Running a family restaurant

Cousins use traditional recipes passed down from ancestors

Cousins Blanca Ramirez and Ana Pedraza have a passion for serving traditional Mexican food to family. When they moved to Las Vegas, they decided to share that food with the public at their restaurant Las Hamacas.

Las Hamacas, 8665 W. Flamingo Road, Suite 107, which opened Dec. 1, serves up traditional dishes using family recipes that date back at least three generations.

"We usually cook the same food that's on the menu at home," Pedraza, a native of El Salvador, said. "We have fajitas, tacos, seafood and we serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. And all the tortillas are handmade, both corn and flour."

Pedraza moved from Monterey, Calif., with her family in October 2005, and Ramirez and her family, also from Monterey, have resided in the valley for about a year and a half.

Since Pedraza's move, she has been busy working with her cousin to get the restaurant in order.

"It was a lot of hard work," Pedraza said.

But the long hours were well spent, they agreed.

The restaurant has posters of Mexican beaches and serene photos of hammocks strung in between palm trees on white-sand beaches. Las Hamacas, Ramirez explained, translates to The Hammocks.

"In Mexico there are a lot of beaches that have them (hammocks) hung everywhere," Ramirez, originally from Mexico, said.

More and more restaurants are popping up in strip malls, and Las Hamacas, being one of them, makes it work.

Las Hamacas has 13 tables -- all non-smoking -- that provide seating for up to 54 at any given time. The restaurant offers take out as well.

"And children are very welcome," Ramirez added, noting that she and her cousin both have two children. "And there is a children's menu."

The menu consists of a variety of traditional Mexican fare ranging from chilaquiles con cecina to pozole y menudo con asada, with the price of many of the meals ranging between $10-$12.

"And we have four different salsas all made here," Pedraza, who owned and operated a child care facility before moving, said.

"Some places just have one salsa they put out with the chips and they use the same one for everything," Ramirez said.

But, as she insists that isn't the way it's supposed to be. Different dishes go better with different salsas, and they make sure to do their best matching them up.

And if any of the cooks need time off, Ramirez and Pedraza are ready and willing to step in, considering they trained the cooks to use their recipes, Pedraza said.

The goal of the owners is to provide good food for a reasonable price, make their customers feel comfortable and become part of the local community.

"We already have some regulars," Ramirez said smiling.

Las Hamacas is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday.