An Interview With Martita Mestey
No one talks about how much time and research it takes to create something as simple as a budget. It sounds simple but it requires an excessive amount of research and data collection to ensure you are generating the right information that will get you to the finish line.
As a part of our series about “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became a Restaurateur”, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Ameneh Marhaba.
Ameneh Marhaba is the owner of Detroit restaurant Little Liberia. Born and raised in Liberia, Marhaba learned to cook in order to support her family, but what once was a necessity has now turned into a passion. In 2016, Marhaba established Little Liberia as a pop-up serving Liberian beverages and multicultural cuisine, and is now set to open her first brick and mortar in 2024.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to ‘get to know’ you a bit. Can you share with our readers a story about what inspired you to become a restaurateur?
Thank you so much for having me. I can start by saying my journey to becoming a restaurateur started as a necessity in the beginning and later developed into a business. Little Liberia was started by a 16-year-old girl who was looking for a way to support her family. Coming to this country as an immigrant with little to no job opportunities, I didn’t have a lot of options to generate income. I immigrated to the U.S. with my father, stepmom and six younger siblings. My father was unable to work, so I was responsible for taking care of the family. I have always loved to cook, so I started going to different restaurants and bars in the city and asking them to let me sell food to their customers. That’s how Little Liberia began. It was a necessity that helped me support my family, and now it has developed into this reality. In a way, food saved me and my family.
One restaurant that inspires me in the city is Brooklyn Street Local. BSL was one of the first restaurants that gave us a chance to showcase our food, and the owner Deveri Gifford, is simply an inspiration to all women in the city. I have always looked up to her, and her business etiquette. When Little Liberia opens, I plan to give other chefs the same opportunity that Brooklyn Street gave us when we first started.
Do you have a specific type of food that you focus on? What was it that first drew you to cooking that type of food? Can you share a story about that with us?
Yes, growing up in Liberia rice was one of the cheapest ingredients in the market, it was what the majority of people in Liberia could afford. Because it was so affordable, it was a part of our meals every day. All the neighboring families in our community would cook rice and pair it with a different stew or sauce.
Now rice and stew connect me back to my childhood. Little Liberia is food for ordinary people, most dishes on the menu at Little Liberia will have a special sauce paired with rice. Rice is a common thread across cultures, like Latin America, Africa and parts of Asia. We plan to use rice to connect with other cultures in Little Liberia.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you became a restaurateur? What was the lesson or take away you took out of that story?
The funniest story I can think of is when I first started my journey for funding. I went through a business cohort and at the end of the cohort, all the participants had the chance to apply for this big grant to help them with funding for their projects. We all went in thinking that the funding would get us to the finish line. It turns out that the big grant was an application to help you redevelop your business plan, and the funding portion of the application was for them to understand your financial needs. We were all disappointed of course, but we laughed about it and accepted the fact that not everything out there is what it seems, and we had a long way to go. Since then, I have learned that there are programs that would get you buried, but there are also a lot of organizations that are here to help.
Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? How did you overcome this obstacle?
Being a minority, an immigrant and a black woman in the culinary industry has come with a lot of challenges and obstacles. When I started this business, I didn’t have the resources I needed, nor did I have the access to capital to grow my business. As a young woman, I struggled with people simply not taking me seriously or believing in me. It was challenging in the beginning, but good food always ends up on the right plate. When more people in the community started trying my food, the right people in the right places started reaching out to me and asking how they could help. I was able to get connected with ProsperUS Detroit, a small business entrepreneurship program for four months, After I graduated from their 2021 cohort, my business was in a better place. I was able to structure Little Liberia as an LLC, I applied to multiple organizations for funding and I completed a full business plan with financial projections for my brick-and-mortar. Now, I’m working on obtaining the remaining funding needed to complete the buildout of the space and bring Liberian food to Detroit. Which would be the very first Liberian restaurant in the entire state of Michigan!
Being a business owner, there are always going to be obstacles and things that we just don’t know. As I’m going through the process of opening my brick and mortar, I’m realizing just how much I don’t know. Finding talent is one major obstacle that I’m currently facing. At this stage in the process, I’m still finding my way around getting the right talent to cover all the services that I need for the brick-and-mortar.
In your experience, what is the key to creating a dish that customers are crazy about?
The key is always the love and care you put into creating the dish. I know this sounds cliché but trust me when you create a recipe with love it tastes much better. I believe that the attention and care you put into creating a dish shows on the plate. Customers love to eat a meal that was created with love. For example, one of our famous dessert breads is Rice Bread. Rice Bread is made out of banana and rice flour. In Liberia, I loved the bread, but I hated making it because of how tedious the process was in Liberia. Ordinary people in Liberia don’t have things like an oven or a food processor so everything would have to be made manually. We would have to process the rice in a mortar and pestle for hours to get it to a flour consistency. Then, we’d have to manually mash the banana with our hands and mix all the ingredients. After the ingredients are ready to cook, we would pour them into a pot. Then we would place charcoal on the cover and the bottom of the pot so that it cooked evenly. Then, you have to constantly monitor the charcoal so that it doesn’t burn the bread or add more of it if needed. I know that was a lot. That’s why I hated making it.
