‘It’s in our DNA’: Meet the four siblings responsible for some of Richmond’s best Mexican food 2%
By Haidyn Brockelman0%
7/30/2026, 3:02:09 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 7 faulty reasoning types, including Optimism Bias, Hindsight Bias, and Representativeness Heuristic, with In-Group Bias as the most egregious example at 11.1% saturation with 128 hits. Analysis detected 309 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,151 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 11.4% and a BS Rank of 2% (21,984 of 22,405 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 98.10% of the article peer group.
You may not know their names, but you’re probably familiar with their food.
Since 1995, the Benavides family has been a part of Richmond’s culinary scene.
Today, all four siblings work in the food industry, each bringing their own unique character to places like Cochiloco, Abuelitas and El Cerro Azul.
Ask them why they do it, and they’ll tell you it runs in the family.
Karina, Nelson, Paulo and Betty Benavides were all born in Jalisco, Mexico.
Their father, Rafael, started his antojito — a restaurant specializing in traditional Mexican street food and snacks — called El Toro in June 1984.
“I remember my dad prepping in the morning, then they would be open from 7 to 10, 10:30 (p.m.),” Karina, the eldest child, recalled.
She noted that almost everyone in the family worked at the restaurant at one time or another, and friends would inquire about jobs.
“My parents had their restaurant, and my abuela had a cart where she sold candy and tostadas (in Mexico),” Karina said.
“It’s in our DNA; it’s what we grew up with.”
The family moved to Virginia in 1995, where Rafael partnered with the Garcia family, which owns the Mexico Restaurant local chain, to open one in Hopewell.
Four years later, Rafael opened his first independent venture, Don Jose’s, in Colonial Heights.
The youngest of the four, Betty remembers setting tables at Don Jose when she was nine years old.
By 2010, Rafael owned two independent chains — Don Jose’s and Don Pepe’s — with five total locations.
He retired and sold his last restaurant in 2025.
One industry, four paths
Although they tried out other things – Karina went to William & Mary for International Relations, Betty wanted to do photography, and Nelson studied filmmaking – the siblings all found their way back to the restaurant business.
Together, they’ve owned eight food businesses.
Currently, the brothers own four restaurants together: Hibachi Box, Hibachi House, Y Tu Mama – located in The Veil Brewing Co.’s Forest Hill taproom – and Cochiloco.
Karina and her husband own three restaurants: El Cerro Azul has locations in Midlothian and Powhatan, and Abuelita’s is located on Richmond's Southside.
Betty had a churro pop-up, Que Churro, that operated from 2019 to 2022.
In 2024, the brothers expanded into the tequila industry with Mosto Tequila – created in collaboration with The Veil’s Dave Michelow and Matt Tarpey – which won Double Gold at the 2026 Agavos Awards and at the 2026 San Francisco World Spirits Competition , one of the most prestigious spirits events in the world.
Mosto has also connected the brothers with their older sister, Karina, who opened Abuelita’s on Midlothian Turnpike in 2018 with her husband in addition to their El Cerro Azul locations.
Paulo explained that, in Mexican culture, food plays a central role in family gatherings and in home values; this can be seen at Abuelita’s, where Karina’s mother-in-law, Victoria Hernandez, continues to make their tamales on Sundays.
A lesson Paulo learned from their maternal grandfather was that when somebody comes into the house, you sit them down and feed them, regardless of who they are.
“‘If you have space for two, you have space for four,’ that’s what he said,” Paulo recalled.
“We tried to pass that along because that's what we've known growing up.”
The siblings said witnessing their parents’ hard work and ambition motivated them to create something of their own.
However, Karina, the Abuelita’s owner, emphasized that although they’re all in the same industry, they all “wanted to be independent and create (their) own thing.”
She said even though they work in the same industry in the same city, she’s never seen her brothers as competition.
“We’ve worked really hard, all of us,” Karina said.
“I feel so proud that we can work in the (same) city, but at the same time, we can show different sides of Mexican food.”
This can be seen in the difference between Abuelita’s – which is known for its guisos and stews, as well as aguas frescas – and Cochiloco – which serves more Americanized Mexican comfort food, like tacos and quesadillas.
“Not to say we don’t have authentic things like carne asada or our carnitas – they’re very unapologetically authentic – but we’re very flexible, you know?”
Paulo said of the brothers’ decision for what they serve.
Although Betty no longer operates a food business – a decision motivated by a desire to focus on building her family and move away from the stress that comes with being a restaurant owner – she chose to remain in the industry.
She currently works as an implementation technician for a point-of-sale vendor company, installing and training people on various systems.
She said she was drawn to the role since she often served as the one-woman “IT staff” in her family’s restaurants.
Even though she doesn’t work in any of her family members’ restaurants, she can still remain connected to the industry she grew up in and is able to see her siblings’ work through other people’s eyes.
“A lot of the restaurant owners, they know my siblings, and it’s just been really nice to hear stories of my siblings, how people really admire the work they've done,” she said.
“It’s really nice to be able to look up to them and learn from them.”
Betty added that her own experience running Que Churro and helping out in her family’s restaurants helps her on the job, too, as she understands why they may want their system to run items a certain way and how stressful certain days can be.
While the siblings agreed food service was a no-brainer for them, they acknowledged they’ve dealt with plenty of struggles behind the scenes.
Both Karina and Paulo pointed to the pandemic, which was “kind of like reopening the doors,” as he put it.
Karina – who is a mother of two teenagers – had a more blunt take, saying “everything kind of collapsed.”
Betty spoke about the personal sacrifices they’ve had to make, from not being able to participate in certain activities as children to help their parents, to having to miss family events due to short-staffing at their respective restaurants.
However, she said those are instances where working in the same industry helps, as they can all empathize with and relate to those situations.
At the end of the day, the siblings said they hope to bring some of the Mexican culture and cuisine they grew up with to Richmond, and be able to support each other in their endeavors.
Looking forward, they all have their own goals: Karina plans to open a second Abuelita’s at some point, Paulo spoke of increasing Mosto’s regional growth, and Betty has a family focus but is open to another food venture further down the road.
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