When the Castro family opened La Villa De Jerez last January,
they knew they were taking a risk. Opening a Mexican restaurant in
an area already rife with similar establishments is shaky business,
but home-cooking was what Maria and Jose Castro did best.
Hollister – When the Castro family opened La Villa De Jerez last January, they knew they were taking a risk. Opening a Mexican restaurant in an area already rife with similar establishments is shaky business, but home-cooking was what Maria and Jose Castro did best.
And they had a hunch that, with a little family-togetherness, they could put together a successful business.
One year later, the restaurant is still drawing sizable crowds on Friday and Saturday nights and the Castros have the satisfaction of seeing the results of their hard work.
“There are six members of my family working here, including me,” said Marco Castro, who helps his parents run La Villa De Jerez. “It gets a little crowded sometimes.”
The Castros are hardly newcomers to the restaurant industry. Jose and Maria were successful restaurateurs in their native Mexico, where they owned several taquerias as well as one sit-down establishment.
“They’re actually really good at it, they have a lot of experience,” Marco said. “They know what people like.”
When the Castros came to America in the 1960s, they left their restaurant life behind, settling in Hollister to raise their children.
The couple took jobs at the San Benito Foods cannery to support their family, where they worked for many years. Jose also took a job working for the kitchen at the migrant labor camp off Southside Road, which allowed him to hone his culinary skills a little.
“That job gave him an idea of how to work with that much volume,” Marco said. “How to control and feed that many people at once.”
While the Castros always wanted to open a restaurant in Hollister, it simply wasn’t feasible while they were trying to raise their children. Once the kids had grown up and were married, however, their dream began to look a little more practical – which only left the problem of where to open a restaurant.
Working at the cannery, the Castros noticed when a small Thai restraint just across the street closed down, leaving the building vacant with restaurant equipment already built in.
The Castros, their two sons and their sons’ wives pooled their resources and bought the space before it was snatched up by another entrepreneur.
“We had talked about it for so many years, that we just had to take the opportunity when it came up,” said Marco. “We knew it would work out OK.”
When the Castro family finally opened La Villa De Jerez, they weren’t prepared for the crowds of curious locals lining up to see what the new Mexican place in town had to offer.
Though business is still brisk, the wildly busy weekend nights of the first few months were a major challenge for the family, Marco said.
“We knew we’d be popular because our food is really authentic,” he said. “A lot of places around here say they’re authentic, but they’re not. We don’t use any canned food, and our prices are cheaper, so we really have an edge.”
In the future, the Castros plan to expand their operation by opening a simpler, taqueria-style restaurant in town and possibly branch out to neighboring communities.
“We’d like to expand, and we can – down south my parents could do everything,” said Marco. “And it’s really enjoyable. You come into work and you hear people tell you how good the food is and they compliment you. That’s the best part.”
Danielle Smith covers education for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or [email protected]
