For the past two generations, La Palmera Family Mexican Restaurant, with three locations in the Puget Sound region, has been a place to eat and a family affair.
Ever since husband and wife Hector and Amelia Mendoza, and Hector’s brother Jesus became majority owners in the mid-1990s, La Palmera has been committed to transporting their customers to their hometown of Jalisco, Mexico.
Their kids, Yuli and Michael Mendoza, have stepped into larger roles in the family business since the pandemic, continuing their restaurant’s motto of “Family, Flavor and Fun”.
“When you are growing up, you look up to your parents and you want to do as they do,” Micheal Mendoza said. “That’s a big part of why I wanted to be a part of it.”
The family aspect doesn’t end there, however; at least 30% of the workers are a part of the Mendoza family. The other employees might as well be blood related, as many have worked at La Palmera for over 20 years.
“Our whole family is in Washington. There’s 150 of us,” Yuli Mendoza said. “It’s just one of those things where family is very important to our parents, and they spilled that over into their work life.”
She said of their employees: “We treat them as people first; they truly are not just another employee that’s replaceable. We know about their families, what they are doing on weekends, their hobbies and interests.”
What are their titles within the organization? Both said the same thing: I am not really sure.
“We don’t really have specific titles; we do a lot of different things,” Michael Mendoza said. “I work more with the kitchen, creating recipes and training cooks, as well as handling reservations and catering orders.”
Outside of La Palmera Family Mexican Restaurant at its South Lake Union Location. The restaurant owners say it serves up “family, fun and flavor.“
Photography: Nick Williams
He graduated in business administration from the University of Hawaii at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and came home to work in the restaurant, packing orders and warming tortillas for the first months out of college. Since then, he has started getting more and more involved.
Yuli Mendoza, on the other hand, works on the administration side of the restaurant, leading the marketing efforts for all three of their locations, in Everett, Mill Creek and South Lake Union.
She studied finance at Santa Clara University and worked in venture capital after graduating. She came back to work for the family business right before the pandemic in 2019, when they were in the middle of opening their newest location inside an Amazon building in South Lake Union.
Due to its newness, that location was hit the hardest during the pandemic.
“Entering a new market in downtown Seattle where there are dozens of Mexican restaurants that have been around for 25 years, that all have their loyal customer base, made it hard to establish a loyal customer base like the ones we have at the other locations,” Yuli Mendoza said.
“We were the new kids on the block, and then a pandemic hit, and suddenly we can no longer rely on the corporate workers in Amazon and neighboring buildings. It was very stressful,” she said.
She said they had to adapt their marketing strategies to reach this different demographic. Lunch/happy hour is more prominent, for example, which is different from the other locations, which are in more suburban areas.
Jean and Corbin White are regular customers at the South Lake Union location–such frequent diners that they are known as Mr. and Ms. Blanco. The couple started going to La Palmera shortly after it opened.
The Blancos now live in Veracruz, Mexico, but say when they do come back to Seattle, La Palmera is always part of their plans.
The Fish Taco Plate comes with rice and beans, topped with avocado slices and chipotle cream. It is one of the more popular items on the menu. La Palmera commits themselves to transporting their customers to their hometown of Jalisco, Mexico.
Photography: Nick Williams
“Nowadays, we don’t get to enjoy the restaurant for a couple of months at a time, but when we come back, we are always greeted by the entire staff with an open and friendly embrace,” said Jean White.
Yuli Mendoza said they want an environment where the employees and customers are having fun.
“The team loves to prank customers. They often do things like using ketchup bottles with a string attached to them or pretend to drop coffee on you,” said Yuli Mendoza.
This fun, playful atmosphere is what sets La Palmera apart and is the reason why customers often request a certain waiter because of the experience they create.
La Palmera is more than just a place to have fun and eat good food.
“We aren’t trying to do anything crazy innovative. But what we do, we do it right. We don’t cut any corners,” said Yuli Mendoza.
La Palmera family also always looks to help out in the community wherever they can.
“My parents have just always been very community focused and have instilled that in us. We have always been close to our customers, and so when they’re doing things like auctions for a school, we want to be involved,” said Yuli Mendoza. “We’ve never questioned whether we were going to be involved or not with the community.
During the pandemic, La Palmera created a gift-a-meal program to feed healthcare workers. Customers donated money to the restaurant, which would then match the donation and use the money to cook and deliver burritos to hospital staff.
“I can’t even imagine what they went through,” Michael Mendoza said. “The look on people’s faces, you could tell how tired they were, and something as simple as a burrito would brighten people’s day.”
Nicholas Williams is a senior at the University of Washington studying Journalism and Public Communications. With a deep passion for both sports and storytelling, Nick aspires to leverage his skills and experience to pursue a career as a sports reporter where he aims to combine his love for athletics with his commitment to telling impactful stories.