Recipes from Homeland Put Flavors First at Las Chilenas

Omaha, NE – Chilean-born sisters Zarina Boardman and Débora Aguilar are serving up delicacies from their homeland for a growing list of satisfied customers at their unique Las Chilenas Café in LaVista.

Zarina came to the United States with her father, a Lutheran pastor, 17 years ago, and Débora joined the family here in 2022. “Omaha has a wide variety of restaurants but nothing from Chile,” Zarina says. “We love the food of our home country. We have been cooking empanadas for family and friends for years, and we wanted to share our recipes with the community here.”

Situated in Brentwood Square, Las Chilenas Café, LLC, offers customers several varieties of empanadas along with the sisters’ signature pebre sauce, a versatile sauce whose ingredients include cilantro, onions, garlic and chili peppers; as well as sandwiches featuring Milanesa steak (a thinly-sliced, breaded and fried cutlet common in South America) or Chilean hot dogs served in their house-made Chilean bread; and a list of tempting desserts.

“Our empanadas are made from our own recipe and the dough is very thin,” Zarina says. “They are baked, not fried, and the fillings are very juicy.”

The foods are accompanied by Guatemalan coffee and the café features the work of local artists because, as the sisters say, “both food and art nourish the soul.”

Before opening the café in March, the sisters sought the guidance of the Nebraska Business Development Center (NBDC) and Alan Martinez, consultant with America’s SBDC-Nebraska, a program of the NBDC.

“Alan was very helpful throughout the process,” Zarina says. “We worked with him for more than a year.”

Martinez says he was immediately impressed by Zarina’s determination and the growth she demonstrated throughout the journey.

“When she first came in, she had a strong business idea but wasn’t sure how to bring it to life,” he says. “She had received some initial guidance from another organization about forming an LLC, but I was able to walk her through the entire process step by step, giving her some clarity and confidence. Together, we worked on her business plan and financial projections, making several adjustments as her plans evolved, especially since a location hadn’t yet been chosen.”

To support their decision-making, Martinez provided market research on the local restaurant industry and analyzed different areas in Omaha that would be a good fit for the business. He also developed benchmarks to compare the sisters’ numbers with industry standards and refine them as needed.

“Along the way,” Martinez says, “I connected Zarina with several valuable resources including the U.S. Small Business Administration, where she got to participate in one of its small business roundtables; as well as One Million Cups,” a national non-profit that in Omaha hosts entrepreneurship meetups and local speakers each Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. at Millwork Commons.

He also linked Zarina with lending opportunities through organizations such as the Center for Rural Affairs, where she ultimately secured a loan, as well as a grant through the Nebraska Small Business Assistance Act (NSBAA), being administered by the GROW Nebraska Foundation and the Nebraska Department of Economic Development.

“Her story is a strong example of how persistence, combined with the right support and resources, can turn a vision into reality,” Martinez says.

Zarina says she and her sister have another vision for their future – a desire to open a second café with a bakery within the next three to five years. “We want to build a following not only here in Omaha,” she says, “but across the entire state.”