EVERETT—Beloved Mexican grocery store, Los Gavilanes, celebrated 20 years of business Sunday, September 20, with live music, food, and non-stop festivities.
Since 2006, Los Gavilanes, as it is commonly called, has been providing marinated meats, fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables, in-house pastries and breads, and authentic Mexican and South American products to residents in South County. The store, along with El Pollo Rico, were the original tenants in the Casino Square Plaza nestled in the heavily Latin American populated district of Everett.
Owner Felipe Hernández, better known as Don Felipe in the community, was born in Guadalajara, Mexico and immigrated to the Vancouver, Washington to pursue a career on construction.
25 years ago, he helped do a job where he built a storefront for a customer, who, upon completion of the project, offered a job to Felipe as a manager running his new store. At that time Felipe’s allergies were growing increasingly worse and he decided to switch careers.
However, Felipe quickly realized that having a boss was not for him. He began looking for retail locations of his own, stumbling upon his current location on 209 East Casino Road in Everett.
He opened Los Gavilanes (which means “the Hawks”) in 2006, beginning with a modest selection. Felipe named his store after the 1956 Mexican Western/Comedy film which, inspired by the classic Robin Hood tale, was about two brothers who steal from the rich and help feed the poor.
“We do not steal from the rich, but we do feed the community,” Felipe joked.
To promote his newly opened business, Felipe offered a special where if customers ate his signature pan dulce in the store it would be free.
“Now we can’t get rid of it,” he said. “People know. They come, they eat their bread and if they finish it – it’s free.”
The pan dulce is baked in house. Los Gavilanes also makes all its signature salsas in house, as well as its carnitas.
Separate to this, what sets Los Gavilanes aside from other Hispanic/Latino grocers in the area is the service they provide.
“We understand situations get hard so we try to work with people so that they’re able to afford the food and we try to give the best service we can,” said Felipe.
Customers can expect to find meats, produce, dairy, eggs, breads, and hard to find Latino/Hispanic products from various Central and South American countries.
The grocery store has now grown to 45 employees.
For the last three years Los Gavilanes has also hosted its annual Cafecito y Pan Dulce event, which invites community members to meet with local law enforcement over sweet bread and coffee.
The purpose of the event, according to Felipe, the grocery store’s owner, is to gather the community together for an opportunity to enjoy the store’s signature sweet bread (pan dulce), coffee (Cafecito) and meet with Everett Police Department officers (Policia) — during a time when many members of the Hispanic and Latino community may be distrusting of law enforcement due to federal ICE raids.
This year’s event will take place on Thursday, October 8, from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m.
