Oscar Murcia, owner of El Guanaco Bakery & Cafe, has successfully grown his business thanks to his perseverance and dedication to his customers. Oscar is from San Isidro Lempa, La Libertad, El Salvador. In the late 1980s he began working in a bakery in El Salvador and later at a local Pollo Campero where he learned everything he knows today about running a food business.
When he first came to the U.S., he found himself working four jobs at one time just to support himself and his family. In 2004, he and his family began making Salvadoran bread and quesadillas, selling them to local Latino businesses in the Twin Cities. Oscar noticed the steady demand for authentic Salvadorian baked goods. “I said to my wife, you know what? We should open a bakery.”
Two years later, Oscar found an official home for their bakery, a small space in St. Paul. He admits it was not easy for them. “It wasn’t what I expected,” he says, explaining how they struggled for the first five years. “I can’t say there weren’t times when I thought about selling the bakery,” but thanks to his second business (a cleaning service), he was able to keep it open.
Around 2015, he began to sell different Salvadorean cuisine out of his bakery, mostly pupusas and his wife Dolores’ soups. The shop only had 12 chairs to seat clients but once again the public responded well to this addition.
The Murcia family suffered personal challenges that came to define the growth of El Guanaco. Oscar explained, “When I got through that, it was like a flip switched.” It was shortly after, in 2017, that the bigger space next to them became available. With LEDC’s help, he was able to lease it. They began to sell food out of the bigger space, and it was an instant success. “Both locations were always full, especially on weekends,” Oscar shared.
With the help of LEDC and the success of his first location, Oscar launched a second location in Bloomington. Not only did it open during the pandemic – it was also the same week the protests and unrest began immediately following George Floyd’s murder. He remembers checking his cameras during the protests, worried his brand new location in Bloomington would be affected by the looting. During the height of the pandemic, they were able to remain afloat thanks to the bakery as well as a PPP loan.
In fall of 2021, a new location on Lake Street came onto the market. It was move-in ready for a business like his – just required a fresh coat of paint. He came to LEDC to get the loan and assistance to launch this third location.
Looking towards the future, Oscar plans to import beer from El Salvador and build an outdoor patio space for the summer for their Lake Street location. One of his long-term goals is to open a centralized food production center, that can provide the food for his three locations and create new jobs for the community. Oscar explains that it’s a venture that will take time to perfect, but he will take it one day at a time. He finishes by saying “But we’re on our way.”
Visit El Guanaco at one of their three locations!
849 E 7th St, Saint Paul, MN 55106
501 E Lake St, Minneapolis, MN 55467
7837 Portland Ave S, Bloomington, MN 55420
