Inside Nico Bolzico And Erwan Heussaff's Kitchen And Deli House, Chingolo Deli

The biggest challenge in managing a steakhouse is ensuring that the quality of ingredients and food is up to standard, as it is essential for customer satisfaction. Close friends and brothers-in-law, Erwan Heussaff and Nico Bolzico make a formidable business team. Chingolo Deli, Erwan and Nico’s restaurant and deli, is thriving thanks to Erwan’s culinary expertise and Nico’s high-quality Bolzico Beef.

Erwan and Nico opened the doors of Chingolo Kitchen & Deli in 2020, offering premium grass-fed Bolzico Beef. According to their website, you can enjoy leaner, tastier, and healthier steaks “with no traces of excess hormones or antibiotics so common in commercially-grown beef.” The steak is served with either chimichurri, entrecôte, salsa rosa, or house gravy, which are the restaurant’s four signature sauces. Aside from their posh restaurant, they also have a deli where you can purchase Bolzico Beef and other ready-to-eat dishes, like Choripan, a popular Argentinian sandwich, and homemade sauces like their garlic aioli and chimichurri.

Nico and Erwan actually started their business by importing Bolzico Beef straight from Argentina to offer to their friends and families. In an interview on Inquirer, Erwan explained, “After my trip to Argentina with Nico, I realized how tasty its steaks are, compared to other grass-fed Angus that I’ve tried in other countries. Nico’s family owns cattle farms, so it just made sense for us to source from them and start bringing it to the Philippines.”

Erwan added that they initially only intended to open a deli but decided to add a restaurant because they still had plenty of space and wanted people to taste the meat. According to Erwan, when it comes to their steaks, they just keep it simple and let the quality of the meat speak for itself. In an interview with Philippine Primer, Erwan said, “Here, we didn’t wanna do anything complicated … Very classical, like in an Argentinian steakhouse, where they literally serve beef, beef, beef, and beef.”

Due to their high demand, steakhouses and delis make for a profitable business venture. For instance, the owner of an unli-steak business earns P1 million a month. Indeed, very impressive! Another inspiring story is how a small ‘ihawan’ business turned into a successful business serving affordable steaks. A steakhouse business gives you the opportunity to offer tasty and high-quality food that people will love. Furthermore, it has the potential to make a very good profit because there are always people looking for good steaks and sandwiches.

Let’s take a look inside Chingoli Deli, as toured by Nico via Chingolo Deli’s Facebook page:

She used to be in the corporate world for a decade but followed her heart and became a writer. She now writes for a number of websites and other online media publications.