Rosie Galaz plucks a sprig of mint, topping off a summery cocktail before sliding it across the bar. A glimpse of a tattoo on her wrist shows an already familiar symbol — one that matches the restaurant’s logo on the sign outside the space.
“Thirty-nine, never had a tattoo ever,” she says. “It’s on my left hand, directly to my heart. It’s going to be the reminder that no matter what happens, we’re never giving up. And we’re going to bring this into the world, whatever form that takes.”
The symbol: Pachamama, aka Mother Earth. An Andes goddess, one beloved by Galaz and her family in Chile, and the one chosen to represent this cozy little restaurant in Lakewood.
Galaz’s symbol incorporates a traditional representative swirl and elements of a traditional Mayan calendar, topped with a woman with two tomato vines stretching from her sides. It’s a reference to The Tomato Guys, the business Galaz and her husband, Will Norris II, began out of their backyard garden.
“It took me nine months to design her,” Galaz says, looking down at her wrist. “I knew that we had to have this tomato vine, this woman presence standing in her roots and reaching out.”
That presence extends beyond the graphics and into the Pachamama space itself, located inside Lakewood’s Evelyn building at 15027 Madison Ave. Photos of Galaz’s mother and grandmothers are framed near the bar — within view for Galaz, who’s regularly stationed behind it. Blue velvet lines the back wall; another personal reference, Galaz says: “My mother used to have a cerulean velvet robe that she would never let us touch.”
Other details look back on Galaz’s upbringing in Chile; small Chilean ceramics hold fresh herbs from Galaz’s and Norris’ garden, while at the bar, brown leather bar chairs evoke the horses that Galaz grew up with. The restaurant’s most striking accent is a water wheel, hung on a side wall and lit up with string lights.
It’s a smaller version of the wheel that powered electricity for her family’s avocado, lemon and fig farm in Chile — an image that Galaz says appeared in her dreams, along with members of her family, while she herself started dreaming up what Pachamama would be.
Those dreams came after Galaz and Norris were running the Tomato Guys, the couple’s home farm that supplies farmers markets and restaurants with fresh, organic produce.
In early 2020, they purchased another plot of farmland in Ashtabula to expand their business, when not too long after, the pandemic hit Ohio — and landed a blow to their burgeoning business.
“We used to sell to our fellow friends who are restaurateurs and at markets — and there was nowhere to go from there,” Galaz says. “ I remember clearly — after a couple (of) weeks, our produce was going bad and nobody knew what the hell was going on.”
Galaz and Norris shifted gears, soon starting the acclaimed “What’s For Dinner Wednesday” series, a takeout-focused concept that allowed them to cook organic meals inspired by various countries during the pandemic. It didn’t take long for the two French-trained chefs to seek out a brick-and-mortar space for their skills.
It was an uphill challenge from there, Galaz says.
“I think that being a minority woman in business, on top of being an immigrant, made it a little bit difficult,” she says. “I thought that because I have been doing this for 24 years, I was ready to open my business, which I really wasn’t. But I learned a lot. It was a long and sometimes painful journey.”
After months of struggling to find a space and pushing for legislative COVID-19-related assistance for local restaurants and food businesses, Galaz says they connected with LakewoodAlive Executive Director Ian Andrews and soon after found their home in The Evelyn building.
Months of renovations passed, and then earlier this summer, Pachamama quietly opened its doors to the public.
The restaurant’s menu is set to change every few weeks based on the harvest from Galaz and Norris’ farm — providing a unique dining experience at any given time. When Cleveland Magazine visited in mid-July, dishes were full of summery flavor, just before peak tomato season.
The food menu included the family-favorite prosciutto deviled eggs ($10), choripan sliders topped with lemon basil aioli and pickled shallots ($14) and a crunchy, fresh cucumber salad ($12). Some recipes — like the chimichurri — have been passed down in Galaz's family for more than a century, she says.
Meanwhile, the cocktail menu featured the citrusy hibiscus margarita ($13), the light, bright Lichy (named after Galaz’s mother, $13) and the Chilean red wine-based Borgoña ($12).
The tapas-style ordering is meant to encourage diners to spend a little extra time taking in Pachamama — without feeling too fancy. It’s reminiscent of her own family’s gatherings, spent with constant servings of food, many pours of wine and long conversations in the kitchen.
“I feel like we have gotten so far away from dining, the romanticism of it. The sitting down, the enjoying a meal, the enjoying a glass of wine, the enjoying conversation,” Galaz says. “We are trying to sell fine dining in a non-pretentious setting; you can just be yourself and just enjoy food.”
The goal is to highlight that unique Chilean dining experience Galaz knows so well and bring that slice of home to Lakewood’s eclectic dining scene.
”I decided that I wanted to build Pachamama not just as a restaurant, not just to elevate cuisine and show people that South America is not just beans and rice and the Caribbean flares; it's something different,” Galaz says. “We’re also here, we have something to offer.”
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