Mana’s Restaurant

“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.”