A restaurant’s title may be one thing that could be a bit obtuse or apt and descriptive. For a small ethnic restaurant within the Northern Lights space of Lincoln, the latter possibility is upfront and direct.
Mi Mexico Lindo Household Mexican Restaurant is an ideal descriptor. The restaurant serves Mexican dishes ready from household held recipes, household is mirrored within the ambiance and perspective of its workers and house owners, and Mi Mexico Lindo (which interprets to My Lovely Mexico) reveals satisfaction and affection for the proprietor’s native nation.
Julio and Claudia Freeman opened Mi Mexico Lindo in September 2020, throughout the center of the COVID-19 pandemic. The restaurant’s workers is basically members of the family – son Julio Junior, daughters Julissa and Kaylee, and Julissa’s husband Marco Ramirez.
Julio and Claudia have labored within the restaurant enterprise for years and have cherished offering service. Julio relates that the household would have associates over to their dwelling for dinner, and that the chums saved urging them to open their very own restaurant.
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The household considered it and began exploring attainable websites in northeast Lincoln. There was a emptiness within the strip mall the place Mi Mexico is at present situated, however issues didn’t work out. A few weeks later, Julio was contacted by the placement’s administration a few area in the identical strip mall that was being vacated by a Center Jap restaurant.
The household moved rapidly with everybody pitching in, and in just a few months Mi Mexico opened with Julio as head chef, Marco as chef, Claudia as bartender and Junior, Julissa and Kaylee as customer support. “However everybody helps out wherever they’re wanted,” based on Junior.
The restaurant area additionally got here with a drive-thru window – a significant factor within the household’s resolution to take the area. “That drive-thru saved us throughout the pandemic shutdown,” Junior stated.
Julio and Junior recall that the primary week or so, the restaurant was open and the 50 % capability rule was in impact. That they had prospects lined up from their entrance door nearly to the HyVee gasoline station (a bit lower than a block) ready to get in. “Generally throughout the first couple of weeks, we’d run out of rice or beans or one thing as a result of we had been so busy,” Marco admitted.
Now with a year-and-a-half’s expertise, the workers is much better ready for serving their prospects’ needs.
One factor that Julio and Junior wish to deal with is that each one of their dishes are made contemporary – no warmth lamps, no warming up ready objects. Mi Mexico Lindo dishes usually are not quick meals. Junior means that these prospects who want to use the drive-thru name 10-Quarter-hour earlier to position an order in order that will probably be ready by the point the shopper comes to select it up.
The restaurant’s menu accommodates a formidable variety of eating choices, a lot of which Julio says got here from household recipes of his grandmothers and mom, in addition to his personal.
There are 12 appetizers listed starting from $4.95 to $14.95, and 6 soup and salad choices at $4.95 to $10.95. Three vegetarian selections embrace Fajitas Veggie, Enchiladas Veggie and Burrito Veggie ($9.95 to $11.95). There are 4 Huevos choices at $8.95 – huevos con chorizo, papas, rancheros and Mexicanos.
For enchiladas, diners have seven selections: verdes, mole, colorado, dawn, blancas, chipotle and las mexicanos ($10.45 to $11.95). There are 15 burrito selections starting from bean or beef ($7.45/8.25) to Dos Mexicanos (one Colorado and one chile verde, $10.95), Chimichanga Blanca (fried burrito with white sauce and selection of shredded rooster, shredded or floor beef, $11.95), and Grilled Carne Asada (steak, onions, refried beans, rice, sauce, bitter cream, guacamole and cheese, $13.95).
There are 4 Home Specials classes – Rooster, Beef, Pork and Mexican. The rooster class has 9 selections at $14.95 every and consists of Rooster en Mole and Pollo a la Diabla (spicy crimson sauce with mushrooms, onions and rooster strips). Carne Asada (grilled skirt steak, fried onions, fried jalapenos, guacamole, bitter cream, rice and beans, $17.95) and Tacos al Carbon (three corn tortillas in crimson adobe with grilled skirt steak, $15.95) spotlight the seven beef home specials.
There are 4 pork home specials – Pork Chili Verde ($12.95) and Tacos al Pastor, Pork Fajitas and Pork Asado, every at $14.95. The Mexican Home Specials quantity eight and vary from Cielo Mar y Tierra (shrimp, rooster, steak with sauteed onions, jalapenos, tomatoes and salsa del pato, $15.95) to Cena Mexicano, (carne asada, enchilada, chimichanga, rice, beans, fried onions and jalapeno, $21.95) and El Mexicano (shrimp, carne asada, pollo adobado, rice, beans, pico de gallo, bitter cream and guacamole, $29.95).
If there’s a yearning for seafood, there are 15 menu choices, from shrimp tacos ($15.95) to shrimp ceviche (shrimp marinated with lime, tomatoes, onions, cilantro and avocado, $15.95), Pescado Frito (fried tilapia with rice, salad and avocado, $16.95) or Molcajete Seafood (shrimp, octopus, scallops and California veggies in spicy sauce, $24.95).
Based on Julissa and Junior, buyer favorites are the Burrito Blanco (particular cheese sauce with selection of shredded rooster, floor beef or shredded beef, $11.95), Grilled Carne Asada burrito ($13.95) and Carne Asada Beef Home Particular ($17.95).
As well as, 17 lunch specials are supplied each day.
The Mi Mexico Lindo workers members are happy with the bar selections out there. Along with imported and home beers, wine, spirits and cocktails, they provide 14 margarita drinks culminating within the Freeman’s (a Freeman specialty made and not using a combine and that includes Hornitos, Triple Sec and “one thing else”).
The vary of Mi Mexico Lindo’s buyer base features a little little bit of all the things. Based on Julio, lunches discover patrons who’re space employees and professionals, whereas dinner may be everybody from households to enterprise folks to regulars who are available a pair occasions per week or extra.
“After we first opened, most of our prospects had been from the east a part of city,” Julio stated. “Now we have now added folks from the south and throughout. There are additionally these prospects that are available for drinks and appetizers after which depart.”
For Julio, Claudia, Julissa and Junior, Mi Mexico Lindo is about greater than meals. It’s about household, serving others, connecting with prospects and prospects turning into associates. Throughout a satisfying meal.
“Prospects join with different prospects too,” Julio stated. “They share recollections between themselves, different diners and with us. Household.”
For the Mi Mexico Lindo workers, it isn’t like a job … It’s wanting folks to have a very good expertise and to return again.
“We wish our prospects to know that we care, and that there’s a huge smile behind these face masks,” Junior concluded.
