Business feature: Guadalajara restaurant returns

Area residents have another chance to taste some local history.

The Guadalajara Mexican restaurant is back after 12 years.

Once a local staple, the restaurant closed in 2007 after nearly 70 years in business.

"I grew up here and I've been around here my whole life," owner Michael Mendoza said. "My granddad taught me how to cook in the 1980s and after he passed my mother ran it while I cooked for her. She was the boss but retired in 1998 and my wife and I ran it until 2007."

Mendoza said he was forced to close because of heavy competition and a slow-growing client base, but after several years of living in Rio Rancho, he was approached by Sid Strebeck of Clovis to see about bringing the historic restaurant back.

Mendoza, Strebeck and John Rink of K-Bob's Steakhouse have been working to revive the restaurant for the last year and opened a training kitchen at 2916 N. Main St. last week. They'll operate there until renovations are finished at their new location near the intersection of Prince and 21st Street in the Master's Centre.

"The main thing slowing us down is the construction on the building, but we'll be set up (on North Main) until it's finished," Mendoza said. "Hopefully it'll just be a few months and we'll be ready to move in by spring."

Mendoza has been teaching his new chefs how to cook everything on Guadalajara's original menu and has been looking to expand and experiment to add more items after opening.

"We'll go with the original menu in the beginning and from there start doing featured items," Rink said. "The ones that are popular, we'll add them to the menu."

The new location will feature the original menu, a bar, banquet facilities and reservable rooms. Rink said he's excited with the addition of a bar as the previous restaurant didn't have one, but hopes to retain the original's identity.

"We want to have a good foundation for what everyone remembers of Guadalajara," Rink said. "We're going to have a full bar for example and feature frozen margaritas, but we want everyone to understand we'll be a restaurant that has a bar, not a bar that serves food. We're using it to enhance the experience."

Locals who remember the restaurant are excited about its resurgence and Mendoza said he's been blown away by the amount of business he's seen so far.

"When I opened up (Dec. 9), I thought we'd only make a few dollars, maybe 50, but it's been overwhelming and the response has been great," Mendoza said. "I think people just miss our cooking. Though I can't take much credit, it's mostly my grandpa's doing."

Chris Bryant, a Clovis city commissioner who operates Foxy Drive In restaurant, was among the new Guadalajara's first customers, who came to see how it compares to the old place.

"It's always good to see an old local restaurant come back, especially an independent one like this," said Bryant. "It's been very good so far, just like we've remembered it."

Guadalajara is open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.