Mexican Food & American Flavors: Antoinette Martin of American Cafe, Mexican Kitchen & Little Italy

General Manager of restaurants The American Cafe, Little Italy and Mexican Kitchen, Antoinette Martin does her part to put the spice of life into Beijing’s dining scene. Together with husband Executive Chef Taal Martin, she moved here from New York City in 2006 to bring Mexican food and American flavor to China’s capital.

What motivated you to come to Beijing?
Restaurants. We had an opportunity to collaborate with our business partner, a close family friend who’s been living in China a very long time. My husband and I were both in the restaurant business in New York and it just seemed like the right time.

How do the New York and the Beijing restaurant scenes differ?
There are challenges and problems that are typical in any restaurant, and the problems we run into here are the same ones we had in New York. This is a really competitive business wherever you go, and to be successful takes a big commitment. Even if you do everything right, it is not guaranteed that you’ll be successful. In that way, the territory is very similar. Since we’ve been here the Western food scene has opened up exponentially. We’ve seen so many changes in the last four years. Just look at the buildings going up all around us! That doesn’t happen in New York. New York is already built and an established city that is of its own.

You and your husband work together to manage the restaurants. What are the particular challenges and rewards that working with a spouse entails?
The challenge is being with your husband 24 hours a day – I’m sure he’d say the same about me – and the reward is being with your husband 24 hours a day. Taal’s my partner in life and the person I trust most in the world. So, to do business in a foreign country you need someone very close to you. That way if I’m here and he’s there, we can call each other and just bitch about something or get some sound advice because we’re on each others’ side. Now, the negative part of it is that we’re always telling each other the same stories! We’re in it together, but it’s like a broken record because we’re living the same life. It’s good when we can get away sometimes, step back and get a fresh perspective.

Which restaurant came first?
When we moved here in early 2006, American Cafe and Little Italy were already open and we took over, but we opened Mexican Kitchen from scratch in March of 2006. It’s been full steam ahead ever since!

Which one of your restaurants is your favorite?
Each restaurant is my child. Sometimes, they’re honor students and sometimes they get in a lot of trouble and one child needs more attention than the other. I don’t have a favorite, but when I’m in a restaurant, that’s my child and that’s my favorite. We have put so much of our soul into each restaurant, and they are very different in terms of what we sell, the location, and the style. When we worked with American Café, it was to make it better and to improve the food. Mexican Kitchen is something we started from scratch, so that’s the newborn. Little Italy was this preteen, now she’s like a debutante! That’s really how I feel about the restaurants - they are our children. Mexican Kitchen is very special because everything was ours and we built it from nothing. But the thing is, with Little Italy and American Café, we made it ours. Certainly there are things that existed before, but it makes a difference when it’s coming from nothing at all.

Have you considered expanding in Beijing? Possibly into new cuisines?
Everyone comes to Beijing with these ideas of where you can go, and that’s the wonderful thing about Beijing. It’s one of those places – you feel like it’s the Wild West or something – where you feel like you could really start something. You can start your life anew. Everything hasn’t been done, and there are all these possibilities. We want to open up more of what we’re doing, with Mexican food, and do something downtown. American Café we’d like to expand to a differently-sized space. I also want to do more regional American food. My family background is from Louisiana, so I want to incorporate more of the food that’s like my mother’s recipes, which are really special to me. The restaurants are part of me, so why not share everything?

What do you enjoy most about running your business in Beijing and about life here in general?
The opportunity. The people that work with us – I don’t say for us because we work together – are pretty amazing. These people are making really great food that they started out not familiar with in any way, and that’s wonderful. I used to do this thing where every Monday was jaozi Mondays. I wanted to learn how to make dumplings, so I would go into the kitchen with the ayis and they’d teach me how to roll the jaozi, which I’m terrible at. Those kinds of things I enjoy. What we’re doing here has value, obviously we want to be successful financially, but the success comes from our businesses thriving. Honestly, I get the greatest satisfaction from people’s enjoyment. It feels like we’re giving something to society. That’s the biggest reward, because my heart’s really in this and I feel fortunate to be here.

Other than your own establishments, what are some of your Beijing favorites?
We actually don’t eat out often, since we’re always in our restaurants. We like to go to this duck house on Guanghua Lu, Jingzun. I think its better than a lot of the well known places. It’s always packed and it is really good. It’s like a hidden treasure. I love going to Brasserie Flo because I’m always very impressed with their consistency with what they do. I always feel good after I leave there and that’s how I want my customers to feel. We both love Three Guizhou Men. The atmosphere is kind of funky and we always end up there when people come visit. If you like spicy food, it’s really good. We like Bellagio, although I don’t go there for the desserts, I just like their other food. It’s a nice atmosphere and a cool environment. The menu’s in English, and I like the waitresses with their buzz cuts.

The American Cafe Daily 7am-10.30pm. 1/F (behind Ozone Fitness), Blue Castle Apartments, 3 Xidawang Lu, Chaoyang District. (8599 7428) 博平咖啡，朝阳区西大望路3号蓝堡国际公寓1层

Bellagio 1) Daily 11am-10pm. 6/F, Shin Kong Place, 87 Jianguo Lu, Chaoyang District 朝阳区建国路87号新光天地6层 2) Daily 11am-4am. 6 Gongti Xilu, south of the Gongti 100 Bowling Alley, Chaoyang District 朝阳区工体西路6号(工体100南边) 3) Daily 11am-10pm. Rm 6, 5/F, 1 Dongzhimen Nandajie, Dongcheng District
东城区东直门南大街1号5层6号

Brasserie Flo Daily 11am-3pm, 5.30-11pm Rainbow Plaza (Longbo Guangchang), 16 Dongsanhuan Beilu (south of the Great Wall Sheraton), Chaoyang District. (6595 5135/9) 朝阳区东三环北路16号隆博广场二层

Jingzun Peking Duck Restaurant 1/F Bldg 6, east intersection of Guanghua Lu (across from Winterless Center), Chaoyang District. (6595 6924) 京尊烤鸭，朝阳区朝阳区光华路东口6号楼1楼

Little Italy Daily 10am-10pm. 813 Pinnacle Plaza, Tianzhu Real Estate Development Zone, Shunyi District. (8046 4679) 小意大利,顺义区天竺开发区荣祥广场705号

The Mexican Kitchen Daily 10.30am-9.30pm. 705 Pinnacle Plaza, Tianzhu Real Estate Development Zone, Shunyi District. (8046 4558/59) 墨西哥厨房,顺义区天竺开发区荣祥广场705号

Three Guizhou Men 1) Daily 11am-10pm. Bldg 7, Jianwai Soho, 39 Dongsanhuan Zhonglu, Chaoyang District. (5869 0598) 朝阳区东三环中路39建外Soho7号楼 2) Daily 24hrs. Inside the West Gate of Workers’ Stadium (above Coco Banana), Chaoyang District. (6551 8517) 朝阳区工体西门内