The Dawn on the Amazon Cafe never has and never will serve jungle bush meat or any endangered species. Please support the 10% of restaurants in Iquitos that do not serve jungle animal meat. That is the moral, ethical, and legal choice. Thank you.

Bill Grimes, reporting from Iquitos Peru, a popular place to be.

This is part of the award winning Dawn on the Amazon Cafe team.

Yes, we only use sea salt.

No, we do not use MSG.

Yes, we have Acai.

Yes, we have been the number one restaurant in Iquitos for over a year and counting.

Yes we are cooking and serving your food with tender loving care.

Bill Grimes, host of Dawn on the Amazon Cafe.

We celebrated the Dawn on the Amazon Café one year anniversary on February 1st.

We completed the first year. It was a good start and I believe our numbers will improve the second year. We have many fascinating guests and usually there is interesting conversation. Nearly everyone leaves feeling good about themselves and their stay in Iquitos. We just need more of the same this second year.

We printed the third edition of our menu. The most expensive dishes are less than S/20 or $7.37, and dozens of delectable dishes are less than S/13.50 or $5. We added several of my favorite foods such as tacos, lomo saltado, baked pasta, hearty tomato soup, caesar salad…

We’re only reviewed in one guide book so we are relatively undiscovered by tourists. I see them walk in front of my awning with the big Dawn on the Amazon Café sign carrying their Lonely Planet Travel Guide book, look at the list of recommended restaurants, look back at my sign, shake their heads no, walk on down to the older restaurants along the boulevard that are in the guide books, look at their signs, consult their book, nod their heads confidently and walk on in to eat a meal that is probably not as good as what we serve. But what can we do? I feel sure we will be in the new editions of the guide books and a good recommendation there will make a big difference.

For now I’m content with our customers but more will probably be better. I guess it depends on who it is…

The Dawn on the Amazon Café one year anniversary.

Bill Grimes is the owner of the Dawn on the Amazon Café, president of Dawn on the Amazon Tours and Cruises, and manager of the Amazon Golf Course, among many other endeavors.

A fun Sunday at the Butterfly Farm, and on the Nanay River with Dawn on the Amazon.

Our crew, cruising up the Nanay River to the Butterfly Farm

I had more fun last Sunday than I’ve had in months. Marmelita was up early cooking a lot, including a large pot of rice with vegetables, seasoned with guizador, a delicious root spice that adds flavor as well as an attractive yellow color similar to saffron, a beef tenderloin, hard boiled eggs, and a big salad. It was the Dawn on the Amazon and Amazon Golf Course office picnic and party. We had a ball! A volley ball that is. Over 40 people showed up and filled my boat to near capacity. We cruised up the Nanay River to the village of Padre Cocha and the butterfly farm.

The rest of the crew, cruising to the Butterfly Farm on board Dawn on the Amazon

The residents of Padre Cocha have deforested the land between their village and the river. We had to hike in the sun all the way to the village and the Butterfly Farm, and so do they. The government is partially responsible. Each land holder received S/ 2000 soles credit to clear the land and to plant camu-camu. I love camu-camu juice, it’s beautiful, delicious, and nutritious, but nearly all of the Padre Cocha camu-camu plants died, so they have no shade and no camu-camu. Camu-camu does best when it starts in the shade, not the hot boiling sun that dries out the ground and cracks the soil. It was particularly stupid not to leave a band of trees along the trail to provide shade for us humans. I’m not in good shape, my old wound was hurting, and by the time I limped into the shade of the Butterfly Farm where the trees are protected and appreciated, I was hot under the collar.

We took the tour, learned about the life cycle of the butterfly and their host plants, and the orphaned animals that were lucky enough to end up here where they are treated like pets, or better, like human children.

The crew of the Dawn on the Amazon Cafe touring the Butterfly Farm

Dawn on the Amazon Tours and Cruises runs the best day trips out of Iquitos, and the Butterfly Farm is one of our favorite destinations. Most of the crew from the Dawn on the Amazon Cafe and the Amazon Golf Course had never been to the Butterfly Farm so it was all new to them, and they really enjoyed the experience, and were proud to be part of the crew that was brought here to learn.

A Rothschiladia moth with translucent patches on its's wings, photographed and observed at the Butterfly Farm by the crew of the Dawn on the Amazon Cafe

The amazing Rothschiladia Moth in the photo above is born to breed. It only lives two or three days, and has no digestive system. The female releases pheromones that the male can detect from 15 kilometers away, and he hurries to do his genetic duty before it’s too late. These facts are just a small sample of what can be learned at the Butterfly Farm.

