An American Dream
Come True

Juan Martinez of Don Juan Mex Grill

Long-time RestaurantOwner.com member Juan Martinez is truly an American success story. Born in the Dominican Republic, he began his food service career at age 10 cleaning bathrooms, doing prep work, and selling popcorn and cotton candy. At age 16, his family emigrated to the United States and he began studying business and finance, eventually becoming a banker and real estate investor. A restaurant at one of his commercial properties inspired Juan and his wife Melanie to become restaurateurs in 2010.

That same year, Juan became a member of RestaurantOwner.com. Juan says he joined “to get educated about being a new restaurant owner. RestaurantOwner.com continues to be a valuable resource that has given us the tools and insights to fine-tune and grow our operations.”

Juan and Melanie have slowly, yet steadily expanded their Don Juan Mexican brand into a five-location independent fast-casual concept in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Don Juan’s mission is to bring Latin-inspired foods to local communities and serve dishes such as empanadas, tacos, salads, bowls, burritos, and more.

Juan credits RestaurantOwner.com for helping him and his team develop, fine-tune, and maintain his restaurants’ operating, inventory management, and cost control systems leading to an astounding 22% average food cost and a 50% to 55% prime cost in each of his five restaurants.

Every Tuesday, Juan meets with his entire management team. Each week, a training video or course session from the RestaurantOwner.com Learning System is watched and discussed. Juan sees this to not only enhance the skills of his management team and improve his operations, but to add value to his managers' experience of working at Don Juan. Having several managers who learn best in their native language, they especially appreciate the Spanish versions of many videos and resources within the RestaurantOwner.com Learning System.

Juan is passionate when he talks about how he views his employees as his “biggest, most important customers” and believes that training and developing his people translates directly into better, higher-quality guest experiences and a more successful company.

In addition to running a growing, successful multi-location restaurant company, Juan continues to be active in commercial real estate. In 2023, he became a member of the National Restaurant Association’s board of trustees.

Going forward, Juan’s top priorities are continuing to fine-tune operations and focusing on the basics when it comes to internal operational processes, better financial fitness, and continuing to maximize staff effectiveness. In addition, he and his team are getting ready to expand by adding one or more Don Juan locations in the next 18 months.