Boca Grande Taqueria
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Boca Grande Taqueria is a chain of Mexican restaurants in the Boston, Massachusetts area.
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[edit] Overview
Boca Grande is a chain of Mexican restaurants in the Boston, MA area, with locations in Brookline's Coolidge Corner, on Massachusetts Ave between Porter Square and Harvard Square, on First Street just outside of Kendall Square, (both in Cambridge) and on Washington Street (near the corner of Market Street) in Brighton Center. Boca Grande's offerings include inexpensive burritos, quesadilla, tacos, enchaladas served up in a relaxed environment. They also offer catering services for corporate, academic, or private events.
[edit] History
Boca Grande was founded in 1986 by Mariko Kamio. The restaurant was modeled on Gordo's Taqueria, a successful San Francisco restaurant owned by Kamio's cousin. Mariko's brother, Michael Kamio, briefly joined the restaurant before founding his own chain of restaurants, Anna's Taqueria. [1]
[edit] Competition
Boca Grande competes with other Boston-area taquerias such as Anna's Taqueria, Picante, and El Pelon, as well as national chains including Q'doba Mexican Grill.
[edit] Labor Law Violations
An investigation by the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division ( WHD) revealed that the Cambridge-based Boca Grande, which owns and operates the Boston Burrito, Cambridge Burrito and Brookline Burrito restaurants in those communities, failed to pay overtime wages to employees between August 2001 and August 2003. In addition, the restaurant chain failed to maintain adequate payroll records.
The three commonly owned restaurants had employed the same workers at multiple locations without combining the hours worked at each location. The employees were paid straight time for the hours worked at each location, when they should have received overtime for the hours worked over 40 in single work week.
Once the violations were brought to the attention of Boca Grande's owner, the company cooperated fully with WHD and paid the back wages due its employees. The company has also agreed to comply with all requirements of FLSA in the future.
[edit] Labor Law Update
According to current and past employees, Boca Grande has failed to pay overtime wages since its prior investigation in 2004. Boca Grande is currently being investigated again for failure to pay overtime wages to employees between August 2004 and August 2006. By stating that all its employees are salary employees, Boca Grande has failed to pay overtime to past and current employees. Since this most recent investigation, the owner has limited total work hours per worker to 40 hours a week. Former employees are encouraged to come forward and to contact the Department of Labor in Boston to claim unpaid overtime from Boca Grande.
