LEWISTON — The first day El Pocho’s Mexican Grill opened, it sold out of nearly everything.
Two weeks in and customers started asking Yolanda and Todd MacWhinnie when they planned to expand.
It’s been a happy whirlwind for the little restaurant inside a Lisbon Street gas station.
Relying on Facebook and customers to get the word out, in just three weeks, El Pocho’s has cultivated a loyal following and racked up more than 50 online reviews, all of them five-star.
“We have one customer, I don’t think he’s missed a meal yet, lunch and dinner,” Todd MacWhinnie said.
El Pocho’s opened Feb. 20 inside the Coast to Coast gas station and convenience store at 990 Lisbon St.
The entire enterprise is three people. Yolanda had worked for seven years as a bartender and manager at Mixers in Sabattus. Her husband, Todd, a Lewiston police officer, pitches in after his shifts.
Yolanda’s brother, Jose Mata, is the head — and only — cook.
“I started cooking when I was 12,” Mata said. “I started my first job dish-washing in Mexico. All my food’s in my head.”
The brother and sister moved to Maine as teenagers when their father took a job at the Turner egg farm.
They’d had an idea for a restaurant for quite a while, Yolanda said. The time, and space, seemed right. The restaurant named boba left the space last year.
They painted it in bright colors, added decor including sugar skulls with salt and pepper shakers in the eye sockets and built out a tall, seven-seat bar top for dining-in that takes up most of the modest space.
El Pocho’s (pronounced El Po-cho’s) is named after her family’s nickname for the couple’s son.
The menu, which ranges from $3 to $8, is simple on purpose with nachos, quesadillas, tacos, burritos and tostadas made from scratch every day.
“There’s nothing authentic around, nothing like we grew up eating when we were younger,” Yolanda said. “People misunderstand, people who have tried it (say, sounding surprised), ‘I always thought Mexican was supposed to be really spicy.’ No, it’s the flavors; it doesn’t have to be spicy.”
There’s also a daily special board with off-menu offerings such as tortas.
The restaurant is open Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Takeout is so far more popular than eat-in.
Her recommendation when a new customer asks for help: “I would point to the red enchiladas, that is my go-to. It’s really flavorful. It’s spices, but not like you’re sweating hot.”
Mata is in cooking by 6 a.m. each day, chopping and grilling pineapples and mangoes for the salsa and dicing soft shells to deep-fry for chips. All of the cooking is done within full view of customers, which Yolanda believes is part of the draw.
Online raves include, “Salsa was fresh and flavorful without being gratuitously (or unnecessarily) spicy” and “Delicious food and wonderful people! What more could you want?”
“People are like, ‘Oh, you should expand.’ It’s scary, I don’t know if I’m ready for it; I just opened,” Yolanda said. “If we grow bigger, it’s going to be more people.”
She and her brother “work great together,” she said. “I didn’t think it was going to be that popular, take off like that.”
Staff will have planned growth later this year when their parents move up from Texas to join them at El Pocho’s.
“My mom is an expert at cooking tamales,” Yolanda said. “She loves cooking; she’s like (Jose.)”
As for their father, “He’d be the greeter. He’ll talk to everybody,” Todd MacWhinnie said.
kskelton@sunjournal.com
Yolanda MacWhinnie, her brother, Jose Mata, and her husband, Todd MacWhinnie, opened El Pocho’s Mexican Grill on outer Lisbon Street in Lewiston last month.
Jose Mata, stirring beans, and his sister, Yolanda MacWhinnie, opened El Pocho’s Mexican Grill on Lisbon Street in Lewiston on Feb. 20.
Sugar skulls are a common decoration at El Pocho’s Mexican Grill, a new restaurant on Lisbon Street in Lewiston.
Customers can order takeout or have a seat at the counter at El Pocho’s Mexican Grill on Lisbon Street in Lewiston.
Gracias (thank you) adorns the tip jar at El Pocho’s Mexican Grill on Lisbon Street in Lewiston.
Jose Mata comes in early every morning to cook tortilla chips, beans, taco shells and other menu items at El Pocho’s Mexican Grill on Lisbon Street in Lewiston.
El Pocho’s Mexican Grill is in the variety store at the corner of Lisbon Street and South Avenue in Lewiston.
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