Hasta Pronto - See you soon

There may be other Mexican restaurants in Northern Michigan. And this one may be the newest. But the others would be hard-pressed to match the authenticity and heart that Maria and Jose Lopez are bringing to their brand-new Jose’s Authentic Mexican Restaurant in downtown Petoskey.
Talented cook Jose Lopez emigrated to California in 1986 from Leon, Juanajuato, Mexico, where his mother ran a restaurant, teaching Jose how to cook traditional Mexican cuisine from scratch. After meeting Maria in the Golden State in 1991, the pair married, moving to Wisconsin, where Jose took a job as a cook for another foods company, which gained him plenty of additional experience in foods. The couple would live in Wisconsin - a literal polar opposite from the warmer climates they were used to living in - for the next 11 years.
“We got the idea to open our own restaurant four years ago,” Maria explains. “My sister-in-law, Blanca Lopez, lived in Petoskey, so our first idea was to open in Charlevoix, but we had a hard time finding backers. Then Blanca talked with her husband, Brian Summerfield, and he offered to support us in opening our Petoskey restaurant.”

FULL OF PROMISE
Jose’s Authentic Mexican Restaurant opened on Petoskey Street on December 13 -- a spot full of promise in its friendly downtown locale, especially considering the fact that the space for the new, extensive Petoskey Pointe development - which will consist of a hotel, condos, shops, a conference center, commercial space, and additional restaurants - is located directly across the street.
Petoskey locals and visitors both will likely gravitate towards Jose’s food, a seriously authentic mix of Mexican specialties unlike anything the region has tasted.
“I think that the difference in our food is that we are trying to make everything as fresh as possible,” Maria comments. Indeed, visitors to Jose’s often mention how fresh everything is, right down to the guacamole. “I see people come in, I hear them mention the word ‘guacamole,’ and I start cutting up the avocados,” Maria laughs.
All of the foods that Americans think of as traditionally Mexican are offered at Jose’s, from that aforementioned delicious guacamole to tacos and burritos.
“Our burritos are very, very popular right now,” Maria says. “We have steak, pork, chicken, and chorizo. We were not sure about bringing the chorizo here at first, but we put it on the menu. Then people started asking lots of questions about it. Now most people are trying it, and they really like it – it is doing very well!”
For the uninitiated, chorizo is a moderately spicy Mexican sausage, usually made of pork and seasoned with chile peppers and other spices, and makes for a very tasty burrito filling. And, of course, there are plenty of other menu items to try at Jose’s.

SPECIALS
“Every Friday, we are trying to offer a different variety plate,” Maria explains. “We are trying to offer different things than what is just on the regular menu; some plates that are typical to Mexican family dinners.”
And the perfect finish to your perfect Mexican meal at Jose’s? Why, flan, of course. Difficult to find in Northern Michigan, but a dessert that will quickly become a favorite, flan is basically an egg custard that is baked in a large, shallow dish, usually flavored with caramel, and is a perfect complement to spicy Mexican foods. It’s yet another menu item that is prepared at Jose’s the traditional way, with fresh ingredients and with care and expertise by Maria and Jose.
“We prepare things the way they were prepared in older times - we try to remember how our mothers, our grandmothers, used to cook things in Mexico,” Maria wraps up. “It is very much like having homemade Mexican food.”


Jose’s Authentic Mexican Restaurant is located at 309 Petoskey Street (in the old Domino’s Pizza building) in downtown Petoskey, telephone 231-348-3299. They are open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

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