Women in Food: Melanie Alvarez Santiago of the Borikén Restaurant

For the month of March, Letchworth Gateway Villages is featuring profiles of women working in all aspects of the food industry in the Genesee Valley. While women make up almost half of the national workforce, only 22% of head chefs in the country were women in 2019, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The job of chef had the second highest gender pay gap of any profession in the country, with a gap of 24.6%. The restaurant industry is notoriously demanding, typically lacking predictable schedules, benefits, human resource departments, and maternity leave. The Genesee Valley is lucky to have a number of fantastic restaurants run by women throughout the region. Today LGV is featuring Melanie Alvarez Santiago, chef-owner of the Borikén Restaurant in Mount Morris.

Melanie Alvarez Santiago cooking at the Borikén Restaurant in Mount Morris.

Melanie Alvarez Santiago knew she wanted to work with food from a young age: she loved the creativity it inspired and the effect it had on people. Living in Puerto Rico, she graduated from high school a year early and enrolled in Escuela Hotelera of San Juan, where she got a culinary diploma. She worked in three restaurants and at a wholesale company before deciding to start her own business. Alvarez Santiago and her husband started running a food truck, Almuerzos by Nanay, in Caguas, Puerto Rico, and were so successful that they recouped all their costs in their first year of business. When the Puerto Rican economy took a downturn, Alvarez Santiago and her family packed up and moved to Livingston County.

Mofongo at the Borikén Restaurant; one of Alvarez Santiago’s favorite dishes.

While working as a production manager at the Walmart in Geneseo, Alvarez Santiago learned about the Livingston County Dream-O-Vate Competition, which aimed to increase the county’s downtown retail occupancy. Livingston County has great American and European restaurants, but Alvarez Santiago recognized that a Caribbean-style Hispanic restaurant would add to the existing diversity of the region, appeal to many people in the community, and help the area become more attractive to visitors. After winning Dream-O-Vate, she created the Borikén Restaurant as a place for people to come together with their family and friends and bond over food. Borikén opened its doors in November and has quickly become a local favorite. Alvarez Santiago suggests guests try chinchorro de PR, a variety of small plates meant to be shared with friends; carne de res guisada, beef stewed with tomato sauce, carrots, and sofrito; and mofongo, mashed plantain stuffed with chicken, pork, skirt steak, shrimp, or sautéed veggies.

The unity of the business community in the region is Alvarez Santiago’s favorite part of having a restaurant in the Genesee Valley, sharing that “all the advice and good wishes that were given to me when I opened my doors filled me with support and good energies...The reality is that we all help each other, we all impact the experience of those who decide to visit us and that way we all benefit.” For Women’s History Month, she hopes that other women looking to open their own businesses know that they can achieve anything, stressing that “women have the ability to adapt to difficult situations.” In the restaurant field “where hard work never stops,” Alvarez Santiago acknowledges that women face different challenges than men do and thinks there should be more conscientious provisions for sick leave to make the industry accessible to all and to help retain talent. Borikén, a woman- and immigrant-owned business, allows guests to explore the diversity of the Genesee Valley alongside delicious food and a welcoming atmosphere. Visit the Borikén Restaurant at 40 Main St, Mt. Morris, Wednesdays through Sundays.

Food Pioneers of the Genesee Valley

The landscape of food in upstate New York is changing. While the Finger Lakes region is responsible for a quarter of the state’s agricultural output, local residents in Western New York have traditionally felt the need to leave the area to experience new food and beverage trends. However, thanks to the state’s policy initiatives and innovative farmers, chefs, and business owners, there are more opportunities than ever before to enjoy what New York has to offer.

Although the wine industry currently brings tourists to the area, the food scene has lagged behind. The Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council has recognized that consumers want more organic and locally-sourced food. The council has identified $1.3 billion in private investments to improve the entire food value chain, ranging from research to equipment to infrastructure. At the same time, local schools like Monroe Community College, Finger Lakes Community College, and Genesee Community College provide programs in food studies, viticulture, and food processing technology so that a workforce will be available to fill the jobs these investments create. The New York State Division of Agricultural Development, meanwhile, helps support the over 700 farmers’ markets in the state.

