Before moving to Canada, Ernesto Gomez had worked in fine dining in France, Spain, the U.S. and his native Mexico. When he moved to Vancouver, he became business partners with Victor Bouzide, and together they the built the Lebanese-themed Nuba establishments. After that success, Ernesto craved returning to a project close to his heart. “I wanted to do something more reflective of my background.” He wanted to focus on the commonalities between cuisine in northern Mexico and the Pacific Northwest. “Northern Mexico’s coastline has a lot of similarities with Vancouver’s coast.”
Colleagues kept telling him he must talk to famed chef, restauranteur and northern Baja food pioneer Jair Tellez, so maybe it wasn’t a total coincidence when the two men met at a friend’s restaurant on the Mexican Riviera. “We talked, drank and got to know each other over dinner. We had so much in common. I proposed the Fayuca project.” Both men were inspired by not only food, but by the similarities running through the Tijuana, Baja and Vancouver coastlines. Their vision for Fayuca was to create food reflecting this. In April 2017, that vision became a reality, in Vancouver's Yaletown.
