SLO County Mexican restaurant to move to new spot — right where another longtime eatery was
A decade-old Mexican restaurant in Morro Bay will open in new digs soon — exactly where a longtime Mexican restaurant had been for nearly 40 years.
Mi Casa Restaurante Mexicano will pull up stakes Jan. 5 at the 1,676-square-foot building that’s tucked back at 650 Morro Bay Blvd., a downtown site that restaurant owner Maria Antonio has rented for more than 10 years, according to her son Angel Pliego.
Probably by mid-January, Mia Casa will reopen in the 2,540 square-foot building at 2848 Main St., where the beloved institution of Lolo’s had been for 39 years.
Lolo’s owners Nick and Becky Mendoza retired in August.
“We’re just really grateful to have been able to have raised our kids here and live and work in such a nice place,” Becky Mendoza told The Tribune the day after the restaurant closed for good.
Now the 49-year-old Maria and 20-year-old Angel will carry on the Latin cuisine tradition while bringing their own take on it to the Morro Strand business district, in the same general area where the venerable Del Mar Market, Chapala Market and Taco Temple are.
What is Morro Bay’s Mi Casa restaurant?
On Mi Casa’s website, the North Coast eatery defines itself as a “family-owned Mexican restaurant that has been proudly serving the Morro Bay area for well over a decade, serving delicious, hearty meals to our customers.”
While the mother and son were too busy on Dec. 17 to talk much about the upcoming change, what with the holidays and continuing to run the downtown site during much of the move, Angel Pliego did chat with a Tribune reporter for a few moments.
He said while his mom had worked in other cafes for years (such as the Maya Mexican Restaurant and the former Denny’s in Morro Bay), she’d never managed her own place until she opened Mi Casa downtown.
“Mi Casa was the first she’d done on her own,” he said proudly.
Angel Pliego said he began officially working at the restaurant when he was 16, but like his twin sisters Paola and Paolina Pliego, he “grew up here in Mi Casa.”
The three were raised in Morro Bay, Paola Pliego said Friday. She and her sister left to go to college and are living in the Los Angeles area now, but they came to help at Mi Casa during the holidays and the move, she said.
The advantage of the new location, Angel Pliego said, was “being able to have something of our own” by buying their location rather than continuing to rent.
The eatery’s specialties are “fish and shrimp tacos, the fajitas and the shrimp cocktail” done Mexican style, he said.
Paola Pliego said Friday that what sets Mi Casa apart from Morro Bay’s other Mexican restaurants is “the quality of our food, our hospitality and our connection with our customers.”
“Some of our regulars are in every day,” she said.
Those regulars are excited about the new location, she said.
“So many of our customers tell us it’s closer to where they live and that they’ll follow us and continue to support us,” Paola Pliego said.
Specialties and classics round out the Mi Casa menu
Mi Casa’s offerings include, but certainly are not limited to, a diverse breakfast menu with all the usual morning entrees plus New Mexico enchiladas, chilaquiles, machaca, menudo and breakfast burritos.
Among several lunch specials are a chili verde burrito, tamales and carnitas tacos.
Diners can choose from Mexican classics, combination plates and taco platters plus such specialties as beer-battered shrimp, albondigas soup and overstuffed burritos served “wet” with sauce.
The cuisine is mildly spicy, Paola said, “but we can make specific dishes spicier, if the customer wants it that way.”
That adaption also includes being able to tailor the meals to vegetarian or non-dairy diets — and for those who are gluten free, many of Mi Casa’s entrees are made with corn tortillas.
For more information
Mi Casa is open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week, with breakfast served until 11:30 a.m. daily.
For further details, visit the restaurant’s website at micasarestaurant.wixsite.com or call 805-772-1272.
