Long Beach Press Telegram

La Espaņola Meats, Inc.

Many home cooks and restaurant chefs in the U.S. ask where they can purchase some of the delicious ingredients and foods produced in Spain today.  While more and more of these unique products are available at specialty food stores nationwide, one of the simplest ways of obtaining them is via catalog.  And one of the most esteemed of the mail-order companies is La Espaņola, Meats, Inc., based in Lomita, California.

Founded in 1982 in this small suburb of Los Angeles, La Espaņola is the creation of Juana Gimeno Faraone, a native of Valencia, Spain, and her husband Frank Faraone, an American who formerly taught History in Torrance, California.

After the couple were married in Spain they moved back to California where their entrepreneurial spirit and love of Spanish culture prompted them to purchase a tiny delicatessen called La Espaņola and reform it into a thriving enterprise which has won the respect of the gourmet food industry.

Today, La Espaņola Meats, Inc. is not only an importer, retailer and wholesaler, but is also a manufacturer of premium Spanish-style sausages and cured meat products.   These are made in La Espaņola’s USDA-approved kitchens with the same fine ingredients and cherished recipes that are used by the best producers in Spain.   Personal attention and real care is lavished on each lot of sausages and cured meats.

La Espaņola's fastest-growing business is specialty food imports.  As the pioneer distributor of Spanish products in the U.S., and sole distributor of some of them, La Espaņola’s position in this area of Spanish-American commerce has been solidifying.  Olive oil, rice, cheeses, canned fish, canned foods, saffron, cookies, candy, chocolate, tea, coffee, and paella are just a few of the specialty food imports that La Espaņola is actively selling in the U.S.

La Espaņola’s products are purchased by a wide variety of retail and wholesale clients.  They have clients in all fifty states, as well as in Puerto Rico, Honduras, Nicaragua and Mexico, and include among their roster of clients many four-star restaurants and first class hotels such as the Ritz-Carlton, Hilton, and Hyatt Hotels.  The company has distributors in Miami, Seattle, San Antonio, and Puerto Rico.

The Faraone’s two daughters, along with Francisco Verdu, a native of Alicante, Spain who is also a shareholder at La Espaņola, plan to carry the company into the next century and expand its operations even more.  They hope to add many more items for import and strengthen the company’s position in the cross-Atlantic trade.  But most of all they want to continue following the founders’ mission of opening the U.S. market to the wonderful and superb foods of Spain.