El Charro owner Blanca Aguirre says her family has been in the restaurant business for as long as she can remember.
LEXINGTON, S.C. — A family from Guadalajara is expanding their Mexican culture in the Midlands by opening a third restaurant.
“It’s very exciting to bring new restaurants to the area. I know people say another Mexican restaurant, but I feel like we’re different,” Blanca Aguirre, the owner of El Charro Mexican Restaurant, said.
Aguirre says her family has been in the restaurant business for as long as she can remember.
“My mom was literally pregnant with me working at a Mexican restaurant, and my dad was working as well,” she said. “This is all they’ve done, and what I grew up and saw them do, and, you know, started doing it myself once I got of age. It’s just what I like to do; it’s a passion of ours.”
The restaurant says it is expanding to Lexington due to popular demand. It already has locations in Irmo and North Carolina.
“They like the food, they like the atmosphere, they like the culture so it’s easy for us to do that.” Aguirre said. “Because I have a good support team here, I feel like it’s just a lot of power under one roof. It’s a lot of family, a lot of friends and good employees so that makes me feel safe to open another one.”
Evelyn Lugo with the state’s Hispanic Chamber of Commerce says roughly 16,000 businesses in South Carolina are owned by someone who identifies as Hispanic or Latino.
“They are all over the place, no matter where you go, you’ll see a Hispanic business. A tienda, which is a grocery store, a restaurant. Someone is in a service like cleaning, construction, and certainly they are the core in South Carolina right now, ” Lugo said.
Lugo said the number of Hispanic or Latino businesses isn’t decreasing. Despite the large number, she said these businesses face struggles when starting up.
“Just access capital, which is the biggest and that is across the board as well. With the Black community, with Hispanic, Asians, you see that struggle. How do I get that working capital that I need to either start or grow my business,” she said.
Despite the struggles, restaurant owners tell me this new location is a dream come true.
“This means a lot because it started from a dream of ours, or our parents. I did this more for them than for anyone,” Aguirre said.
El Charro’s new restaurant will open on Augusta Road in Lexington in two weeks.
