HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ohio — They call themselves the first Mexican restaurant in Cleveland, where for 72 years, they’ve been serving up traditional cuisine with a side of family history. For Hispanic Heritage Month, we headed to Highland Heights to see what makes La Fiesta stand out after all this time.
While your eye is drawn to the history on the walls, in La Fiesta, it’s the food and drinks that tell the full story.
“We're the oldest and the first; we're 72 years old,” said Brian Adkins, owner and operator of La Fiesta Mexican Restaurant.
Brian Adkins was young when he started to help out at the family business, but now he is the fourth generation to carry on the tradition.
“I am constantly reminded of, like, what would grandma do,” Adkins said.
La Fiesta was opened in October of 1952 by Adkins Great Grandma Antonio Valle. Their original location was on Walton Avenue in Cleveland. Valle ran it with the help of her daughter Ophelia Lutz, who still remembers her parents first pondering the idea of a restaurant in their home.
“He says, 'what do you know about a restaurant?' My mom said, 'I got seven kids. We got you and me. I cook everything, nine people. I’ll just cook a little more,'” said Lutz when talking about her mom and dad.
At that time, Mexican cuisine was uncommon and unfamiliar to many in Northeast Ohio.
“My grandma said, when we first started out, people didn't know an enchilada from a sombrero,” Adkins said.
On the walls, you can see newspapers dating back to the 1960s talking about the new cuisine.
“Here's how you identify tacos: they are a tortilla that has been folded in half,” Adkins read from one of those old articles. “Basically, they had to explain what a taco was to the reader because people haven't eaten Mexican food yet.”
Over the past 72 years, their location has changed quite a few times, from Cleveland to Richmond Heights, and now they sit in Highland Heights right off Alpha Drive. What hasn’t changed is their food.
“We have no microwaves. We don't need freezers. Everything's made like fresh the exact same way they did 70 years ago,” Adkins said.
Nor has their family’s passion to share Mexican cuisine with Ohio.
“I want them to realize, hey, like these are... traditional, authentic, you know, generations-old recipes, not like Taco Bell or any of that stuff,” said Adkins.
The only thing that’s needed now is for the next generation to take on the business, but with two daughters, I think Brian may already have a lead.
“Maybe at some point when I get bigger,” said Adkins' 4-year-old daughter Mackenzie.
