Mila closed the restaurant for us. She turned off the open sign, locked the front door, and transformed La Casita de Mila from a public establishment into a private dining room for fourteen. She did it the way she did everything — with warmth, with efficiency, and with the kind of generosity that made you feel like you'd known her your whole life.
"You people are my family now," she said, carrying out the first course. "I've cooked for you more than I've cooked for anyone. My actual family in Colombia is jealous."
"This is better than Colombia," Isabella said, eating with the unselfconscious abandon of a woman who usually picked at her food like a bird but had met her match in Mila's cooking.
"Nothing is better than Colombia," Mila said, laughing. "But this is close."
