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Fruitvale Meets Montclair
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Last Updated on July, 10 2007 at 11:17 AM
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| The Pelayo Family Take Their Winning Recipes Up the Hill |
| If you’ve ever been anywhere around the Fruitvale BART station, then you’ve probably seen or heard about Guadalajara. The restaurant is just a stone’s throw from the station. And despite its run-down façade, it looks like the most happening place south of Old Oakland at 10 pm. Even if you’re just driving past, you can’t miss the live and happy music. Walk in, and you’ll see policemen at one table, and at another, looking just as macho, Mexicans in their cowboy hats and boots. It’s always busy. And it’s always open – almost always. It closes its doors for four hours at 3 am. |
Alvaro Pelayo pours one of his signature Margaritas
If you’ve ever been anywhere around the Fruitvale BART station, then you’ve probably seen or heard about Guadalajara. The restaurant is just a stone’s throw from the station. And despite its run-down façade, it looks like the most happening place south of Old Oakland at 10 pm. Even if you’re just driving past, you can’t miss the live and happy music. Walk in, and you’ll see policemen at one table, and at another, looking just as macho, Mexicans in their cowboy hats and boots. It’s always busy. And it’s always open – almost always. It closes its doors for four hours at 3 am.
Seven-year-old Guadalajara just got a sister. And this one’s fashionable. El Agavero opened its doors in Montclair Village earlier this month. Its owners don’t seem to realize how much excitement and anticipation surrounded the opening. There were lines down the sidewalk on Mountain Boulevard the day it opened.
“The day we opened, we had a lot of people walking in,” says Maria Pelayo, the 32-year-old-daughter of Gregorio and Rosa Pelayo, the owners of Guadalajara. “You don’t expect that on the first or second day, or even the first month. We’re very grateful.”
This baby was the brainchild of her brother Fernando, says Maria. He knew it was time to open another restaurant. But he didn’t know where. When the owner of the building Guadalajara is in called to say that he had a place in Montclair that was available, Fernando jumped. He and youngest brother Alvaro began working on a Mexican restaurant that suited the affluent neighborhood. They called their sister, Maria, who had been working as a registered dental assistant for the past 12 years. They had often asked her to help out with the family business in the past, but she’d always said no. She loved dentistry too much. But now that the family was opening a new restaurant, she realized that they needed her.
El Agavero is a sharp contrast to Guadalajara. It looks like it could be a restaurant on University Avenue in Palo Alto. It fits into its upscale neighborhood without attitude. The décor is tasteful, and the service very friendly.
The customers like the food. And they love the margaritas. The menu is different from the one in Guadalajara -- because it’s a different clientele, says Maria. For example, the most popular dish in the old restaurant, Menudo (beef tripe soup, apparently an excellent cure for hangovers), is not on the menu here.
It’s the fajitas that are popular at El Agavero. The menu may change, but Maria won’t change the way she serves her food. It’s got to be authentic, she explains.
“Mexicans – we eat a lot, and our food is very fattening,” says Maria. “One customer was upset because we served a lot of food. We try to be generous with the food –that’s how we serve it.”
She’s learned her lessons well from her parents. From the time she was 9, Fernando 10, and Alvaro 3, they’ve been watching their parents feed people, and have been learning their work ethic. First, it was a taco truck, then another, and then a third one, and finally a restaurant. Even at the new restaurant, Gregorio, 56, shows up an hour or two before it opens. “He has a lot of energy,” Maria says. Rosa, 57, still looks after the taco truck at the cross street of 44th Avenue and International Boulevard, and helps out at the restaurants in the evenings.
It must have taken that energy and more to get to a restaurant in Montclair from a taco truck at the High Street car wash (before it became a car wash). Gregorio came to the U.S. when he was 18 or 19 from a small town called Autlan in Mexico. Separately -- but from the same place -- Rosa came here when she was 16 or 17. They both ended up in Los Angeles, where they met, and eventually wed. He worked on construction sites. She worked as a seamstress. Her sisters called, saying that they should move to Oakland – it would be better for them. They moved. And they’ve never regretted it. They have 8 grandkids from their 3 kids, two restaurants, and two taco trucks. It’s a full life.
Maria, Gregorio, and Maria's 11-year-old son, Gerardito
Could there be a third restaurant? There could be, says Maria. “It’s possible.” For now, they’re just trying to figure out how late they should stay open at El Agavero.
El Agavero
2071 Mountain Blvd
Oakland, CA 94611
Phone: (510) 339-3000 |
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