allows us to stay in the country for a year at a time (we have to renew it each year). When we first opened the restaurant 2 years ago we spent SO much time there fixing it up, cleaning it, teaching the staff, and working on paperwork stuff, etc. Now it is almost completely run by our Nepali staff. We employ 8 full-time staff. We go to the restaurant one day a week (our day is Wednesday) to visit with the staff, check on any issues they may have and check on the cleanliness and quality of the food. Each of our other partners do this one day a week as well. We also have monthly meetings and of course go there other times of the week just to enjoy the great food. We are so thankful for our wonderful staff and for the fact that really good Mexican food is now available in Kathmandu. Most of our customers are tourists or other foreigners who live in Nepal. We do have some Nepali customers who come to our restaurant and really enjoy the different food. I thought I would give you a little tour of our restaurant so you can meet some of our staff and see the place (I know I should have done this a long time ago!)

This is what you see as soon as you walk through the front door of our restaurant. We have three wait staff (unfortunately one of them just had to leave so we are in the process of hiring someone else). In this picture you can see Kumar (right) and Arjun (left). Kumar is also our front of the house manager. These guys are so great. They are hard workers and willing to learn. Our customers love them.

This is the front entrance to our restaurant. If you walk straight ahead you will be in the kitchen (to the left) and prep room (to the right). If you take a left into the building on the left that is our actual restaurant.

This is Tara. She is one of our cooks and prep staff. Here she is making tortilla chips from scratch!

This is Raj Kumari. We can't buy pre-made tortillas in Nepal (every once in a while they are available from the grocery store (imported) but they are SO expensive). So, Raj Kumari's job is to roll tortillas. She makes corn and flour tortillas from scratch. She rolls tortillas all day every day! I think she must have some really strong arms!!!

This is Dipesh. He is our dish washer. We don't have automatic dishwashers here in Nepal so it is Dipesh's job to wash all of the dishes from the restaurant by hand. Sometimes this is very difficult due to water shortages but thankfully the past couple of months have been OK with water.

This is Ryan with Ashish. Ashish is our head cook and kitchen manager.

This is part of the main dining room.

This is Roma (one of our wait staff, but she is the one who just had to leave. We will miss her). She is really good with Keane and Gracie and loves to play with them.

Here is the entrance to our bathroom.

Here is Kumar and Arjun at the front of the restaurant. On the walls are all of the reviews that have been done about our restaurant in the local English newspapers. The hole in the wall leads to the kitchen.

Here you can see our small fridge for some of our drinks. Most sodas here are served in glass bottles. We have sprite, fanta and coke. We also have diet coke, root beer (we are probably the only restaurant in Kathmandu that has root beer floats. We can't always get the root beer because it is imported but we have it available when we can), slushies, milkshakes, lemonade, iced tea, etc. We try to have as many American drinks available as possible. You can also see the water jug on the floor. Because the water that comes out of the taps here is not clean we use filtered water to serve to our guests and to cook with.

Here is a picture of some men from Mexico. One of our other American partners put the faces of our Nepali staff into the photo and it is hanging in our restaurant. They love it!

Here is me and Gracie with Roma in the dining room. We will miss her. We are in the process of trying to hire a new person now to replace her.

You all are welcome to come and visit anytime. Anytime you are in Nepal you know you can come to the Lazy Gringo for a taste of American Mexican food!