These Ladies Had Their Wedding Catered by Bogota Latin Bistro

We’re sitting at the mayor’s table at Bogota Latin Bistro in Park Slope. We know this because the manager quietly tells us, and by “us” I mean just me, Lina Franco, and her wife, Challie Stillman. Apparently, Mayor Bill de Blasio “comes here all the time,” the manager says. Little did we know how strategic our seating was; from here, you have a clear view of the exit. But, while the mayor is a regular, he’s not a regular who also had his gay wedding catered by the restaurant. That’s one thing Lina and Challie have over ol’ Bill. And that’s one of the many reasons why the couple are regulars here.

The two discovered Bogota Latin Bistro while researching potential places to cater their upcoming nuptials. (Lina insists she went here before and told Challie that she’d bring her here.) Challie is a thirty-one-year-old design director for a slick furniture company, while Lina is a thirty-nine-year-old lawyer specializing in labor law. The couple was looking for a place that would appeal to Lina’s Colombian tastes as well as to her mother, who moved Lina to the States in 1985 when Lina was a little girl. And while Lina’s mom didn’t like the price (she wasn’t paying anyway, her daughter says), Lina loved it. (Full disclosure: I met Lina’s mom once a few years ago, as Lina is a good friend of a good friend of mine. Lina even provided paid legal services for me when I was securing the use of some photos for this book.) Meanwhile, Challie hails from a self-proclaimed WASP family in Westchester. And when her parents tested out the place, they loved it. “They ordered everything,” Challie says. “They took stuff to go.”

Regardless of how it went down with their parents, Lina and Challie decided immediately that Bogota Latin Bistro—with its gay flag outside, vibrant wall murals depicting Latin ladies and tropical landscapes with soaring toucans, its crowded bar with spicy pineapple margaritas, vivacious vibe, and Virgin Mary statuettes on the window sills—was absolutely the kind of place that, if not a mother could love, definitely a mayor could love.

Challie: This place has a gay flag outside. There is gay written all over this place. The owner is gay. I didn’t know how gay it would seem. And then we come inside seeing the flag, and we see the plaques of the owners. They are sort of poster men for a new family atmosphere—especially for the Latino community. That made us feel welcome—like we came to the right place. It was a done deal. The last thing we want to feel on our wedding day is that you are “other.”

Lina: I’m the first person in my family to marry a white person. Everyone else has married another Latino. It has to do with growing up in New York and going to school in the States. My family is very welcoming of different people. I never had any sort of homophobes in my family. They would rather have a white person who is nice than a Latina who isn’t nice.

Challie: We still have people telling us it’s been the best food they’ve had at any wedding. And they are serious: they remember every dish, and they remember seconds and leftovers. They loved the food.

There is gay written all over this place.

Lina: Every time I come here and have an empanada, I can remember my wedding.

Challie: We ended up eating here every week, and that’s how we became regulars.

May 20, 2015

(Photos by Nicole Disser)