Starting a Restaurant and No Longer Bored in Panama

I spoke with Gary Doherty this morning at his new restaurant, Pangea, a block off of Via Argentina in El Cangrejo, Panama City. Pangea is an upscale eatery with an elegant décor. Two nights ago Pangea was the venue for the expat social where everyone seemed to be having a great time eating great food in the various exotic “theme” rooms.

In the “Nairobi” room this morning I asked Gary what brought him to Panama and what prompted a man who sold his successful check retrieval business in the USA two years ago to get into the restaurant business in Panama.

Gary first came to Panama for an International Living conference in 2002 and returned to live part time in 2005. However, until now he either did business in the USA or was retired.

 “My wife said I was bored,” Gary said. That was the start of the restaurant idea. He admits that after really intending to retire he did read, take pictures, and smoke to his heart’s content, but, in the end, the challenge of opening and running a successful restaurant in Panama won out.

With his two partners, Colombian, Paola Crespo and Brazilian, Neli De Souza, Gary opened the doors of a remodeled home on Calle Alberto Navarro on October 20. At this point he is happy with the décor and food. The service aspect of the restaurant business Gary thinks is critical and on that he expects to be constantly vigilant.

Gary spends a little over half of his life in Panama these days and the other half back home in La Crosse, Wisconsin. With the rollout of his restaurant he has spent much more than the usual half here in Panama recently.

With a restaurant in mind but no clear vision of the place, Gary asked Jennifer Simpson who had designed his apartment in La Cresta, to design Pangea. Starting from the international nature of Panama as the crossroads of the Americas Jennifer expanded the idea to favorite places in the world and ended up with theme rooms based on Marrakesh, Nairobi, Havana, Rio de Janeiro, and Singapore. Gary is pleased at the result and yours truly will vouch that the folks eating in the Havana room two nights ago were having a great time.

Gary admits that without his two partners this would be a very difficult task and not something that he would have taken on, especially when a large part of his life is still in the USA. As I talked to Gary I could sense the pride he has in this new “child” of his and the sense of adventure he has in doing business in a foreign city at one of the world’s crossroads. Talking about the business it is clear that Gary will be a “hands on” owner. He wants Pangea to be the place where people come for the food and service, enjoy the décor, and stay to smoke out on the patio or dance in the Rio de Janeiro room.

Already Pangea is getting attention that pleases Gary. He tells me that the VP of Panama’s legislature recently called to enquire about dinner seating for 80 members of the European parliament who will shortly be visiting Panama.

When I arrived Gary was handling details at Pangea and when I left he went back to work. It appears to me that the problem of boredom has been solved.