Forty-three years ago Rosa Quiroga was wiping down countertops, cutting meat, and taking orders at La Simpatia. And she’s still doing that, only now she’s the owner, too.
Quiroga, 61, bought the Guadalupe eatery in 1991 from her uncle, Francisco Quiroga, known in town as “Pancho.”
The restaurant—part diner, part dining room, part bar—celebrated its 75th anniversary in November.
It’s off the city’s historic downtown strip at 827 Cabrillo Highway, a stretch locals and city politicians hope will be revitalized with apartment developments downtown, and more than 800 houses in a quickly growing suburban sprawl.
Quiroga said Guadalupe used to be the best food town around. Best steak, best Mexican food, and best Chinese food.
“To me all the restaurants in Guadalupe are the closest to homemade food,” she said.
That’s what La Simpatia is to her, an extension of home and the freshness and flavors that come with it. All of the meat for the burgers comes just a few doors down from Masantani’s Market.
“Because it’s the best,” she said.
The beans have real lard in them, and all the ingredients are fresh and made in-house. Except for the tortillas.
“Our tortilla maker left in the ’90s,” she said.
Other restaurants folded, Quiroga said, when farmworkers were no longer taking up seasonal residence.
And the mariachis that once strolled the streets got more expensive. First $3 a song, then $10. Then, they were gone.
La Simpatia and its history remain, in dishes on the menu like chicken mole, in the photos of past anniversaries and long-gone local restaurants.
But a scare shook the restaurant in 2010 when it had to close for retrofitting. It was state-sanctioned, she said, a response to the Paso Robles earthquake. Her restaurant had to be gutted. What was supposed to be an 18-month project turned into five years, or what she called a nightmare. Then, finally, the restaurant was ready to come back.
It made this last anniversary all the sweeter.
There was a DJ, even mariachis, and dancing befitting the old days.
“My feet don’t hurt when I’m dancing and drinking tequila,” she said.
A poster of Elvira is still there, stapled to a door behind the bar.
“The regulars used to take it off and dance with it,” she said.
The restaurant, like the menu, is the same.
“I haven’t altered it at all,” she said.
Highlight:
• The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians contributed $250,000 to help the Santa Ynez Valley Community Aquatics Complex building a new aquatics center. The money will go toward a $17.5 million aquatics complex at Santa Ynez High School, the Chumash said in a Nov. 29 news release. The complex is expected to serve both student-athletes and the community. Project organizers are trying to raise another $1.85 million to be eligible for more than $6 million in other state funding.
Staff Writer William D’Urso wrote this week’s Spotlight. Send news tips to spotlight@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Dec 5-12, 2019.