40 years of food, community at Avila’s

Years ago, Maria Elena Avila, operator of the Costa Mesa Avila’s El Ranchito and the restaurant’s catering business, was brewing ideas for an exclusive, elegant and extravagant meal for an event at the Nixon Library, where President Richard Nixon was scheduled to dine.

And after coming up with some possible elaborate, creative dishes, she instead followed her heart and set up a kitchen where her “mama,” Margarita Avila, matriarch of and inspiration for Avila’s El Ranchito restaurants, could whip up some home cooking.

“Really what people love is authentic food,” Maria Elena Avila said Wednesday. “These people, they travel all over the world and … if I could invite them all to my mom’s house to eat, that would be the greatest treat in the world.”

The Avilas set up a kitchen at the library just for Margarita Avila to make up her tasty treats from scratch. The event was a hit, Maria Elena Avila said.

That standard lives on in the family’s 10 restaurants, even as they celebrate their 40th anniversary this month.

Avila’s El Ranchito was born when Salvador and Margarita Avila came to the United States from Mexico with their children. Salvador Avila was in search of the American dream, which Maria Elena Avila said their family lives every day.

“We children saw my parents working so hard to have their dream come true, and when we saw them working, they did it with such love and such pleasure,” Maria Elena Avila said. “They didn’t mind spending day and night at the restaurant — they were seeing the dream come true, the American dream realized.”

And although Margarita and Salvador Avila are able to enjoy life and take it easy as their children and grandchildren run the family business, the rest and relaxation was a long time coming.

“I do thank God because he chose to turn his favor upon our hard work and bless our family and bless us with the opportunity to be so close together and see my parents, right now in these later years of their life, enjoy the fruit of their hard work,” Maria Elena Avila said, holding back joyful tears. “They really, really enjoy life right now. Their dream has come true to see us all living still very close to each other…. And to see the family united, still working together, that says it all.”

The secret to the Avila family’s success is in its unity, passion and work ethic. All five of Margarita and Salvador Avila’s children continue to live within two miles of each other in Newport Beach. Maria Elena Avila said her parents maintain an “open door” policy to their home, and there are often people coming in and out.

But the secret to the restaurant’s success, which Maria Elena Avila said stems from their family unity, is right on the plate — simple ingredients, with the recipes straight from “Mama Avila’s” kitchen. Each day, the cooks continue to make the hugely popular chicken soup, rice and all the dishes from scratch. They debone their own chicken instead of buying it packaged, which could probably make life for an El Ranchito cook easier and the process faster, but it would sacrifice the quality and the essence of El Ranchito’s food, Maria Elena Avila said.

Anyone who’s visited any of the three Newport-Mesa restaurants would be able to tell a slight difference in the establishments, which parallel the culture of the location.

The Avilas founded their first restaurant in Huntington Park in 1966. The family began to move down the coast and started one in Long Beach six years later. It was the surf that brought the family to Newport Beach 31 years ago.

“The boys discovered the beach, and they loved it, and that’s how Sergio [Avila] opened the restaurant” on the peninsula, Maria Elena Avila said.

Sergio Avila opened the festive Balboa Peninsula location in 1975, and it has been a peninsula party icon for decades.

“We get a lot of people who say, ‘We used to party over there in Newport Beach,’ and now they’re grown up with families … and they have a lot of memories built in Newport Beach,” Maria Elena Avila said.

The Avilas’ next stop was the Placentia Avenue restaurant in Costa Mesa. The smell of fresh tortillas wafts from the building and can create instant hunger. Fresh tortillas are made during business hours for this location’s ultra-authentic touch. Maria Elena Avila runs the restaurant, which serves as the company’s test kitchen as well as catering hub.

The Costa Mesa location has to be authentic, Maria Elena Avila said, because of its clientele.

Coming to El Ranchito is like stepping into her mother’s kitchen, she said, which means it’s got to be good.

Although they don’t come from Mexican families, Costa Mesa residents Diane Pochert and Melody Shallcross know a good margarita and a good taco when they taste one.

Five years ago, after reading an article about El Ranchito in the paper, Pochert said, she decided to check it out for herself. She’s been coming about once a week ever since.

“I was sick of generic Mexican food everywhere,” Pochert said Wednesday, sitting at the bar at the Costa Mesa restaurant. “I was impressed — it’s original and authentic.”

Beyond the food, she said, the decor, the service and the people who work at the restaurant keep her coming back. And, of course, the margaritas.

The Corona del Mar location, which was opened in 1996, was built smaller, like many neighboring establishments on the East Coast Highway strip, as a casual stopping off point between activities.

“It’s a casual place where you know you can come have a margarita and a couple tacos on the way home from the beach or before going to the movies,” Maria Elena Avila said.

Maria Elena Avila said her family calls her older brother Sergio Avila the “beach boy” since he runs the restaurants in Newport Beach, Corona del Mar and Huntington Beach.

This year, Maria Elena Avila and her three brothers and one sister wanted to make sure they paid proper respect to the tradition their mother created.

Although the 81-year-old woman’s health is not quite what it used to be and she no longer runs day-to-day operations of the restaurants, Margarita Avila still lends her taste buds to the restaurant.

“Before, Mama used to be able to go to the restaurants and taste all the food and make sure the quality control was there,” Maria Elena Avila said. “It was so neat when she used to do that. All the cooks loved it because Mama represented their mama. Now that Mama can’t do that anymore, it’s been my role” and she tastes things made from the Costa Mesa test kitchen.

Margarita Avila’s “special sense of flavoring” is blended with her love of family and her community, something all the Avilas cherish, Maria Elena Avila said.