New owners for downtown Burlingame’s Alana’s Cafe — its employees

But they needn’t have worried. That’s because five of Alana’s longstanding employees — Guadalupe Cordero, Gladys Nevarez, Laura Casanova, Sara Prieto and Raymundo Blas — now own the restaurant. And since they’ve been providing warmth alongside the food for anywhere from 10 to 30 years, keeping the spirit of Alana’s alive as they transition to the ownership role is innately natural. 

“We love them so much — every customer that comes in here,” Cordero, who has worked at Alana’s for almost 30 years, said. “I always treated this place like it was my own, and every person that walked in that door, I treat like family.” 

Diane Silven and her husband Greg were first introduced to Alana’s around 30 years ago, when Lindhartsen and Tashjian catered back-to-school day at San Mateo High School.

“I don’t like breakfast. I’m not a morning person. But I like their breakfasts,” Diane Silven said. “When I came home that day, I said, ‘Greg, we had a new place to go every Sunday morning.’” 

Decades later, Diane and Greg can still be found at the restaurant for a late Friday morning breakfast, greeted with a warm welcome by Cordero at the entrance.

The decision to step down from Alana’s was a challenging one, Tashjian said, both because the restaurant has been a home to her and her business partner, Lindhartsen, since 1993, and because she knows just how much the community loves the place. When the Alana’s employees came to her with the idea that they take ownership of the restaurant, it seemed like a perfect solution. 

“The landlords were super happy, because they didn’t want this legacy business to go away. They have been the heart of our restaurant for so long,” Tashjian said. “These girls and our busboy, Ray, have seen the whole generation of families joining us. It was just perfect.”  

Of course, transitioning the ownership came with challenges. Cordero said she was moved by how many Burlingame residents and longtime customers were keen to offer their services, a group that includes Burlingame Mayor Michael Brownrigg. 

Brownrigg co-founded Apis & Heritage Capital Partners, an organization that transitions companies into 100% employee-owned businesses. He saw Alana’s as the perfect example of a successful longtime institution that could thrive under the employee ownership model, and helped connect its employees to the county so that the sale of the business could be considered a continuation of ownership. 

The county’s determination that selling Alana’s to its employees was a continuation of ownership was integral to keep the business alive, Tashjian said. 

“It’s a great way to keep a business rooted in their community, and keep the wages and the wealth local,” Brownrigg said. “For a successful small business, it is a great option for continuity and legacy.” 

While it was hard to walk away from the work, Tashjian — who, alongside Lindhartsen, is helping with the transition and can still regularly be found at Alana’s — said she knows the new owners know exactly what it takes to keep the restaurant what it is, and that those efforts will be appreciated by the community 10-fold. 

“Even when the girls were having babies, people were bringing unbelievable gifts for them, leaving unbelievable tips for them,” she said. “They are so loved by everybody. It’s amazing — it’s lightning in a bottle.” 

For 26-year Alana’s patron David How, it is undoubtedly the family atmosphere that drew him to Alana’s and keeps him coming in, regularly trading photos of the grandchildren with staff. 

“We always like these neighborhood restaurants. It’s not a big chain, and you get to form a relationship with all the people,” he said. “I think the neighborhood really would have a loss without Alana’s, and I’m really happy they were able to be the owners, because they work so hard.” 

The hardest part of transitioning from employees to owners, Cordero said? Definitively, the paperwork. From the food to the customers, the rest has been a smooth transition. 

“For me, this is not work. For me, this is come in, hang out, have fun, be with the community. 

For me it’s like having family, seeing family,” she said. “We are very, very happy, very grateful, we have this opportunity to keep working here with all these people we know in the community.” 

In one of the only changes to Alana’s since it came under new ownership just over a month ago, it is now open an hour earlier, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day. 

holly@smdailyjournal.com

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