Casa Valencia serves up authentic Mexican food
By Suzanne Cristallo
Children don't fuss long at Casa Valencia, the Mexican restaurant and cantina in Los Gatos' Vasona Station. The staff keep "titeres" handy for jaunts to the table where the little Mexican string puppets dance away a youngster's fidgets.
"We cheer them up," says a smiling Everardo Valencia, owner of the Winchester Avenue eatery that bears his name. Children under 10 also can be cheered with their own special plates of enchiladas, burritos, tacos or quesadillas.
But it's not just to children that Valencia and his 10 employees devote their attention seven days a week. The restaurant and full service bar, with dancing puppets and brilliantly colored papier mâché parrots overhead, cater to well-rounded palates. The nearly 60 items on the menu include a fajita salad with chicken or shrimp, bell peppers, avocado, lettuce, tomatoes and cheese; and carnitas--fried pork meat delicately cooked fresh daily with herbs and served with nopalitos (tender cactus), salsa, rice, beans and two tortillas.
There are fresh shrimp (camarones rancheros) and shrimp fajitas for seafood lovers, lots of combos of enchiladas, flautas, tacos and chile rellenos--all under $10--for conventional eaters; a variety of burritos and a steak called Milanesa that is breaded, covered with sliced tomatoes and potatoes and accompanied by raw onions, guacamole and salsa for beef lovers; and a $5.25 hamburger with cheese and fries for the all-American palate.
Breakfast is served all day from 11 a.m. on weekdays and from 4 p.m on weekends. Try the steak ranchero with two eggs, onions and special sauce with rice and beans included; or the over-easy eggs in huevos rancheros; scrambled eggs with Mexican sausages (con chorizo) or potatoes (con papas); or an omelette.
Valencia opened his Los Gatos restaurant in 1997. It is the most recent among three that he started in 1987 with his first venture, the Mexico Lindo restaurant, in San Jose. The second venture in 1995 was strictly for his wife, Olivia, to run. The Chimichanga in Morgan Hill is just a block from their home. "I told her it was all hers to run, either as a success or a failure," he says, adding proudly, "and it does well."
Valencia attributes the success of his first venture to a 1988 San Jose Mercury News award for the area's best Mexican restaurant. "The next day [after the paper came out], we were swamped with customers," he recalls. "I had to call all of my friends to come help."
Success also comes to Valencia as a result of persistence. In 1972 at age 18, he traveled to the United States for the first time from his birthplace in Michoacan, Mexico, to meet his brother in San Jose. Almost immediately after his arrival, his brother was deported, but Valencia found work in restaurants: first as a dishwasher, later as a food preparer. Then he was deported, only to return--up to 10 times, once twice in the same week--to work again in restaurants.
Eventually, he received his "green card" and, finally, his citizenship. After years of saving his earnings, he purchased Mexico Lindo, which then had only six tables. "You never know if people will respond to you and keep coming to your place," he recalls of the first three months he was open. "It was making me so nervous all that time."
Casa Valencia, after a year and a half of what Valencia terms "bad management," is now finding its way to success under new manager Salvador Ochoa, 46, who took over in 1999. Ochoa has the help of Valencia's four sons, 9 to 22. "The youngest sweeps up--and eats tacos," smiles Valencia.
Casa Valencia, 14101 Winchester Ave., Los Gatos. Open Mon.-Fri. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Sat. and Sun. 4-10 p.m. 408.871.0565.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
