Hidden Gems: Meet Santiago Restrepo of Sus Arepas

Today we’d like to introduce you to Santiago Restrepo. 

Hi Santiago, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m originally from Bogota, Colombia. In Colombia, the Arepa is a traditional dish we grow up eating and is included in just about every part of our daily meals. When I was 13 yo, I moved with my father to Los Angeles, CA. My father was married to a Venezuelan woman. She introduced me to the Venezuelan style Arepa. Back then, the Colombian Arepa was more basic. We would use it more as a side dish. The traditional Venezuelan Arepa is stuffed. This was a whole new version that I had never tried. I remember thinking back then, I wish there was a place I could go to that had nothing but Arepas. Colombian, Venezuelan, fusion. This was my dream. It was always in the back of my mind. I kept thinking to myself, I can’t believe there is not such a place in Los Angeles. One of the most diverse cities in the world. When the food truck explosion started happening in LA with Kogi and everything that followed, I thought to myself, if no one else is doing this, I’m gonna give it a shot. I brought the idea up to my wife. My wife is Korean and comes from a family of foodies who have had a very successful Korean restaurant in LA for many years. I knew we had the perfect mix of her cooking knowledge and my knowledge of Arepas to give it a try. With her help, we build a menu that consisted of nothing but Colombian, Venezuelan, and with her Korean background, a Korean fusion Arepa. We decided to make a small investment and bought a used food trailer. We figured, we’ll hold on to our jobs and on the weekends, we will take the trailer around and see what kind of feedback we get. At first, it was very slow. We did not know anything about the food truck world. We didn’t know where to go, how to get into events, how to get catering events, nothing. We picked a city, Eagle Rock, and we started parking on the street. All of a sudden, we started getting a lot of excited people coming around and momentum started to pick up. About a year into it, someone told us to apply for a market called smorgasburg. Luckily, the market manager, Zack Brooks was originally from Florida and was very familiar with Arepas. He gave us our first big break, a spot in the biggest open-air food market in the states. We did this for a year while still holding on to our regular jobs. In 2019, we decided to quit our jobs, invest some of the money we had saved from our truck and build a custom food trailer. From that point on, we started doing everything and anything that came our way. The reaction to our Arepas in LA was incredible. We were invited to just about every market and event we could think of. This year we were invited to the Coachella food festival. It really was a dream come true. We spent to weekend in Indio serving arepas to thousands of people. Now that we have established a loyal following and we have honed in our craft, we are looking to the future, we want to expand, get a brick-and-mortar and hope to continue growing our business and making the best Arepas LA has ever experienced. My wife and I could not be happier to have fulfilled our dreams. We get to spend our days bringing a part of both of our cultures out there and we get to meet so many people who are excited to try our food. 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Things were really hard at the beginning. I had managed to convince my wife to make the initial investment, but things were very slow. Our very first day out with the truck, we made $70. Things did not pick for a while, and this was stressful. Our relationship was tested as we struggled to get going. I always knew things would pick up, but I understood how frustrating it was for her. I also had never driven a trailer and had a rough time learning to maneuver it around, the day I took it to get a wrap, I hit it on an overpass and dented it. To this day we drive it around with a giant dent. It has also been quite a learning curve to handle the financial aspects of owning your own business. Hiring people once we started growing was all new to us. At first, we had friends help us but with time we had to start getting workers. We have been fairly lucky to find a good group of workers. 

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Sus Arepas?
We operate a food trailer that makes Arepas. A Colombian/Venezuelan food staple. We offer a menu of Arepas that range from traditional Colombian and Venezuelan as well as a fusion Arepa inspired by Korean cuisine. We are the only food truck in LA offering this kind of menu. We have managed to bring our food to all parts of Los Angeles and introduced a mostly unknown dish to people who have never tried it. We have been featured in American Idol, Fox Sports, a Nissan Commercial, a State Farm Insurance Commercial and we served our Arepas at the 2022 Coachella Music Festival. Our dream is to make people aware of Arepas and what an amazing dish it is. We are hoping this inspires more people to get involved and help make the Arepa as popular and well-known a taco is in Los Angeles. 

What do you think about happiness?
What makes me the happiest is seeing how happy people are to see an Arepa truck on the street. The feedback from people after they’ve tried our food. Seeing people come back over and over to get food from us. Meeting people from my country and hearing their stories. I get a lot of joy out of seeing parents introduce their children to our food. The thought of kids growing up in LA knowing about Arepas is so amazing. 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.susarepas.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/susarepas
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/susarepas/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SusArepas
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/sus-arepas-los-angeles-2