When Elsa and Alberto Araujo emigrated from Argentina to Seattle in 1972, they dreamed of owning their own business. What they built—Alberto's Churros—has become a beloved Pacific Northwest institution spanning nearly four decades, supplying authentic churros to Mexican restaurants across the region.
The couple started with a simple idea: make something that wasn't common in America, something nobody knew. They took out a small business loan—supposedly for a piano—and instead purchased a hand-cranked churro machine from Argentina. Their recipe used just three ingredients: flour, water, and salt, followed by a dusting of sugar. No eggs, no milk, just pure, traditional churro.
Alberto's began as a University District bakery in 1987, serving cinnamon rolls, empanadas, and their signature churros. A Seattle Times review from 1991 described the treats as 'much like what you'd get if you uncurl a doughnut to form a straight stick, though not as sweet.'
Elsa remembers her surprise when Mexican American customers thanked her for bringing them a taste of home. 'They said churros are from Mexico,' she recalls. 'I didn't dare contradict my customers.' The churro, she learned, had traveled from Spain to Latin America during colonization, becoming beloved across cultures.
After Alberto passed away in 2003, Elsa faced enormous challenges keeping the business alive. Help arrived in 2017 when her son, Steven Ramirez-Araujo, joined after completing his PhD in politics and Latin American studies. What was supposed to be a temporary arrangement became permanent.
Today, Steven oversees production using an automated Rheon KN551 machine that replaced his parents' hand-cranked original—which now sits in the company's Edmonds conference room as a treasured artifact. The original device looks like something from a turn-of-the-century sawmill, but it launched a family legacy.
Alberto's continues supplying restaurants throughout Oregon and Washington, carrying forward a tradition of authentic churros made the way the Araujos learned in Buenos Aires.