With
every bite of a taco and drink of a margarita at Raul’s Mexican
Food restaurant, one consumes a bit of Raul Hernandez’s past.
From his childhood in
Fort Madison helping his mother cater parties, to his nine-month
stay in Mexico, to opening his Des Moines restaurant using only
his wife’s stove, Raul’s restaurant is a story of the
man’s living history.
Opened in the fall of
1962, what was once one of Des Moines’ first Mexican Restaurants
is now perhaps its best known and most established. What started
with a family stove, six booths and a makeshift tortilla dough roller
is now a fixture on the city’s east side. More than anything,
Raul’s career in the hospitality industry began with a need
for additional income and an idea how to earn it.
“They say necessity
is the mother of all invention,” Raul said. “I had five
kids and I had to feed them.
“I went to Mexico
for nine months and I really liked their tacos,” Raul said.
“On my way home through Texas I saw a lot of Mexican restaurants.
I decided ‘Hell, I could make tacos as good as they can,’
so I went home and opened a restaurant.”
Forty-three years later,
Raul’s Mexican Food, now managed by Raul’s daughter
Connie Hernandez, serves a growing clientele from average-Joes to
state politicians. Many customers say it’s the only Mexican
restaurant worth its enchilada.
“People come in
here for Raul’s food and margaritas that they can’t
get anywhere else,” Connie said. “That’s why we’ve
been here for so long. I want to make people feel like they’re
guests in my home rather than in a corporate environment.”
Several customers are
drawn by the restaurant's signature “Grandpa” margarita.
Each one is shaken individually, which Connie said “takes
an extra minute, but is well worth the wait.” The mix was
hand-crafted to suit the taste of Raul’s father, who perfected
the art of margarita mixing during his service in the Mexican military.
“They weren’t
called margaritas back then; they were called tequila con limón,”
Raul said. “When we started, he always told us we were mixing
them wrong, but we didn’t think he knew what he was talking
about. We started to mix them like he said and everybody liked them.
By golly, he did know something.”
Raul’s now bottles
its mix and sells it retail, but Connie said she’s given customers
the recipe and mixing instructions and they still can’t match
the smoothness of the restaurant’s margaritas at home.
“The sign of a
good margarita is that you can’t taste the tequila,”
Connie said. “It’s got to be smooth. The thing that
makes a good margarita is good tequila.”
Raul’s Mexican
Food has a wide selection of tequila – all high-end, according
to Connie. The “Grandpa” margaritas are made with Jose
Cuervo Especial, however, 1800 Reposado, Jose Cuervo Tradicional,
Herradura, 1800 Anejo, Sauza Hornitos, Jose Cuervo Reserva de la
Familia and Patrol tequilas are also available.
“But some high-end
tequilas aren’t meant to be made into margaritas,” Connie
cautioned. “If you smell them, they smell like bourbon. They’re
meant more for sipping – like cordials.”
Whichever the case, Raul
and Connie will make sure customers receive their Mexican food and
drinks they way they like them. In a city becoming more saturated
with Mexican Restaurants, they said it’s important to continue
to meet the demands of customers.
“It’s a lot
harder to make a buck right now,” Raul said referring to competition
with seven other Mexican restaurants in the neighborhood. “It’s
not as easy as it was.”
As long as they remain
unique, serve good food and margaritas and make customers feel at
home, business will keep coming, Connie said.
But with 43 years of
restaurant experience and a lifetime of heritage wrapped into Raul’s
Mexican Food, perhaps its most special offering is a bit of Raul
Hernandez’s past.
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