While it may not look like much from the outside for the time being, Las Palmas Mexican Restaurant rewards the senses with a true taste of Guadalajaran cuisine inside.
Oscar Lucatero and his wife Orquida Cortez opened the family-run eatery in April, their first entrée into the restaurant business. Lucatero’s father ran a seafood restaurant, and taught his children to cook.
“All of my husband’s family is mainly guys, and all of them know how to cook,” Cortez said. “They were thinking everybody knows how to cook, and when we go to parties we always cook, so why don’t we open something to sell our food, because we know people will like it.”
According to Cortez, the staff at Las Palmas prides itself on always using fresh ingredients and making all the dishes just like they would at home.
“All the food here we make from scratch,” she said. “We don’t [use] anything that’s premade. That’s our main goal, to make the food the most homemade possible.”
All the eatery’s sauces, tortilla chips, and even horchata are created on the premises. The meats, like asada (beef) and pastor (pork), are made to order, and the tortillas come straight from Tortilleria Mexico, where they’re handmade fresh.Besides your standard tacos and enchiladas, using recipes straight from the Mexican state of Jalisco, Las Palmas puts its own unique spin on ceviche, camarones a la diabla (spicy shrimp), and a special dish called alambres: grilled chicken or beef with grilled bell peppers, onions, and melted cheese, with a side of rice and beans.
“Even though we use the same ingredients, we always add something extra … [to what] everybody else does,” Cortez said. “It tastes different when you try it from here.”
On weekends, Las Palmas also serves up its homemade menudo and pozole, which are beginning to gain quite a following.
“It’s getting famous,” Cortez said. “Once people taste it, they like it, and they keep coming back for it.”
Formerly Los Amigos, Las Palmas is currently undergoing remodeling to the outside—as is the mall housing it—but the restaurant will remain open throughout the facelift. Cortez said that when the work is done and a new Dollar Tree store moves in next door, it will bring in more business.
“We still get new people every day, and they say, ‘We didn’t even know you were here,’” she said. “It’s getting better little by little.”
Every Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. is the lunch taco special at $1.25 each for any type. On weekends, Las Palmas unveils its breakfast menu, full of classic morning favorites like huevos rancheros, breakfast burritos, and chorizo and eggs.
Located at 3470 Orcutt Road in Santa Maria, Las Palmas is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. The restaurant is closed on Mondays.
For more information, call 934-0020.
Highlights
• American Agri-Women honored California Women for Agriculture Santa Maria’s Ruth Jensen at the AAW’s 36th annual convention, held recently in Wichita, Kansas.
At the event, which drew women from throughout the United States and Canada, AAW President Chris Wilson recognized Jensen for assisting with starting the New York Agriwomen affiliate, and for her work on AAW committees.
California Women for Agriculture is a statewide organization with more than 2,500 members. Central Coast CWA Chapters include Santa Maria, San Luis Obispo, Carpinteria, and Salinas.
For membership information, visit californiawomenforagriculture.org or santamariacwa.com.
Biz Spotlight/Highlights are written and compiled by Staff Writer Jeremy Thomas. Information should be sent to the Sun via fax, e-mail, or mail.
This article appears in Dec 15-22, 2011.