Bill Grimes, founder of Dawn on the Amazon, visiting with his good friend Guddrun Sperrer, founder of the Butterfly Farm

Gudrun Sperrer is the founder, owner, heart and soul of the Amazon Animal Orphanage and Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm. She is one of the hardest working and most interesting members of the ex-pat community near Iquitos, and a good friend of ours. She’s a regular at the Dawn on the Amazon Cafe so we visit several times a week and compare how our lives  and businesses are going, and lend moral support when needed. She usually orders a smoothie and an omelet or a fajita.

Deydi and Stacy with the monkeys at the Butterfly Farm.

The Red-faced Uakari, and the Red Howler monkeys are some of the highlights for me. When the howlers get going with that noise it is really something to hear. The first time you hear them you are sure to think it is a couple of dangerous wild jaguar come to eat you.

Dawn on the Amazon at a deserted sand beach on the Nanay River where the crew of the Dawn on the Amazon Cafe had a fun day.

After the tour of the Butterfly Farm we loaded back up in the boat and motored upstream on the Nanay River until we came to the perfect place, a large, beautiful, deserted, white sand beach. We “beached” the boat and jumped out ready for action.

Part of the crew of the Dawn on the Amazon Cafe having fun swimming in the Nanay River on our Sunday day off together

On went the bathing suits, up went the volleyball net, out came the delicious bounty of food and the cooler full of beer, we let out a cheer, and the fun continued…

Chema and her children at the Dawn on the Amazon Cafe picnic.

The picnic was a feast, with plenty left over for a picnic dinner before we headed home. The second meal was simple with 80 loaves of our ciabatta bread with Edam cheese, hard boiled eggs, a big jar of orange marmelade, and various left overs from lunch. It hit the spot in the late afternoon, washed down with the last of the beer and soda pop, after playing hard all day. No one went home hungry.

Pink Dolphin at the Dawn on the Amazon Cafe office picnic

By the end of the day I was sun burned and exhausted. I mean exhausted!!!

Part of the crew and their friends and family, of the Dawn on the Amazon Cafe, watching the volleyball games.

Volleyball, swimming, and spectating were the main activities for the afternoon. We stayed busy.

Filo and Marmelita enjoying our day off on the white sandy beach on the Nanay River.

No one had more fun than Marmelita and her mom Filo. To see more photos and learn more about the story of our day, click these links to two other articles, The Amazon Golf Course Crew Visits the Butterfly Farm And A Picnic With Dawn on the Amazon, and Day Trip To The Butterfly Farm and The White Sandy Beaches Of The Nanay River.

Captain Bill Grimes, wading the Nanay River, leaning on the good ship Dawn on the Amazon. This could be you!

I guess you could call this an informal, fun, office picnic party, made possible by me, Captain Bill Grimes, my wife Marmelita, and the good ship Dawn on the Amazon I. I wanted everyone that works for me, 20 of the best men and women I know in Iquitos, to be closer, to encourage teamwork, to know more about each other, so the right hand would know what the left hand was doing, when the right hand was doing something entirely different. In other words the people that work for Dawn on the Amazon Tours and Cruises should socialize and be friendly, and ready to help, with the crews of the Dawn on the Amazon Cafe, and the Amazon Golf Course, to cross pollinate the crews, so to speak.

Positive feedback makes me happy.

The only thing that makes me happier than a nice email like this is to have all the chairs and tables full, and this is the formula to fill them.

Bill -

I am very glad that Gart recommended Dawn On The Amazon Cafe.  Rolando and I enjoyed the many meals we ate there this past weekend.  Your kind welcome very much impressed me.  I’ve always felt that “eggs are eggs”:   the thing that makes one restaurant different (and better) than another, for me, is the people who work there.  You and yours are the best —  and now I am back in Lima and  your excellent cheese omelets are only a memory. Poor me.

Ray Mills

—————————————————————–

Another reminder, it’s not just the food, it’s the people.

Positive feedback makes me happy.

Captain Bill Grimes writes for the Dawn on the Amazon Captain’s Blog. Check it out.

Positive feedback from our guests.

This complimentary email made my day and I want to share it with you.

Subject; Thank You

Dear Bill,

My partner and I were recently in Iquitos. We ate breakfast at Dawn on the Amazon on three or four occasions and on our final night in Iquitos we had dinner at the restaurant. As the owner, I wanted to pass on to you our feedback about how wonderful your staff are.

