Nick and Becky Mendoza operated Lolo’s Mexican Restaurant in Morro Bay from 1985-2024, retiring Aug. 4 after a mostly good 39 years. Photo by Neil Farrell
For nearly 40 years Nick and Becky Mendoza owned and operated Lolo’s Mexican Restaurant, one of Morro Bay’s beloved family-run establishments.
But as they say, all good things must end and the end came for Nick and Becky on Aug. 4, when they closed Lolo’s doors a day early and retired.
It was a bittersweet day for the couple who met while attending Chico State University way back in the 1970s. Though the restaurant has always done a good business, after the news of the imminent closure spread, those last few days were a whirlwind.
There was such a rush on the Friday-Saturday leading up to Sunday’s closure, “all I did was make food all day long,” laughs Nick while sitting in an eerily quiet dining room.
When they arrived an hour before opening on Aug. 2, Nick says, there was a line of at least 20 people stretching down from the entrance into the parking lot.
The rush of customers, many of whom they’d served as children, and now served their kids, was nonstop all afternoon and into the evening. The next day, was more of the same.
Nick says he realized on Friday that they were going to run out of food. They hadn’t had a delivery for a while, anticipating the end. And his prediction came true as Saturday they ran out. So that Sunday, the official day they were going to close, didn’t happened. And it’s probably just as well.
“Everyone was exhausted,” Nick explains of his crew, as well as he and his wife. “I knew people would be sad and want to come in.”
The two opened Lolo’s, named after Nicks uncle who owned restaurants in Paso Robles, SLO and Salinas, where Nick grew up, in 1985, 39-years ago. “When you’re open that long, it’s generational,” Nicks says of his customers.
Becky agrees, saying, “Everybody has a story about this place — they met their husband here, had their first date here, their wedding party was here.”
Those last few days, and especially after they announced it on Facebook, brought people back they hadn’t seen in years, including some long-time employees who worked there for decades.
“Morro Bay has been a great town,” they say, adding that they aren’t moving away, they’re staying here.
The two raised two sons Chase and Darek — who worked in the restaurant growing up. They’d hoped one of the boys would want to take over and keep Lolo’s going, but their interests lie elsewhere, and they make good money doing what they are.
And who could blame them, running a restaurant, especially when you yourself fill in for anyone who can’t make it to work, is very hard work.
They started telling their employees about their plans to retire weeks before the date came, and Nick says, with some amount of pride, “None of them left.” He explains that some restaurants won’t give their employees a heads-up like that, so a closure comes as a total surprise. But the Mendozas don’t operate that way. Their employees became part of the family. Perhaps that’s why many stayed with them for so long, including kitchen Manager, Javier Torres, who has been with them for 28 years.
“He’s the hardest working guy,” Becky says, “and the most easy-going cook.”
Nick says “You don’t realize how much you effect people until you stop doing it.”
Becky says she was telling everybody they planned to retire but they hesitated putting it out publicly on Facebook. “We went back and forth,” she says of the decision to go public with the news. “Our customers were upset,” Becky says, quoting some of the comments — “You can’t” and “Where are we supposed to go now?”
The building, really an old house that was converted, was already a restaurant for years. Nick explains the place used to be “Don Eduardo’s” and was owned by Six Silva. “We bought the property from him,” Nick says, first getting it on a 2-year lease.
Becky says they had been married a year when they opened Lolo’s in July 1985, so their tenure lasted 39 years and one month, “to the day.”
As anyone who owns their own business can probably attest, your personal life takes a backseat. For example, they had “all these plans” for their 40th wedding anniversary, but had to cancel. They often didn’t have enough staff to go on vacations and when the coronavirus pandemic hit, all heck broke loose.
“We had to let everybody go,” Becky explains. “Nick and I ran it through takeout.” She adds that she took the orders and Nick cooked the food. The pandemic greatly changed everything for restaurants.
“We never got a full staff back after COVID,” Becky says. When the pandemic dust cleared, Becky says, “I thought ‘Well, we made it through COVID;’ but did we really?”
Maybe the hardest hits in a long list of bad juju stemming from COVID, was the way the cost of everything — from food to all the supplies restaurants use — skyrocketed. But they refused to raise prices to match the inflationary consequence of COVID.
Nick mentions the cost of food, plus water (up $600-$700 a month), utilities, especially their all-gas kitchen, as contributing to the virus’ inflicted woes.
Lolo’s has been for sale for sometime now, but a buyer just hasn’t appeared, yet. “We put it for sale in 2019,” says Nick. “Then COVID hit, and after that it went back on the market. It’s been on the market for quite a while.”
The asking price for the restaurant, including the property on North Main Street, was $800,000, which Nick says is down from their initial $1 million asking price. They’ve been listing it with an out-of-town broker who specializes in commercial properties.
The place has some great interior decor and more, like the old-fashioned café booths, plus numerous Mexican themed items. They’re still hoping someone will buy the whole shebang from them and maybe even reopen, but Nick and Becky realize the true value in the property lies in the land, not the old converted house.
They are thinking about having an online auction with the local auction house, SLOCal Estate Auctions, as many people who came in during those last hectic days were asking about different décor items.
Their origins are family based. Nick explains that while he was growing up in Salinas his Uncle Ted (Lolo) and his Aunt Esper Ontiveros owned a restaurant in Paso Robles and when they retired, their son Joe took it over and changed it to Joe’s Place, now with restaurants in Paso and Templeton. He says his parents grew up in Paso and they were living in the Bay Area when Uncle Ted came to visit and said he wanted to open more restaurants.
Becky says they decided to join the family business. “I found this place listed for lease in the Telegram-Tribune (now The Tribune).”
They initially looked at a location in Baywood Park but settled on the North Main Street site.
So what’s the best thing about having Lolo’s all these years? Nick says, “The customers and the relationships we’ve built with them; the feeling of community. Morro Bay is such a small town and we’ve been so fortunate to spend our working lives here.”
“The food. I’m going to miss the food,” Becky laughs.
What’s the worst thing about all this? “Dealing with employees is the hardest,” Nick says. “Then there’s the administrative side, the paperwork, the health department, the City, the State the Franchise Tax Board. Once in a while you get an unruly customer who ruins your day.”
Becky lists social media and the often stark, pure meanness that sometimes gets posted. “I always took it personally; I felt insulted,” she says. “It didn’t happen very often. I feel good about the way we went out. I think we went out the right way.”
Becky notes that towards the end, especially after COVID, “It was hard to have employee retention at the end. The last five years, it’s been hard to train and retain employees.”
Nick says, “The last four years have been the most difficult of the 39.”
Becky adds, “When we were done raising our kids, that’s when it was the most fun.”
She says they had a good life owning the restaurant. Nick’s found time to be involved with Rotary and the chamber of commerce over the years. They’d recommend working in a restaurant to young people.
“It’s good life training,” Becky says. “You learn good skills when you serve people.”
So what’s next for the two? After what will no doubt be a bit of a cooling down period, maybe they’ll find time for that vacation they could never manage to take. Plus, there’re now grandkids to spoil, too.
