Navarro Family: Working Hard, Building Dreams and a Legacy

Luis and Brenda Navarro must be the hardest working family in Long Beach. They own and operate three restaurants in the city: Lola’s Mexican Cuisine on 4th Street and in Bixby Knolls and The Social List on 4th Street. Now, they’re busy putting the finishing touches on the city’s first distillery, Portuguese Bend in downtown Long Beach. But, once you’ve spent time with the Navarro family, you would not be surprised at their hard-working efforts. This married couple are high school sweethearts who have been chasing dreams and making them happen since Luis was seventeen and Brenda was fifteen. For Luis Navarro, dreaming came early.

“My whole life…I had this dream of operating and owning my own business… I always wanted to be my own boss. I wanted to be creative and create my own things.”

It began with running a business selling skateboard clothing on weekends out at the Orange County Swap Meet. And Brenda Navarro would be right there with him beginning at four o’clock in the morning and working through until four o’clock in the afternoon. It was their first business venture together and they’re still together twenty-two years later.

From the beginning, Brenda Navarro has played a special role. She wasn’t just along for the ride, she was there to help make it happen. Luis describes Brenda as the executioner and Brenda describes Luis as the dreamer.

“Between both of us I’m more simplistic, it’s easier for me to kind of visualize ad do things, just get it done.”

It is that kind of symmetry that keeps the Navarro family business growing and busy with building a legacy. PalacioMagazine.com sat down with Luis and Brenda Navarro at the site of their latest venture, Portuguese Bend, a distillery on Third Street between Long Beach Boulevard and Pine at the Promenade. When we visited them, workers were busy around us sanding, vacuuming, drilling, and interrupting our interview to speak with Brenda about one business detail or another. Yet, when they spoke to us, they took the time to share both their excitement and love for each other and for what they do.