When one goes to a Mexican Food Restaurant, the expectations are to be a sense of something different and unique. The ambiance is often just as important as the salsa or the enchilada. The conversion from My Estrella Mexican Restaurant to Gabriela’s Mexican Cocina has already added the flavor outside of the kitchen. The first difference that patrons will notice is the new vibrant colors and mural inside the restaurant instead of the previous beige walls. The new look gives one a feeling of something unique and more of an experience. The previous atmosphere was great for a catfish family restaurant, but Ana Gabriela Mendoza is trying to give the restaurant a new flavor to go along with the salsa and enchiladas.
Mendoza started working at My Estrella Mexican Restaurant in Anna at the age of 16. The owner of the location in Anna, Evelia Santivanez was looking to expand to another location but couldn’t find the right fit. Mendoza says that’s when fate intervened.
“Whenever my parents lost their job in Van Alstyne when the factory closed down, I involved my mom (Julieta) over there and it was something new for her.” said Mendoza. “She had never worked in a restaurant. She had never been a cook professionally.”
Mendoza and her mother worked together for a couple of years until Mendoza was about to give birth to her first child. After the birth of her child, she was ready to go back to work, but Santivanez didn’t need extra help at the time which meant Mendoza worked at another restaurant and also Verizon for a period of time.
Santivanez later opened up My Estrella in Downtown Howe at 102 E. Haning and offered to sell the Anna location to Julieta. Due to the much higher rent in Anna, the family decided not to purchase the Anna location. At that time Santivanez offered the Howe location to the family. Mendoza quit her jobs and became the waitress at My Estrella while her parents ran the business and were the cooks.
Under the agreement from Santivanez, they weren’t able to change the name or the menu for a period of two years, which now has come and gone and a new direction is in place. Mendoza had the new lighted sign in place just after the holidays.
“People don’t even know that we’re here so we want to make sure they see us when they drive by.” said Mendoza. “We did the painting because we want it to look a little more Mexican and a little bit nicer. It was a plain beige color and it was bland.”
As far as the menu, they are going to redesign it and add a few more plates that the family has come up with.
“We’re going to keep everything that is already there because we have customers that order each plate everytime they come.” said Mendoza. “We don’t want to take anything away from them. If you want to come in here and eat something specifically and we have the ability to make it, we’ll make it. We let people make up their own plates all the time.”
Mendoza explained the importance of family and said that they take days off very seriously because of that time they want to spend with each other away from the family business. They are not open on Sundays for that very reason and will not be open on holidays.
Gabriela’s is located on the southwest corner of Downtown Howe which has been home to, most recently, Huck’s Catfish and Finn’s Catfish. At one time in the 1970s and 80s, the building housed a grocery store named Yonce’s where a young fellow who would grow up to be the online newspaper owner took his first steps.
“We’ve heard a lot of stories about the grocery store here.” said Mendoza. “People will come in and tell us that there used to be a wall right here. We love hearing the stories of how this place has changed.” It is changing once again. The corner building will have a new flavored atmosphere and a new flavored menu and the family is ready to show it off to their existing and new customers.
