After you’ve competed in two Olympic games as a rower for Team USA, what do you do next? Guiseppe Lanzone asked himself that very question in McLean, Va., after competing in the 2012 London Summer Olympics. At a family party, Guiseppe and his brother, Mario, threw around ideas about businesses they could start together. Maybe a bar? A club? Their mother chimed in: “What about a food truck?” Guiseppe thought, “At the end of the day you want to be around something you like. So, what did we like? Food!”
With Giuseppe handling the business details and Mario serving as executive chef, they co-founded Peruvian Brothers. The Lanzone family immigrated from Perú in the 1990s, so Mario developed recipes highlighting their favorite flavors from home but with a twist. Giuseppe explains: “We wanted to have regulars . . . We needed a menu that people wouldn’t feel guilty eating several times a week.”
“WE’RE GRINDING. WE’RE MORE THAN JUST A RESTAURANT.WE’RE NOT JUST REPRESENTING OUR RESTAURANT, OUR FAMILY, BUT WE’RE REPRESENTING PERÚ”
Giuseppe Lanzone
They experimented with mouthwatering sandwiches on freshly baked bread (from a family recipe, of course), with pleasingly salty meats, grilled sweet potatoes, and their signature hot sauce made from Peruvian peppers. They offered plenty of sides, including baked – not fried – empanadas. The fresh, lighter ingredients and bold flavors were a hit. Regulars came in droves. The brothers self-funded their business for seven years, working with their family supporting all along the way. But to expand, Giuseppe knew they’d need help.
“We’re a small, immigrant-owned business, so understanding the numbers, finding the right lawyer, and all those details were challenging,” he recalls. Giuseppe found the Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC) – a nonprofit community development financial institution (CDFI) with offices in Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and Puerto Rico dedicated to helping low-to-moderate income Latinos and other underserved communities.
J.B. Behrens, a senior loan officer for LEDC, explained that “for restaurants and food service . . . it’s very difficult to get a bank to approve [loans].”
With the LEDC’s help, the business grew into several food trucks, a restaurant in a Latin market, a booming catering business, and bottling their hot sauce. The brothers’ next step was their biggest yet: a restaurant space in the heart of Amazon’s new headquarters in Virginia. But LEDC had a loan cap of $250,000, which wouldn’t be enough. Behrens reached out to CornerSquare Community Capital, which helps CDFIs and minority deposit institutions get greater access to resources for their clients. Together, they were able to secure a larger loan at a better interest rate than LEDC could offer alone.
Peruvian Brothers used those vital funds to begin construction on their sleek, nearly 2,000-square-foot restaurant space, featuring two bathrooms and a full bar. Soon, Amazon employees will be able to enjoy the bold flavors of Perú that have already enchanted so many in the area. And the brothers aren’t stopping, says Giuseppe. “We’re grinding. We’re more than just a restaurant. We’re not just representing our restaurant, our family, but we’re also representing Perú.” Someday, maybe those customers will see the realization of Giuseppe’s new dream – his now 15-month-old daughter at the counter running the cash register.
CornerSquare Community Capital is a subsidiary of the NC Rural Center and is made possible by the generous support of the Truist Foundation and the Truist Charitable Fund, a donor-advised fund created by Truist and administered by the Winston-Salem Foundation. For additional information visit www.cornersquare.org. Originally published July 2023. 