Two new local food incubators, FreshLAB in Batavia and the Commissary in Rochester, aim to help new restaurants, beverage companies, and small-batch food producers get started in the area. Created to help keep residents’ dining and entertaining money local, FreshLAB provides to entrepreneurs everything from a commercial kitchen to WiFi to mentorship. In Sibley Square in Rochester, the Commissary, opening later in 2019, will offer hourly kitchen space to aspiring grocery suppliers as well as food-focused workshops and cooking classes to the general public.

The Hole in the Wall Restaurant in Perry lists many local suppliers on their menu.

The relationship between food and agricultural businesses in the region is also evolving. When Jacquie Billings and Travis Barlow joined forces at the Hole in the Wall Restaurant in Perry in 2005, they had to grow their own produce. Now, after years of building relationships with local farmers, creameries, apiaries, and the like, they joke their garden is overgrown with weeds and instead tend to the growing list of producers they promote on their menu. 

Chef Brian Simmons who runs the historic Yard of Ale in Piffard has also been a pioneer in transforming the region’s food scene, making sustainability a key focus of his cuisine and partnering with local food and beverage producers like the Abbey of the Genesee, Deer Run Winery and Pleasant View Farm. 

Executive Chef Sean Wolf, formerly at Farmer’s Creekside Tavern in Leroy, says the choice to focus on farm-to-table dining was obvious to him: “The fewer miles the food has to travel, (the) better for the quality of the food and (the) better for the environment… It also gives us (an opportunity) to create a personal connection with the people growing our food, and opens a dialogue in which we can each understand the other's needs better with the result hopefully being a better product and better supply stream for everyone involved.” Likewise, Jill Marshall Gould, after marrying Steve Gould, a third generation dairy farmer at Har-Go Farms in Pavilion, saw a way to utilize something the region has in abundance: culled dairy cows. Instead of sending these cows to auction, Marshall Gould has started processing them and dry aging the steaks, selling them alongside burgers and dog bones at pop-ups under her Butter Meat Co. label. While still a small operation, she hopes to ultimately have the capacity to expand beyond her own farm’s cows and open a retail space nearby. 

The food scene in Western New York has come a long way, but there is still work to be done, both by policymakers and customers.  Although Marshall Gould understands the intent of regulatory laws, she finds it very expensive and arduous to keep up with all of them, saying, “I have a constant fear I may have missed something…(that) will impact me in 6 months or a couple of years.” Margaret Zdzieszynski and Krystyna Skrzypek of Euro Café, a Polish restaurant in Geneseo, agree, adding that they wish business taxes were lower. Additionally the increasing minimum wage will make restaurants’ already narrow profits even narrower. 

While the market demand for local food and beverage is there - the supply is not. There are a number of issues that contribute to this but two of the main ones are the ability of rural restaurants to attract and retain talent and the highly seasonal nature of the business. According to Nicole Manapol, Letchworth Gateway Villages Director, “it’s a risk that many entrepreneurs in rural areas just can’t take.” 

On the flip side, local customers, not used to the rising quality of restaurants in the area, also face a steep learning curve. Sean Wolf often faces questions from customers about why his homemade bread or local produce from small farms costs more than they are used to spending on inferior products. He wishes people would step outside their comfort zones and trust chefs to make them something new and delicious.

The potential for the food and beverage industry in the Genesee Valley is huge - especially as Buffalo and Rochester up their culinary games and the Finger Lakes wine region continues to attract and grow local talent to fuel their wine industry. The food pioneers featured in this article have gone a long way in defining the Genesee Valley’s culinary identity. To support these efforts, Letchworth Gateway Villages has partnered with the Culinary Tourism Alliance, one of the world's leading experts in food tourism development, to understand how the region can combine its strengths in agriculture with travel and hospitality to drive new market opportunities in the region. The Genesee Valley shares many of the agricultural assets that put New York’s Finger Lakes wine region on the map, but the unique agricultural and culinary heritage of the Genesee Valley means that assets will be leveraged differently. By celebrating these stories and incorporating them into diverse visitor experiences, communities have the potential to attract more visitors, expand the market for local goods and services, and foster business innovation.