In 1987, Richard Juarez took ownership of Mana’s Restaurant, which his parents opened in 1976.[/caption]Richard Juarez is not surprised many San Marcos residents do not know about his restaurant. Tucked away almost a mile inside the Dunbar neighborhood, Mana’s Restaurant has been serving Mexican food made from Juarez family recipes for 39 years.
When Juarez’s parents opened the restaurant in 1976, people told them they were crazy, Juarez said. Friends told the family that the location would never work and they should try for something closer to I-35. The family went ahead and built the restaurant on land Juarez’s father owned. Business took off quickly, and the restaurant often had a line of hungry customers waiting outside for one of the 10 tables in the dining room, he said.
Within a year the restaurant more than doubled the size of its dining room area. Two years after that Juarez’s father, Theodore, opened a second location at Love Street and LBJ Drive. The second venture was open for a few years, but Juarez’s sister, who managed it, got sick and had to close the business.
Juarez said the secret to the success of his family business is consistency and quality. Each day he puts on an apron and steps into the kitchen to cook the food the way his parents taught him, he said.
“Customers say, ‘You’re the owner, and you’re in the back of the kitchen?’” Juarez said. “Yeah, man. You want your product to come out right.”
The restaurant’s most popular dish is the enchilada plate, which sells for $6.99 and includes two enchiladas, rice, beans and tortillas. The chile relleno—a Mexican dish featuring a fried poblano pepper stuffed with cheese, beef or chicken—sells for $10.99 and also receives high marks from customers, Juarez said.
Why the city’s planning department allowed the restaurant to open in the middle of a neighborhood remains a mystery to Juarez, he said. Years ago, he brought it up to city officials after a request for a beer and wine permit was denied because of the restaurant’s proximity to private residences.
“Why did you even let us open here if we can’t get a beer and wine permit?” he asked. “They didn’t have an answer.
“It was people in city hall. They said, ‘That’s a good question we ain’t got an answer to.’”
Juarez said his father’s fallback plan was to convert the restaurant to a house if the business failed. It has been almost 40 years, and Juarez has not had to take that route yet.
For his 40th year, Juarez said he does not expect much to change at the restaurant. Instead he plans to keep doing what has helped him stay in business for most of four decades: serve his family’s fresh recipes.
“I don’t think we’ll expand,” Juarez said. “We’re just trying to make a living. I don’t believe I’m going to get rich from this, but at least I don’t have to work for anybody else.”
