Interview: El Tapatio Is Moving Forward Despite COVID19
Have you ever visited the city of Temple, GA? It is a small city with a population of 3,000 people and is located 6-miles east of Villa Rica and 7-miles west of Bremen. Interstate 20 passes through the southernmost part of Temple. You must be wondering why we are talking about the city of Temple? Well if you are ready for a delicious lunch or dinner, you will find it right there in Temple! We are referring to El Tapatio’s. This restaurant offers its customers a fabulous variety of Authentic Mexican delights. Thinking about this great Mexican food; we decided to reach out to the owners of El Tapatio to see if they would be gracious enough to talk to us, to share with the ups and downs they have encountered throughout the years. What has it taken to conquer the level of success that they are savoring for the last couple of years?
The owners of El Tapatio’s are two brothers, Mr. Javier Menéndez, and Mr. Gonzalo Menéndez both are originally from México, specifically from Arandas, Jalisco. Javier is the older brother and is in charge of the administration of the restaurant from kitchen to staff and all the inside decisions, he is the oldest of twelve children, six women, and six men. His father worked in the United States for 6-month contracts for many years and spent the other half of the year in Mexico. He mentioned that his father had the opportunity to bring the whole family to the US in 1998 when the Amnesty program was offered to everyone. The father did not waste any time and made it possible to have his family living all together in the US.
Javier was hired and learned the restaurant business in San Antonio, TX. along with learning the U.S. way of living. He worked for a big restaurant for years, where he held different positions and was promoted into the General Manager role for the last years he worked at this restaurant before moving in January 1998 to Temple, GA.
We asked him how they have handled the last months with the COVID19 pandemic situation. “It has been extremely difficult and for a few days we had to close the restaurant completely, then we open only for carryout business. However, we have now reopened completely. We are taking all the precautions needed to protect every client, employee, and our vendors. We lost about 30% of our clientele but little by little have recuperated about 20% or maybe more”, said Javier.
Gonzalo the younger brother and the Accountant Manager of the restaurant spoke up and told us that they are incredibly grateful to the community who has supported them and help them throughout all these years.
What is the key to success Gonzalo? We asked him. “Nothing more than discipline, consistency, listening to your employees, and especially looking to and understanding carefully for what the customers like and what they need. I like to listen to the people wherever I am every day, I like trying to implement their recommendations when they make sense, and, they usually do. We are grateful to the community therefore we keep involved with several organizations trying to give back what we have received from it, all this is part of the success. We sponsor our church, the middle and high school with uniforms for the students for their sports teams and events, and field trips for the children as well. I studied in a Catholic Seminar and they help me every year with basic needs, now we are sponsoring some of the events they have. The community has been a big part of our success, we love being able to pay back a little bit”
“We have had many difficulties throughout the years, but we look at these moments as learning experiences, fix them, learn from them, and keep going. We never stop learning, this is the process of life, you keep opening doors all the time. I feel that I have been living the best time of my life, I like to live the present, yes, we look towards the future but enjoy the present. We are hungry for learning more; I like to attend seminars and learn new skills. We are educating, guiding our children, by setting a good example for them which is driven by honesty, discipline, respect for everyone and always giving back to their community when the time comes. This is the way we have earned the respect and success. You are going to make mistakes, but we fix them promptly to continue down the correct path" proudly said Gonzalo.
Gonzalo, how is El Tapatio’s dealing with the COVID19 situation? He replied, “Obviously, we have had a difficult time, we had to close the restaurant for some weeks and this affected us economically.
Now that we have re-opened it; we are following the rules and regulations:
Sanitizing everything in the restaurant
Keep the requiring distance of 6-7 feet
Every person working here must wear a face mask at all times
Wash their hands and use hand sanitizer, we have it all over the restaurant for employees and customers
We areproviding clients with a disposable menu, this way we can throw it away after the customer has placed his/her order.
"We pride ourselves on being able to protect both our clients as well as our staff! This will ensure that El Tapatio's will continue moving forward beyond COVID19."