Business partners Gerardo Lopez, left, and Eduardo Osorio, stand in front of the sign for their new restaurant, La Taqueria Mexican Store. It will open Wednesday, Jan. 21.
Diners looking for authentic Mexican cuisine rather than Americanized Tex-Mex soon will have a new option in Ripon with the opening of La Taqueria Mexican Store.
The combination restaurant and Mexican market is scheduled to open Wednesday, Jan. 21 in the building at 821 W. Fond du Lac St., formerly home to China 1 restaurant.
The business is being opened by Gerardo Lopez and Eduardo Osorio, both former employees of Margaritas Mexican Grill, with support from Margaritas owner Carlos Bonilla.
While Bonilla will not be a part of the day-to-day operations at the new location, he has been helping his two friends with remodeling the store, negotiating the maze of city requirements and obtaining their liquor license.
“I have some personal things to take care of first,” Bonilla said. “Later on, I may join the LLC and become partners with Eduardo and Gerardo.”
The new restaurant will not be just another Margaritas, Bonilla said. This will be a more traditional Mexican restaurant like one would find in Mexico, and not the Americanized Tex-Mex normally found in the United States and served at Margaritas.
“It will just be a few tables and a bar,” Osorio said. “We want to serve traditional Mexican dishes there, as well as sell a few Mexican products.”
La Taqueria Mexican Store will feature authentic Mexican food as well as items for sale from Mexico, including candy, pastries and spices. It opens next week.
While the majority of the building will serve food, about 20% of the area will be dedicated to selling traditional Mexican products to the public, such as candy, pastries, spices and other items from Mexico. Bonilla is not certain how the Anglo population will react to those items, but said they can still come in to eat a good meal.
This will be the only Mexican products store in Ripon, with the next closest being in Fond du Lac and Berlin.
“We want to appeal to everybody in town,” he said. “It is always good to have another place in town to eat.”
Items on the menu will include Mexican drinks like horchadas (similar to fruit punch) and food such as tamales, seafood dishes (comidas camarones), tortas (Mexican sandwiches), traditional Mexican-style breakfast items, and even specialty items such as menudo and barbacoa, which is a slow-cooked meat dish popular on weekends in restaurants near the Mexican border.
La Taqueria Mexican Store also will offer beer, wine and liquor as a part of the menu. The interior has been remodeled, the kitchen upgraded and all inspections except by the fire department have been done. Bonilla expects to take care of that inspection this week.
Initially, the restaurant will be open for service daily from 10 a.m. until 9 p.m. After it has been open for a while, Bonilla, Lopez and Osorio will decide if certain slow days will trigger closing some days.
“Maybe on a Monday; I don’t really know yet,” Bonilla said.
The idea came out of discussions among the three men, who all worked in Bonilla’s restaurants, and having the chance to open a new business. Osorio was a chef at Margaritas and Lopez served tables. Together, the two men will run all operations at La Taqueria Mexican Store, backing each other up, Bonilla noted. New employees will be hired as needed.
When the group heard that the China 1 building was available, it moved forward with its plans, met with China 1 owner Andy Yang and began the work to transform the building into its new restaurant.
“We are looking to focus on the Latino market, but we want to welcome everyone to come in,” Lopez said.
La Taqueria Mexican Store will not offer food that is available at Margaritas, Osorio added.
“If you want the regular Tex-Mex, that’s what Margaritas offers. But if you want the more traditional Mexican food like in Mexico, then come and see us,” he said. “We are hoping the people will come in and give us a try.”
For more information, call La Taqueria Mexican Store at 920-896-0017 or stop in after Wednesday, Jan. 21 for dining at 821 West Fond du Lac St.
