A new way of doing things
Latin America is so conservative it is unusual to find someone doing things differently. But today I found two serious, hard-working gals doing just that. They had decided on the Mercado in Cartago as the location for their new restaurant. This was smart, because the Mercado gets a lot of traffic — but there were already many restaurants there.
No problem, they found one of the busiest areas and managed to get its tenants evicted. This gave them a tiny area, barely big enough to move around in–but with lots of exposure. That was how I found it — on my way to somewhere else. It was arranged as a mini-cafeteria, you could see what food was available at a glance. In the restaurant I usually eat at, you have to learn what is available by looking at what other customers are getting, and saying “Give me one of those.”
I had a fine lunch there, the food wasn’t the cheapest in the area, but it was good; all the customers seemed satisfied.