La Bamba
For La Bamba owners Peter Cooper and Misti Burnham, family is as much a part of their business as freshness.
The inspiration for the menu at La Bamba is a hybrid of authentic Mexican recipes from several families of employees, with an American twist. A focus on fresh ingredients is what makes La Bamba’s food different from anything else in the Birmingham area, Cooper said. La Bamba also likes to use local produce in the dishes, often purchased at farmers markets.
“We don’t have a freezer,” Cooper said. “Everything is prepared fresh daily.”
Some of those local ingredients also go directly into the house specialty, Bamba Dip, a combination of ground beef, cheese and pico de gallo served with tortilla chips. Although Bamba Dip could be a meal in itself, La Bamba’s best-sellers are all things fajita. Whether it is steak fajitas or the fajita quesadilla, customers savor the flavor of the meat because of the way it is marinated, Cooper said. Allowing the meat time to marinate, instead of seasoning it before putting it on the grill, keeps it from getting dry.
In 2009, local business owner Carlos Pinto opened La Bamba after closing his Lakeshore Drive restaurant, Cancun. Cooper visited La Bamba frequently and built a relationship with Pinto. When circumstances arose for Pinto to sell the restaurant in 2012, Cooper found it to be the perfect opportunity to invest in Edgewood as well as continue the mission of one of his favorite eateries.
From his first visit, Cooper felt an immediate draw to the Edgewood community because of the family atmosphere, as did his fiancée, Burnham.
“In the spring when it’s nice out, you can just look down Broadway and see strollers, dogs and little red wagons,” Burnham said. “Everyone can sit out on the patio and eat together.”
Soon, just running the business was no longer enough for Cooper as he considered other ways to connect with the community on a deeper level. With this, he and Burnham incorporated Edgewood Night Out into the routine of their business.
“Edgewood Night Out is once a month during the school year,” Burnham said. “It’s when we get together as a community and encourage people to shop and eat in Edgewood. Through this we donate 10 percent of our sales back to the school.”
La Bamba also has been a part of several other community activities, such as partnering with the Alzheimer’s Association, the Homewood City Schools Foundation and the Bell Center.
“We feel that La Bamba has a lot to offer Homewood, and we just want to get our name out there,” Burnham said. “We exist and we are here for the community.”
Cooper and Burnham also have big plans for the future. They are getting married this month, and they hope to open three more restaurants in the greater Birmingham area within the next five years.