Now, I have a stove, a food processor and all the other gadgets needed to make the bread so much easier. I still take the time to hand-mash my bananas because I love the consistency and texture it gives the bread. Now when I make Rice Bread, I remember those very long hours It took me and mom to make it in Liberia. That memory always makes me smile.
Personally, what is the ‘perfect meal for you’?
I always run to comfort food. If I had to pick one dish, it would be one of Liberia’s national dishes, Cassava Leaves. This dish is cooked with cassava/yuka leaves with your choice of chicken or beef and served with rice. Cassava leaves is one of Liberia’s famous dishes. When we make this at home, my mom would dish it out in a big pan, and everyone sits around and eats it with their hands.
Where does your inspiration for creating come from? Is there something that you turn to for a daily creativity boost?
My major inspiration comes from my mother. She has always been that role model to me that I look up to when I’m a little lost at times. She inspires me to want to be the best I can be and motivates me to be creative, always. My mom is constantly telling me how proud she is of me, and how far I’ve come in a country where she wasn’t there to hold my hands. She always says “I can’t wait to come to the United States to help you with Little Liberia.” All I want to do is keep making her proud.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? What impact do you think this will have?
Yes! Currently, I’m working on the development of Little Liberia’s very own hot sauce. We have already started testing the recipe and giving out samples at various events and pop-ups in the city and our customers are loving it. Another major project I’m working on right now is the architectural design and planning of the restaurant. I just recently signed the lease for our brick-and-mortar location and I’m excited to announce that we plan to be open by mid to late 2024. Our monthly newsletter LittleLiberia | LittleLiberia will have all the details and progress as we move forward.
What advice would you give to other restaurateurs to thrive and avoid burnout?
Sadly, I believe that there isn’t an easy way to avoid burnout. Being a business owner, overworking yourself and burnout almost come secondary to the job. Your mind is constantly working to figure out the next solution to the many difficulties that come with running a business. Especially business owners who also have a full-time job. In my case, I have a full-time 9–5 job in addition to Little Liberia. Therefore, in this stage of opening my brick-and-mortar, my burnout is coming from time management. Things like meeting with lenders, budgeting, conducting pop-up events and finding talent to effectively run my business are challenging. Nevertheless, when you have a dream and a vision you do whatever it takes to make it work.
If you have a dream, trust me, it’s never too big. If someone like me can come to a new country with absolutely nothing, and still defeat the odds, you can do it too! Just don’t forget to take care of yourself and your mental health. Along this journey of mine, I have learned that if we don’t ask for help, we won’t find it. Passion can never be hidden; it will shine through you without you even saying a word. That is your superpower!
Thank you for all that. Now we are ready for the main question of the interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started as a Restaurateur” and why?
1-How much work do you have to put in before even opening your doors
No one talks about how much time and research it takes to create something as simple as a budget. It sounds simple but it requires an excessive amount of research and data collection to ensure you are generating the right information that will get you to the finish line.
2-The fact that restaurants have a very low profit margin
Everyone knows restaurants are high-risk ventures, but I didn’t realize how high of a risk it was until I completed my business plan and saw how much my overhead was. The pressure of ensuring you can generate enough income to cover all expenses and employees’ salaries is scary. So, your plan has to be rock solid!
3-How many times your budget and business plan are going to change
Most people, including myself, thought that my business plan, budget and cost would stay the same. But, from the start of my project until the present, my costs and expenses have changed several times, and that is okay. If you have to make a change to accommodate current prices, costs or living expenses, that is fine.
4-The timeframe to get your project from start to finish
Have a realistic timeline from the start. I wish someone told me it would take me over two years to complete my buildout and get all the funding I need for my project. We underestimate timelines sometimes, but every part of your process has a timeframe, so just be patient and you will get there.
5-If you plan to open a restaurant and fully rely on the income of the restaurant to succeed, you have the wrong idea.
Because restaurants have such low-profit margins and large overhead costs, you have to use the restaurant as a hub and have multiple streams of income that are generated through that hub.
What’s the one dish people have to try if they visit your establishment?
The Kala! It’s Liberia’s famous street food and people can’t have enough of it at our events. It’s a dough that is crispy on the outside, but soft and a little sweet on the inside. This is paired perfectly with our special hot sauce.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
If I had the opportunity, I would create a non-profit organization to help immigrants with the legal resources and shelter that they need when newly coming into the country. Most immigrants can’t afford the legal aid they need, therefore they are left with no choice but to accept their situation and live in fear. If I could provide legal assistance to immigrants and families who need it, it would change their lives. I know how hard it is to start over in a new country, and if my family and I had the legal help we needed as immigrants, we wouldn’t have struggled as we did. If I could create that aid for another family, I would.
Thank you so much for these insights. This was very inspirational!
Ameneh Marhaba of Little Liberia: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became a Restaurateur was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.