Mexican restaurant opens in Washington

A new Mexican-themed restaurant has opened in Washington and it?s called ?Mi Pueblo Real,? which is Spanish for ?my real town.? It is located on West Madison Street in the building that was formerly occupied by ?The Pizza Ranch.? The restaurant opened its doors to the public Aug. 22 after a few months of renovation and repainting.

Fernando Macias owns Mi Pueblo Real. It is the second restaurant he has opened in as many years. On Valentine?s Day in 2010, Feb. 14, Macias opened a chapter of ?Mi Pueblo Real? in Mt. Pleasant. He opened his first restaurant in Albia called ?Casa Agave? in September 2008.

?That was the one I learned from my mistakes,? he said.

Macias remembers opening day well at ?Casa Agave? because it came Sept. 16, which is Independence Day in his native Mexico.

Macias said he has worked in the restaurant business since 1990.

?I was a waiter for five years, a manager for four years and a general manager of seven locations for two years,? he said. ?I worked hard for what I got, and I was tired of working for other people.?

Macias said that when he started the restaurant in Albia, he knew all about customer relations but not as much about cooking.

?I had a brother-in-law in Ohio who gave me some recipes,? Macias said. ?He taught me how to cook over the phone. It?s hard for me to tell the cooks how to make the food if I can?t cook. Now it?s easy to tell them what?s missing because I know how it?s prepared.?

Macias said that the managers in his restaurants taste the tortilla chips every morning to make sure they?re fresh.

?They taste the rice, beans, enchiladas, hot sauce, burrito sauce, cheese dip, guacamole, shredded lettuce and pico de gallo,? Macias said. ?You make sure everything is hot and flavorful. If they?re not good, we tell them to put it away and make new ones.?

After lunch, Macias said his kitchen staff refills the ?steam table? full of ingredients at 4:30 p.m. in preparation for the evening crowd.

In addition to the food, customers at Mi Pueblo Real feast their eyes on the colorful murals in the building. One is of Mexican revolutionaries Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata. Another is of a Mariachi band. Murals in the front half of the building feature scenes from Mexican farms. Macias said that his friend, Jesús Rubalcava of Monterrey, Mexico, painted the murals for him.