We have been travelling through South America for the past four months and I can confidently say that the staff at Dawn on the Amazon restaurant were the most pleasant and hospitable we have experienced to date….and the food and coffee was sensational too!! In particular, we had the absolute pleasure of meeting Karla at breakfast. She was always cheerful and friendly and we were very impressed that after meeting her one morning, we then went on a five day jungle tour, and on our return to Iquitos she not only recognized us, she remembered our names. Please say a special ´thankyou´ to Karla from Tara and Joe (the Australians).

We also enquired at Dawn on the Amazon tour office and while we were unable to make a river tour due to us needing to take an earlier than expected flight back to Lima, we were very impressed with Marmelita´s service. She was very knowledgeable, helpful and had great English.

Good luck with the business in the future. Your staff really are a great asset. We will be sure to recommend your services and restaurant to other tourists that we meet on our travels.

Kind regards,
Tara Rowland

I didn’t meet this couple but, that they took the time to send their opinion and well wishes means so much to me. I always tell everyone that I wouldn’t have much here if it wasn’t for my crew. We are like family.

This is a reminder that it is about more than just the food. It’s equally about the people. Without the people there is no food or service. It starts and stops with the people.

Positive feedback from our guests.

Bill Grimes is Captain of Dawn on the Amazon. Have you discovered the Captain’s Blog. Click here to over 300 articles about Iquitos Peru.

Only positive attitudes and good vibrations are served at the Dawn on the Amazon Cafe.

I’ve made some mistakes, lots of them. We opened the Dawn on the Amazon Cafe four months ago and I lost my temper five times. I made an ass of myself at least 4 times. It averages out at over once a month but really it was 5 times in the first two months. The first time an illegal guide was hovering over two of my guests trying too hard to sell them a tour they didn’t want. I asked if he was annoying them. They said yes, and I ran him off but it wasn’t easy and it turned into a scandalous scene. The second time it was a one eyed drunk adult begging money from my guests. He wouldn’t leave. I ran him off, but it wasn’t easy. I got loud and cussed a lot and a big strong friend of mine had to help me push him out, and even though I did all of my cafe guests a favor, I ended up looking like the bad guy. I still remember the facial expression of the kind, soft hearted woman that looked so disappointed by my reaction.  I apologized but the damage was done. The third time a teenager was begging food from my guests and crying when they didn’t give any to him. The forth time a man holding three live chickens walked into the restaurant to try and sell his filthy chickens. I ran him off, but it wasn’t easy either. That got me in a bad mood and I snapped at one of my best friends in Iquitos, who seemed to be defending the live chickens rights to shit in my restaurant, but really he was trying to correct my Spanish which made me even madder. The last time a motocarro with a giant loud speaker parked on the beginning of Nauta Street with the loud speaker blaring at top volume blasting my guests. Well I threw a gringo fit, and pushed his motocarro way down the street, and people surrounded me and some were defending the motocaristas right to make top volume noise, and some were helping me, but it was another “scandalous” scene. Now I’ve gone two months without scandal and feel very good about myself. I intend to keep it this way.

I’m not the smartest guy in the world, but I have learned to handle those situations without loud swearing and violence. Strangely enough, standing in front of the offenders, blocking them from their intended targets, and laughing at the them works the best. Anyway, no more scandalous scenes at the Dawn on the Amazon Cafe for me. No one wants them, most of all me. They ruin my day, and worse, they ruin the days of my guests.

Yesterday when I was thinking about the trials and tribulations of owning a restaurant,  I felt inspired by this thought; Only positive attitudes and good vibrations will be served at the Dawn on the Amazon Cafe. That is not an empty headed sentiment or meaningless slogan. Not to me. That is what I want. That’s what my wife Marmelita wants. That is what you want. That is what we will have.

The food has to be delicious, the service must be friendly and efficient, but equally important, the atmosphere of a restaurant has to give good vibrations, and the attitude of the owner must be positive. Maybe you know of a restaurant where the owner is a loud mouthed racist. Maybe he hates everyone and everything. Maybe he thinks all the local people are thieves and all the women prostitutes or hurts the street children, and generally has a bad attitude and and creates bad vibrations. It doesn’t matter how good the food is or how big the portions are, chances are you will not feel comfortable going back to an establishment like that.  We are building a special restaurant here in Iquitos. We are combining the delicious food, the friendly service, the positive attitude and the good vibrations into a thriving business. All of the pieces of the puzzle are in place and it’s working for us. We have come a long way in four short months. I expect a lot from myself and my crew. We have a long way to go before we get where I want us to be, but we are on the right road, headed the proper direction. My goal is to get there in two more months.

Only positive attitudes and good vibrations are served at the Dawn on the Amazon Cafe.

