Local Southern California restaurant braces for potential increased tariffs on imported goods
"It's going to be terrible for the restaurant industry as well and people might have to make a decision to not come to restaurants anymore," said Ivan Vasquez, the president of Madre! Oaxacan Restaurant & Mezcaleria.
With a huge selection of mezcal, Vasquez knows the value of spirits directly from Mexico.
"We are the biggest mezcaleria in the United States, pouring traditional mezcal and tequilas all from Mexican families, traditionally produced for many generations," he said.
Madre! Oaxacan Restaurant has locations in Torrance, Culver City, West Hollywood and Valencia.
Vasquez said he's waiting to see if a possible 25% increase on tariffs from Mexico becomes a reality in less than two weeks.
"At this point, we don't know what to expect; we are in limbo, this is not fair for very small companies," Vasquez said.
The restaurant industry is already facing a huge decline in traffic and sales.
"Restaurants in LA are facing one of the biggest crises in the last 20 years. I have never seen this high prices in the industry, I have never seen this slow of a turn into the restaurants," Vasquez said. "We are seeing great restaurants closing and with this impact on our bottom line, more restaurants are going to have to close because it's not sustainable."
When it comes to imported Mexican liquor, most of the time there is American soil behind the brands as well.
"The government is not paying attention to that, they think it's all Mexican owned, it's not all Mexican companies," he said. "It's going to impact the distributor, the importer, the restaurant and in the end the consumer."
It could change the future of traditionally made Mexican spirits.
"You will lose some of those families making mezcal and they are going to stop them and close a lot of knowledge because you will lose all that generation that knows it so well," Vasquez said.
Until these companies, like Madre, know more about the administration's decision on tariffs, any further action in Mexico is just too big a gamble for a small business to take.
"For me I don't want to invest money bringing another batch of mezcal because I don't know what the prices will be from here until April 2," Vasquez said. "We are just waiting to see what is going to happen, how much we are going to have to increase, or we are just going to have to stop bringing products from Mexico, and there is no replacement for tequila, mezcal."
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