The owners of the Sinaloa Cafe in Morgan Hill are mother Mary and children Ofelia and Steve Pe'a. The restaurant has been in the family for four decades and its fame has spread far beyond the Morgan Hill area.
Bartender Reynaldo Barbosa has been working at Sinaloa Cafe for the past 35 years. Barbosa makes two house margaritas on the rocks for lunch customers.
Seen through a piece of glass, server Jake Farleigh sets a table as patrons enjoy their lunch at Sinaloa Cafe in Morgan Hill.
Chef Carlos Barbosa puts finished dishes up on a shelf for the severs to deliver to patrons during lunch time at Sinaloa Cafe.
Morgan Hill - When most people think of the Sinaloa Cafe, they think of the famous home-style Mexican food and margaritas.
But what brings people back time and time again to this Morgan Hill mainstay is the feeling of family.
The restaurant is the centerpiece of the Pe'a family: Mary, the matriarch, and her children, Steve and Ofelia, the second generation.
The restaurant opened in 1960 at 19210 Monterey Road at Peebles Avenue, when patriarch Adolfo put his love of music and performing to work.
It was a place to dance and socialize, with maybe a few cervezas and some tequila.
"I started cooking for them because after they had been dancing, maybe drinking a little, I wanted them to eat," the 75-year-old Mary said.
A tradition was born, as the business slowly transformed into less of a nightclub and more of a restaurant around 1980.
The more the customers came, the more Mary cooked. At that time, there were six or seven tables, the counter, and the dance floor, where Adolfo loved to see his customers enjoying themselves. He would treat the company to his rich voice on his birthday, Mary said, when he would throw a huge party and sing for everyone.
He also loved mariachi music, and frequently had the traditional Mexican bands performing at the cafe.
Longtime customer Lisa De Silva remembers that her first night in Morgan Hill, in 1979, she ate at Sinaloa. Because she was from New York, she said, she hadn't had Mexican food before.
"Everyone laughed because I started to eat my burrito with a knife and fork," she said. "But I had never seen one before. Back then, there weren't even any Taco Bells in New York."
She said she remembers how small, cozy and home-like the cafe was.
"Mary would greet you when you came in, then later she'd take your order, then she'd go to the kitchen and cook it, then bring it out to you," she said.
The business expanded as word of the Pe'a family hospitality spread, and it spread far beyond Morgan Hill. People traveling through would often make Sinaloa a regular stop, and even today, people taking a trip to the beach or to San Francisco or down to Los Angeles frequently make a stop at the cafe as part of their trip.
As business grew, so did the building, as the family added on to accommodate all their customers.
"When we were in the original building, it was easier for people to drop in with their horse trailers or their motor homes than in our current location," said Ofelia, who helps manage the restaurant with Steve.
The restaurant is now located at 17535 Monterey Road between West Main Avenue and West First Street downtown. The family relocated after a fire five years ago, one of several tragedies the family suffered in the space of a few years. If anything, they say, the sad events have made them stronger.
In 1999, the restaurant's founder, Adolfo Pe'a died of kidney failure. Five years later, on June 29, 2002, the original building the business had occupied since opening caught fire and burned to the ground. Thirteen months later, on Aug. 6, 2003, Rosalie Pe'a, 50, the eldest child of Mary and Adolfo, was killed in a tragic car accident down the street from the old restaurant site. The family had to relive their original grief during a painful sentencing hearing Nov. 25, 2003, for Charles Spear, the driver of the car that crashed into Rosalie's Volvo, sending it into the rear of a tractor trailer, then spinning into a telephone pole.
"There's just so much you think one family can take," De Silva said. "But they have continued to look forward and to support one another. I'm sure the relationships they have with their friends and customers was comforting."
The fire at the original building started in a kitchen during the early morning hours and destroyed the 100-year-old structure and its contents. The loss was estimated to be $750,000 plus contents by the Santa Clara County Fire Department.
The family was working to re-open the restaurant at its current location downtown when Rosalie was killed. According to Steve, she was spending a lot of time organizing and taking care of the restaurant's paperwork.
"I just wish that she could have been here for it (the opening of the new restaurant in February 2004), she didn't get to see the end result," said Ken McCain, Ofelia's husband. "She was our best friend, mine and Steve's. She was always there to help out. She was our mediator. She kept us together."
Ofelia said all of the incidents have shown the family how many friends they have. They were amazed and grateful at the way the community reached out to them.
"I just thank God that we have the special friends and customers that we have," Mary added.
De Silva said customers and friends feel close to the family. She remembers that when her first daughter, Leah, was born, the first flowers to arrive at the hospital were from the Pe'a family.
"When you go back to how this is such a family business, it's not a family business because it's owned and run by family, but because you feel their embrace as a family," she said. "You're not just their customers, and you see that in all of the families that go there on a regular basis. The Pe'as have seen their kids grow up, and we've seen theirs."
Ofelia and Ken have a daughter, Adrianna, 12, and a son, Quinton, 11. Steve and his wife Diane have three children, Steve Jr., 25, Brianna, 17, and Marissa, 15.
Many of their 40 full-time and part-time employees have been with the restaurant so long, they seem like a part of the family, such as bartender Inocencio Sanchez.
"He's been with us so long, we forget he's not a relative," Ofelia laughed. "But we do think of all of our employees as family."
Marilyn Dubil Marilyn Dubil is a freelance writer for The Times.
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