After years of experience in the food industry, Zoila Perez and her family decided it was time to open up their own brick-and-mortar eatery in Leander in August 2015—Mayito’s Mexican Restaurant.
“Why not get it going now?” said Dulce Hernandez, one of the restaurant’s managers. “We’re working on the baby steps now, to get it going. We hope it will still be here for our kids one day, too.”
Restaurant Manager Mario De Jesus Jr. said he has been explaining to many new customers during the first year that the restaurant is completely different from the previous restaurants in the same location, with new ownership and menus.
“We’re more of an authentic restaurant,” he said. “We don’t really serve Tex-Mex. The food is inspired by where we’re from.”
The younger De Jesus and his parents, Perez and Mario De Jesus Sr., moved to Austin nearly 15 years ago after living near Acapulco, Mexico. Since then, they have all worked in various restaurants in the food industry, including driving a food truck for several years.
The younger De Jesus said it was his mother’s dream to open a restaurant. Though Perez leads the kitchen, the whole family is involved throughout the restaurant.
Dulce, the wife of the younger De Jesus, works alongside her nieces and nephews who wait tables at Mayito’s.
Tortillas are made in-house each morning and served with a variety of dishes, such as the most popular dish, the carne guisada—beef tips cooked in a green sauce. Tossed on the grill for 30-60 seconds, the tortillas are served fresh and hot.
Mayito’s has a tradition of making other dishes in-house as well. Beverages include aguas frescas, lightly flavored, nonalcoholic drinks that come in flavors such as horchata, melon, lemon, and pineapple, and mango.
The younger De Jesus said one of his favorite dishes is the enchiladas rojas, three enchiladas cooked in a red pepper sauce and topped with sour cream, lettuce and jalapenos.
Hernandez said she and the younger De Jesus are at the restaurant almost every day that it’s open, sometimes bringing their 10-year-old son with them.
“It’s nice having a family business that our son can come to,” she said. “But we are ready to start hiring and keep growing.”
Mayito’s Mexican Restaurant
1005 S. US 183, Leander
512-528-6008
www.facebook.com/mayitosmexicanrestaurant1
Hours: Tue.-Sat. 7 a.m.-9 p.m., Sun. 7 a.m-8 p.m., closed Mon.