Check out Bill Grimes and his positive attitude and good vibrations at The Dawn on the Amazon Tours and Cruises office next door to the Dawn on the Amazon Cafe.

The trials and tribulations of operating a restaurant in the Amazon jungle.

Operating a high class restaurant is difficult everywhere, but I assume operating a restaurant on the edge of civilization, in a town with no roads, surrounded by rivers and Amazon jungle, is even more difficult. A steady supply of goods is impossible. Yesterday there was not one mango for sale in Iquitos.  That wouldn’t be unusual in New York, but there must be 10,000 mango trees within 50 miles of Iquitos. A few days ago there was not one carrot for sale in Iquitos. I’m taking fresh milk, and quail eggs off the menu. Can’t get them on any reliable schedule.

We paid $450, received our shipment of olive oil, one of my crew signed for it, when we opened the box…it was $50 worth of Chinese clothes. It took three days to track down the case of olive oil mistakenly delivered to another city.

We made a deal with the best bakery in town to deliver 40 loaves of Chabata Bread no later than 9:00am. We are lucky when they deliver the loaves by 9:30. It just came in the door this morning at exactly 10:30 with no apology for being one and a half hours late.

Our best capacity is for 25 guests on our outdoor sidewalk patio. We have a nice awning, but if it rains and the wind blows hard out of the east, people, chairs, and food get rained on. This is the Amazon Rainforest, so guess what, it rains a lot, usually out of the east. Our capacity inside is 20 if we pack our guests like sardines in a can, 14 guests inside is more comfortable.

In the Iquitos culture, and most of Latin America, mañana is plenty soon enough, in fact it might be better than now or soon. That might be nice on a personal level but it doesn’t work for running a restaurant that is striving to be the best. This morning it rained hard from 5 till 6:30. Does that means it’s alright to be late? No way!  Not with me. I’m a gringo. Late doesn’t get the job done. The cook was 20 minutes late, and one waitress was an hour late. How is that alright. The customers weren’t late. We pulled it off as if the entire team arrived on time, but it was sure hectic making it look easy when it wasn’t easy at all. It turned into one our best breakfast crowds so far and everyone left full and happy.

Yesterday 4 employees of the Municipality showed up to check all of our documents to make sure we are legal. Everything was fine until they spotted our two menu boards out on the sidewalk. A brand new regulation requires that we pay a fee to have menu boards outside. That’s OK if they enforce it for everyone.

I bought a new refrigerator three and a half months ago. It has never worked properly. The store has not honored the warranty. We’ve called to complain nearly every day for two months. No satisfaction. I plan on upping the ante soon. They already have an angry gringo on their hands, but they haven’t seen anything yet.

Most of the trials and tribulations of operating a restaurant in the Amazon jungle can be overcome or minimized. My wife Marmelita and I are problem solvers. We look for the solution until we find it. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard my wife say, “We need a solution to this problem.”

We have a steady supply of the necessary ingredient to operate a restaurant in the Amazon Jungle…a positive attitude. Hummmm, I’m having a flash, maybe our motto will be, “Positive Attitudes And Good Vibrations Served At The Dawn on the Amazon Cafe.” Heck with the food.

I think that will be the title of my next post, “Positive Attitudes And Good Vibrations Served At The Dawn on the Amazon Cafe.” I’m serious, I think I just had an inspiration.

The trials and tribulations of operating a restaurant in the Amazon jungle.

Check out Bill Grimes and his other businesses at Dawn on the Amazon Tours and Cruises, Dawn on the Amazon Explorers Club. Bill is also the manager of the Amazon Golf Course.

The Dawn on the Amazon Cafe opens quietly with high expectations.

The new awning at the Dawn on the Amazon Cafe, photgraphed from the boulevard, our patio

Here at The Dawn on the Amazon Cafe, we spent months in the studying, planning, organizational stages, like nearly every restaurant. We spent 2 months just cutting through the bureaucratic red tape making our operation completely legal. We spent the final 3 weeks of January perfecting our recipes and developing our staff and system. We opened February 1st, 2010, without fan fare or an open house party. Our only advertisement was in The Iquitos Times, and in the Where To Eat In Iquitos category of the Captain’s Blog. We eased into it because I wanted to make sure we got it right. Partially because we did get it right, we have great word of mouth recommendations and our business is growing steadily. Yesterday, May 15, was our best day so far. Our strategy makes sense for a first time restaurant opening. It would not be the best strategy for an experienced restaurateur, but it served us well. If I could change anything, I would cut the three weeks of refining our recipes and perfecting our system down to one week, to cash flow sooner.

