The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Photograph by George Sakkestad

El Caminito owner Julian Rios displays a strawberry margarita and a dish of Enchilada Costeras at his Sunnyvale restaurant.

Restaurant owner does it all at El Caminito

By Lester Chang

Julian Rios opened El Caminito Mexican Restaurant in 1992, realizing a lifelong dream to be a restaurant owner. Now he lives that dream seven days a week.

Rios oversees the operation of the restaurant, works with his chief cook and five employees, vacuums the carpeting, buses tables and mans the cash register to boot. "If you don't do these things, you could lose your business," Rios said. "I have worked too hard to let my business go down."

Rios learned about running a restaurant by working as a bartender and waiter at restaurants in Mexico, San Francisco, San Jose and Cupertino for 15 years.

He opened El Caminito with what some might call a handicap: he didn't know how to cook. Luckily, his sister did, and Rios hired her for three months before finding an experienced cook from Mexico who taught him some secrets of Mexican cooking.

"He lives in Mexico, but he comes and goes. When he is here, I learn from him," Rios said.

Rios relies on his family to run the restaurant--his brother works as a waiter, two nieces work as waitresses, and two sisters bus tables.

Rios said business is good and that he has banked his success on four things: fresh vegetables, lean meat, quick and friendly service, and reasonable prices.

Health-conscious customers also like the fact that he uses low-cholesterol vegetable oil in his dishes. "The owners of some Mexican restaurants think that lard brings out the flavor of dishes. I don't think so, and besides, lard isn't good for you," he said.

The menu offers about 50 dishes, but combination plates consisting of tostadas, enchiladas, chile rellenos, tacos and tamales are the favorites among diners, Rios said. Prices range from $5.45 for one choice to $8.45 for three.

Seafood dishes are also popular. A specialty de la casa is camarones a la veracruzana ($11.95)--jumbo shrimp sauteed with butter and bathed in a special sauce with green olives, capers and tomatoes.

The $6.95 "all-you-can-eat" luncheon buffet, started a year ago, has been a hit with employees from high-tech companies in Sunnyvale, Rios said. "They like the buffet because they get the food right away and can get back to work."

Buffet entrees include enchiladas, chile rellenos, chicken fajitas, chile verde, quesadillas and chicken flautas.

Meals can be topped off with a special dessert Rios said won't be sold at many Mexican restaurants: cheesecake chimichangas. For this very original sin, cheesecake is stuffed into a flour tortilla, briefly fried and then slathered with strawberry sauce, sugar and whipped cream.

The restaurant, located at 510 East El Camino Real, seats 85.

Hours: 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. from Monday to Thursday; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday; 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday. Call 739-1191 for reservations for more than six people.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, June 18, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.