BALTIMORE COUNTY — You may be looking for a new local restaurant to dig into.
How about one that’s being described as the perfect family restaurant for one Baltimore neighborhood?
The restaurant Nana in Towson is one you may not be familiar with just yet. Nana has only been open since Jan. 31.
Carlos Raba, the owner and chef of Nana says this restaurant is about family legacy. After all, it’s named after his great-grandmother who is the reason the family got into cooking in the first place.
“I named it after my nana because she started doing flour tortillas that were passed down to my grandmother, which was passed on to my aunts and to myself," said Raba.
Nana’s is a Polleria and Taqueria shop specializing in quality food made fresh everyday.
His passion from cooking from his early family gatherings and the memories made throughout his upbringing spending time in the kitchen with his aunts.
"It’s a sense of joy on food and gathering with food that I’m very passionate about and the smile of the people when they eat a taco and they make a face and they look at the person they’re eating with and say man this is good. I like that a lot. I enjoy that," said Raba.
Serving the community to Nana’s standards means Raba and his staff must work diligently. Often times putting in 17-hour work days to get the job done.
"Right here, everything’s getting cooked. We have the chickens they get cooked for an hour. But they get brimmed, they get dried. It’s a process around 48-hours for the chickens to touch the oven. Then we have the trompo, that is a tower of meat that we have to build around 38 to 40 pounds. That’s an art, that’s a craft, being a Taqueria. So that’s something that we do here which is not easy, but it requires a lot of teamwork a lot of effort and a lot of customers," said Raba.
So far they haven’t been short on customers. Raba says this first week and half has been a grind that’s been fulfilling.
"Getting people ready for an opening, such a busy opening has been challenging but people have been responding well they’ve been patient. People have to remember too that we are a taqueria. If a taqueria has a line that means that it’s good too," said Raba.
Born in Mexico, Raba moved to Baltimore when he was 16. For 24 years, he’s called this place home. He says it’s his duty-through a restaurant named after his great grandmother- to not only give back to customers, but also to his staff who he calls, family.
"I want this to be not a community service but something that empowers and it makes a community better. I mean what better can it be that I created 20 jobs In one week? They are well paid because people are coming, they are tipping and they have a living wage job. The restaurant is really hard but we are making concepts to have above living wage jobs that is a craft making a taco," said Raba.
If you would like access to Nana's website, click here.
