Meet the power couple behind Cheese and Crust
Photo by Clark James Mishler
Starting a business can be scary, but Efren Barrera and Maria Vera decided to take the risk and so far, have not regretted it. The couple behind Cheese and Crust, a wood-fired pizza and catering service, met in Calistoga while working at a local restaurant.
It has been 16 years since the two first met. Now, they are their own bosses, running their own business, which always draws crowds at the Calistoga Farmers Market, where they began operating in town three years ago.
Barrera is originally from Tlaxcala, Mexico and Vera is from Guanajuato, Mexico. Barrera said the idea of a pizza business began from working in Italian restaurants.
Cheese and Crust was a long-term goal, but the couple made it a reality sooner than expected. Back in Mexico, Barrera worked as a waiter before arriving in the area at the age of 20 in 2009. He worked in many restaurants learning from an array of chefs. During one of his first jobs, he was in charge of making the salads. In another, he was a dishwasher.
“I wanted to climb the ladder,” he said. “I think to see what else I could do. So, I started making my first salads and, well, the chef was drawn to it because I did it quickly and he recorded things and he could see how much effort I put into it.”
Barrera honed his culinary skills at Bosko’s Trattoria in Calistoga, and later at the Michelin-star rated Press in St. Helena where he was both a cook and a bartender. At Press, his mentor, chef Phil Tessier, inspired him to be creative and begin his own culinary endeavors.
“Every day I tried to do my job better. I saw it as very far away, in the future, being able to do catering and be able to do events like what we are doing right now,” Barrera said.
Barrera recalled telling his wife his idea for Cheese and Crust. She was supportive from the beginning, he said. “She’s been my right hand.”
Vera has experience working front of the house and as a waitress. Currently, she takes care of accounts, but she is also learning how to make the pizzas. She migrated from Guanajuato, and she said as soon as she arrived in Calistoga at 18, she began to work. She did not think of owning a business until having children sparked the idea.
“We were working, and sometimes we had two jobs, and sometimes you spend almost all your time out working,” Vera said. Having their own business, she said, gave the couple the opportunity to be at home with their children.
“Even though you work a lot,” she said, “you know that you’re here, in your home, and it’s something that belongs to you.”
The key to success, Vera said, is not giving up. Their main motivation is their two children, Santiago, 4, and Sofia, 6.
“You have to follow your dreams and pursue them no matter what,” Barrera said, adding that business owners do not become rich overnight. “It is about patience and effort.”
The couple had some savings, which they needed to start their business. Also necessary, he added, is “a lot of courage and self-confidence.”
To start, they bought a wood-fired pizza oven from a company in Healdsburg that designs Italian ovens. “The wood makes a big difference in what it is in the flavor,” Vera said.
Although the Barreras are Mexican, they chose to focus on Italian food because they like the style. Barrera recalled working with an Italian chef who told him, “Make food simple, homemade, it’s the best.”
Cheese and Crust offers a variety of pizzas, salads and appetizers, including arancini-risotto balls and cantaloupe melon skewers with prosciutto and fig bruschetta.
Even though Barrera loves Italian food, he is willing to experiment with combinations, such as Santiago’s Pizza, named after their son.
“I made that pizza by creating a combination based on my roots, which is that I’m Mexican. So, it has chorizo, jalapeños, caramelized onions, and cilantro. I wanted to give it a Mexican touch,” he said. “I also made Sofia’s Pizza, my little girl’s name.”
Next up, Barrera plans to make a special pizza for Cinco De Mayo using activated charcoal (which would make the dough black) and mole, which is his favorite Mexican dish.
“I like to innovate,” he said. “And maybe I dream of a Michelin star, but it’s little by little, right? So that’s why I try to do my job better and better.” Barrera said he hopes to open an Italian restaurant in Calistoga.
“I came here, and I fell in love with Calistoga,” he said. “I think people are waiting to maybe try something different and I would like to be the one to bring them new flavors.”
Cheese and Crust is at the Calistoga Farmers Market on Saturday mornings year-round, and can also be found at seasonal markets in Middletown, St. Helena and Occidental.
“Sometimes there is bad weather, and it rains and we know we’re maybe going to sell 10 pizzas,” he said. “But even if it’s 10 pizzas, we’re there, rain or shine, because we have someone to take care of.”
