“I got the opportunity to get this place,” he said. “The community in Logan, they support us.”

Ramos originally moved to the United States from Guatemala about 17 years ago. Living in New York, he got a job as a dishwasher and soon thereafter became a cook. From that experience, he knew what he wanted to do.

“I love it,” he said, recalling his first professional in-the-kitchen experience. “I tried to do other things, and I was like there’s no way.”

After moving to Utah, he began opening restaurants, and learned the rough side of the industry when 2008’s rough market conditions caused him to close one of his restaurant’s doors.

Talking to him now, it’s evident that the past difficulty didn’t sway his passion.

“If I fail again, I’m sure I will keep going again and try again,” Ramos said.

Ramos grew to appreciate residents of Cache Valley when the COVID-19 pandemic put a strain on many local restaurants and businesses. His worry soon turned to surprise as he saw the amount of community support the business garnered during the difficult times.

“I don’t have even the right words to say how special we feel,” he said. “It’s a blessing.”

Though Ramos has gotten to the point where his restaurants employ around 80 people, he remembers the early days of breaking into the business, when he didn’t have a large staff who could help him keep things afloat.

“It was the same 7 a.m. to 1 or 2 a.m.,” he recalled. “I did it for like three years.”

Though his workload has since lightened, he still works to diligently visit his several restaurants and ensure everything is going well.

He said he notices a lot of people who try to start restaurants because they think it will allow them a more liberal schedule.

That assumption, he said, is false.

“You have to sacrifice time with your family, with your friends,” he said. “At restaurants, we don’t have holidays. Every holiday, that’s when we have more business, so those are the things that you have to put first.”

As well as working hard to maintain the restaurant’s operations, Ramos said the food at Los Primos is top quality, and that rising market prices have not coerced him into accepting anything less.

“I’m still fighting with the suppliers like, ‘No, please, let us do this,’” he said.

Because of Los Primos’ location in a college town, he works to ensure it doesn’t become necessary to raise prices, opting for thinner margins than higher totals on the consumers’ end.

His work and commitment to quality has not gone unnoticed. Los Primos was one of the restaurants Food Network’s Celebrity Chef and Restaurateur Guy Fieri visited the valley some years ago.

Ramos remembers Fieri trying and thoroughly enjoying the restaurant’s cabeza sope.

Looking towards the future, Ramos has a standing goal of opening at least one restaurant every year and is considering franchising.

“We actually have a few options,” he said. “We have some people actually helping us.”

He also plans to remain in Logan.

“I don’t like the weather,” he said. “I love the people, there’s so much love in town.”