Elisabeth Marcano-Kennedy closed Marcano’s Takeout on Packard in August, less than a year after she opened. “It was doing okay but it wasn’t picking up the way I was expecting,” Marcano-Kennedy says. “And I was getting more into big events like catering.” Add to that the fact that she was due to renew her lease, that customers kept asking why she didn’t have tables so they could sit down, and that maybe it wasn’t the best location–Big Ten Burrito previously languished in the same spot–and she decided to pull the plug. But she says a lot of good came out of the experience: most of her customers had never had Venezuelan food before, and many discovered they really liked it. “I’ve been getting orders for pies, cookies, lunches, dinners.” For now she’s going to concentrate on her catering business, My Kitchen Gourmet (although now that she has some name recognition, she may change its name to Marcano’s Catering). Does she think she’ll ever open another eatery? “Maybe later,” she laughs. “And with seating.”

mykitchengourmet.com

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