FROM THE TABLE
We're still in Bolivia. Roadblocks across the country made it difficult to move for a while — which meant more time in places we hadn't planned to stay, eating things we hadn't planned to eat. Not a bad problem to have.
Fast Food Chaplin's is a small place off Sagárnaga street in La Paz. Nothing remarkable from the outside. We went in once, ordered salchipapas — fried sausage and potato with a tangle of sauces, the Bolivian street food staple — sat down, ate, left.
The next day we walked past again and went back in. Before we'd said anything, the person behind the counter looked up and asked: "¿Lo mismo que ayer?"
«The same as yesterday?»
We'd been there once. For maybe twenty minutes. We went back at least three more times.
People return to places where they feel recognised. Not impressed. Not surprised. Recognised.
Most food businesses spend enormous energy trying to acquire new customers. The conversion problem is real. But the retention problem is just as real — and almost always cheaper to solve.
No loyalty program. No app. No nudge email. A two-second question that said: we noticed you were here yesterday.
That's it. That's the whole thing.
SIDE PLATE
Popular Cocina Boliviana on Calle Murillo does one thing: lunch. Monday to Saturday, 12 to 14:30, no reservations, three courses, 110 bolivianos. Their tagline is "reinventamos la cocina boliviana." Ranked 85th in Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants.
Nothing about the format signals ambition. Everything about the food does. It's the kind of place that earns its recognition by being exactly what it says — not by trying to be something else.
Bolivia has extraordinary raw material and limited global infrastructure. Popular is one of the concepts proving the gap between the two can be closed without leaving the country to do it.
WHAT'S COOKING
We've been drinking Caranavi coffee across Bolivia. A subtropical valley a few hours from La Paz — shade-grown, hand-picked, clean in the cup. Specialty roasters know about it. Most people don't.
It doesn't need to be discovered to be good. But it would travel well if it were.
Most food businesses have something like this. A product, a dish, a concept that's better than what the market currently thinks of it. The quality is there. The positioning hasn't caught up yet.
Carla
Founder, kooleats
