La Mixteca owners, employees and family members were joined on Friday by the community to celebrate the restaurant’s 1-year celebration with a ribbon cutting hosted by the Clinton County Chamber of Commerce at 408 N. Columbia St. in Frankfort.
The celebration began with an introduction to the restaurant, its staff and the family behind the food the Frankfort community has enjoyed over the past year. As community members gathered for the ribbon cutting ceremony, Mayor Judy Sheets thanked the family for their continued investment in Frankfort before Shan Sheridan, Chamber Executive Director, led the community in a celebratory rendition of “Happy Birthday” for the owner’s birthday and the anniversary of the restaurant, which was accompanied by a live mariachi band. Janet Martinez, a member of the family and a key player in the success of the restaurant, expressed that while her mother founded La Mixteca, the entire family plays their part to further their mother’s dream of owning and operating a successful business surrounded by their culture.
“I pretty much take care of the financial part, so I’m the one that does the billing and does the promotions and stuff like that,” Martinez said. “My brother does more of the hands-on work. He’s the one that greets everybody with a smile when everyone comes in. He’s the one that explains the menu in detail. He’s pretty much at the front area here in person. We’ve all had a role. Sometimes I even jump in the kitchen, and I’ll be the one prepping your tacos too just because I love being here with my family, so that’s pretty much what I do here.”
Martinez commented that the celebration of her mother’s birthday was in-part a celebration of the restaurant as the doors of La Mixteca represent her childhood dreams that were granted by demands from the community to purchase her cuisine throughout the entire week rather than waiting for events where the family operated a booth as a vendor.
“Ever since she was a little girl, since she came from a very small part of Mexico, it’s called San Juan Mixtepec, (Mixteca), and ever since she was small, she’s always been that type of person to sell bread, sell any type of meals, and she’s always had a passion for cooking,” Martinez said. “Once she got to the United States, she brought that over here with her. She was selling food at factory jobs, she was selling food at the Hot Dog Festival, at the fairgrounds and at TPA Park. It’s just something that she’s always been so passionate about.”
Martinez commented that her mother was inspired to open the restaurant in Frankfort following numerous requests from customers to prepare her cuisine daily for sale, which Martinez stated was a decision that has paid off for the entire family.
“At those events, a lot of our customers would ask when we were getting ready to open,” Martinez said. “Now that she has a restaurant, all those little girl dreams up to the woman that she is now came true. We’re here, we’re successful and she’s successful.”
Martinez expressed that the different foods prepared by the family typically bring customers through the door, but she commented that many customers begin to feel as if they have become a part of the family as they dine due to the restaurant’s focus upon culture.
“We’re known a lot for our culture, for the part of Mexico we’re from–we’re indigenous–so we still speak in dialect, so we’re very known for that too,” Martinez said. “Growing up in Frankfort, there’s a huge Hispanic population. Everyone’s from different parts of Mexico. We’re thankful for still being part of the indigenous roots. We just love the culture. Even with the seasoning, you can tell.”
La Mixteca also unveiled its new food truck that will be utilized to reach customers from across the region. Martinez expressed that visitors from Indianapolis, Lafayette and beyond have told the family that they visited Frankfort solely to partake in La Mixteca’s food, which inspired the family to begin launching efforts to take the food to them.
“When we first started being vendors, we would just set up a small tent,” Martinez said. “Eventually, that 10-foot tent went to a 12-foot tent, and we just started to expand more and more. Being able to purchase this mobile food truck, it’s going to be a lot easier for us to go to our clientele. It’ll be a lot easier for us to spread the word more. Hopefully one day, aside from the food truck, we eventually purchase another building as well.”
Martinez expressed that the past year with La Mixteca has been outstanding as a result of the Frankfort community’s ongoing support of the family, the traditional cuisines and the culture that the restaurant represents.
“It’s been phenomenal, and we can’t even believe how quickly the year went by,” Martinez said. “We really appreciate everyone coming in. It’s one of those things that we’re so thankful for. We didn’t do much advertising, it was just word to word, mouth to mouth. We’ve already outgrown the building, so today we’re marking that one year of successful business.”
La Mixteca is owned and operated by a local family at 408 N. Columbia St. in Frankfort with choices of tacos, tamales, quesadillas, birria tacos and much more.