After James Windon’s profession as a serial entrepreneur within the leisure trade, he began a cleansing enterprise.

Then the pandemic hit. And that’s when the creativity actually began flowing.

Windon and his spouse Johanna began Buena Papa Fry Bar in Raleigh, N.C., in 2021, basing the idea round a dish Windon invented through the pandemic: the loaded fry.

Cooking for his household through the COVID-19 lockdown, Windon discovered the way to make do-it-yourself French fries. One day as she was making Bandeja Paisa (a conventional Columbian dish with rice, beans and a number of other toppings), Johanna ran out of rice to prepare dinner as the bottom, so Windon supplied his do-it-yourself fries recent out of the oven.

It could have sounded loopy at first, however they had been determined on the time.

“We had hungry kids looking at us. And as parents, we wanted to make it work,” Windon mentioned.

The entrepreneurs had shut down their cleansing enterprise through the COVID-19 pandemic, and Windon was prepared for the following alternative.

“My business mind started rolling. I was like, ‘Wait a minute. You might have a business here,’” he mentioned.

Buena Papa is just like the Chipotle of fries, Windon mentioned, however “don’t think just bacon bits, because that’s not it.” Rather, it’s dishes from around the globe, with fries as their base.

Once Windon had the thought for Buena Papa, he went on-line and began researching every nation’s most well-known dish.

Starting with the model’s traditional dish produced from Bandeja Paisa is the El Colombiano (the Colombian): fries layered with Colombian refried beans and topped with chicharron (fried pork stomach), chorizo (Colombian sausage) and completed with guacamole and pico de gallo. From up north, The Carolina: fries frivolously tossed with vinegar, topped with pulled pork and coleslaw and completed with specialty tangy barbecue sauce. And from throughout the pond, El Griego (the Greek): fries tossed in Greek seasonings, topped with grilled rooster, tzatziki sauce and completed with pico de gallo.

That menu variety is likely one of the methods Buena Papa separates itself from rivals.

“You get to introduce new culture, new language, new foods [to customers],” Windon mentioned. “When you walk into one of our places, you’re going to feel like you’re on vacation. Like the time you went to Cancun or the time you went to Puerto Rico.”

Some of the menu gadgets are in Spanish, which Windon says clients have enjoyable with however can also be useful in instructing them a brand new language.

There are three Buena Papa eating places open, with a fourth and fifth on the best way. They started in a meals corridor — Raleigh’s Morgan Street Food Hall — as a result of that’s the place somebody lastly understood the idea, based on Windon.

When they went to pitch themselves to the meals corridor, the individual on the corridor requested, “How many years do you have in the restaurant business?”

Windon replied, “Zero. But I’m going to figure this thing out.”

And he did.

The fourth Buena Papa shall be in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood. They’re simply “drying the ink” on their first franchise settlement as properly.

“What we’re more excited about is that we can bring this simple concept to other people throughout the United States that are like us,” Windon mentioned, noting that that’s individuals who don’t have a restaurant background however have enterprise expertise.