When we opened there were only 12 main items on the menu, the 12 items I was confident would be the best of their type of cuisine in Iquitos. The menu has grown to 100 items, and new dishes will be added and subtracted as we go. We are still printing our menus on printing paper in our office. We are studying the business and when we determine the most popular dishes over a several month period, and which dishes are the most profitable, then will we print a permanent professional menu.

The best part of owning or working in a restaurant is meeting new people and making new friends. Tourists trickle through here every day. I would never get to know most of them except when they sit down in our comfortable chairs to relax in the shade along our sidewalk patio to drink a smoothie or beer and we meet, visit, and get to know one another. Most of the people that get all the way to Iquitos have an interesting story to tell and I am a good listener so it can be the beginning of a new friendship.

A Dawn on the Amazon Cafe patio scene

I know the food is delicious because my guests not only brag on us, but return regularly. I know the service is excellent because many guests tell me it is. The chairs are comfortable. The view is beautiful, the neighborhood is interesting. The Dawn on the Amazon Cafe benefits from all of those advantages, plus the three main ingredients to make a great business, location, location, and location. I plan to double the number of our tables and chairs by the end of July to help assure our continued growth. Success is never inevitable, but we are moving in the right direction.

The Dawn on the Amazon Cafe needs to double our tables and chairs by the end of July

We have 1 great professional chef, and 2 great cooks. We need 1 more great cook. We have 7 great waiters/ waitresses. We need 1 more great waitress. We need two more happy choppers, cleaners, dishwashers, workers. The business depends on the staff and the system. If we, the staff, follow the system there will only be compliments and we will win. If we, the staff, do not follow the system there will be mistakes, complaints and we will lose. Simple as that. To remind myself how important the system is, I like to paraphrase Bill Clinton, “Its the system stupid.”

Another good group on the Dawn on the Amazon Cafe patio. We will double our tables and chairs in July

The most important part of our system, and what differentiates the Dawn on the Amazon Cafe from the other 2,000 restarutants in Iquitos, is that we use only purified water from the market to your table. All fruits and vegetables are rinsed three times in purified water. All coffee, tea, ice, water, soup, juice, everything, is made with purified water. Tap water is not used in any part of the cooking process in the Dawn on the Amazon Cafe.

For some tourists with cast iron stomachs this may not be important. One person actually told me he didn’t care if we used pure water; he could eat anywhere by just taking an Imodium and he would be fine. For those people there may be no advantage to eating at the Dawn on the Amazon Cafe. For the rest of us, it is an opportunity to avoid ruining an otherwise perfect adventure vacation.

Every chair and table at the Dawn on the Amazon Cafe patio is frequently full.

The Dawn on the Amazon Café opens quietly with high expectations.

Bill Grimes is the president of Dawn on the Amazon Tours and Cruises, and manages the Amazon Golf Course, among many other projects…

Welcome. Captain Bill Grimes here. I’ve adventured far and wide, been in scrapes on six continents and the seven seas, but now I’m older and wiser, and like Bilbo beyond the age of “eleventy one” in Rivendell, (Iquitos Peru), I enjoy a nap every afternoon, eating, writing blog articles, and working on my memoirs. I keep my hand in by running my pride and joy, Dawn on the Amazon Tours and Cruises, the best tourist adventure outfitter in Iquitos Peru for the last 6 years, ask anybody.

Have you discovered my Captain’s Blog yet? I have published nearly 300 articles about Iquitos, the great reserves, rivers and rainforest. There are articles about my favorite places and what we see and do in this charming port city surrounded by rivers and jungle. There are hotel and restaurant reviews, packing lists, advice about handling and changing money, stories about peacock bass fishing, ayahuasca, the characters of Iquitos, and lots more.

There’s more to do than I can keep up with. I’m president of the Dawn on the Amazon Explorers Club, The Peacock Bass Club, and the Amazon Birders Club. I’m manager of the Amazon Golf Course, and if all of that isn’t enough trouble, now I’m operating the Dawn on the Amazon Café.

The only way I’m able to do all of that and take a siesta every afternoon is my wonderful wife Marmelita and the first class crew we have assembled do most of the heavy lifting. We have a great crew on board. I love them. Everyone has bought into our management plan. It’s more complicated than this, but it boils down to teamwork, teamwork, teamwork.

I expect a lot from myself and our crew. The Dawn on the Amazon Café will be one of the best restaurants in Iquitos Peru, it’s already in the top 2%, and I will be posting photos and articles here in the Dawn on the Amazon Café Blog to document how we accomplish that goal.