By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Dowagiac's newest eatery, Natalie's authentic Mexican Restaurant, 109 Pennsylvania Ave., expects to open Wednesday, Nov. 1, in a storefront once occupied by The Mane Attraction.
Natalie, 26, and Joel Gomez, 27, are opening the restaurant.
Her mother is from Mexico and she was born and raised in Arizona.
She started with a catering business that grew out of their church, Unity Temple Church of God in Christ, Benton Harbor.
Due to the size of the storefront, the restaurant will be primarily a take-out location, similar to Saylor's Front Street Pizzeria, with limited seating.
"We're going to do deliveries," she said Wednesday.
Her husband worked for Deals on Wheels as its detail manager.
The couple will run the new venture with assistance from one helper.
Hours will be 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Natalie's phone number will be 782-8600.
"I chose this location because everything is downtown. I like to be a little different from everyone else, but I didn't want to be off by myself," she said. "We've remodeled the whole place" and installed a kitchen since the location has not housed a restaurant before.
"We were going to open in Benton Harbor, but we have a lot of customers here," she said. "We live here because he got transferred from Benton Harbor when Louie Dominion expanded in Dowagiac. We moved from Berrien Springs to Dowagiac." Joel is an Eau Claire native. The couple have four children – two sons and two daughters.
"Dowagiac doesn't have any authentic Mexican food," Natalie said, "so I said, 'Let's open in Dowagiac.' I like the area."
Especially after her positive introduction last summer.
"The Health Department allowed us under a canopy outside of Video Land" on Spruce Street. "In those two months, we sold over 500 dinners. We were surprised, too. Our customers wanted to know where we were going to be in the winter, so we knew we had to figure something out."
By "authentic," Natalie means "everything from scratch. Everything homemade. Nothing from packages. We're going to be up early. When you put 'authentic' on your menu, you better do it that way or people will notice."
Natalie's menu includes such Mexican entrees as enchiladas, fajitas, flautas, tacos, chimis, burritos, tostadas, Mexican pizza and, for dessert, deep-fried ice cream and sopapia, deep-fried tortilla triangles topped with honey and sugar.
Flautas are corn tortillas rolled up with shredded beef or chicken and deep-fried. "Chimis are the same thing, but made with flour," she said.
"We're using shredded beef. Ground beef is cheaper, but I believe in paying a little more to keep your customers happy. Back home in Arizona, like Phoenix, you won't see ground beef. You'll get shredded in a taco. I just think it's better."
Marrying Joel brought her to Michigan. They met while Joel was in Arizona visiting his sister. "I used to be her waitress," Natalie said. "We've been married going on six years."
She left Arizona reluctantly because of cooking and waitressing training provided by Phil Garcia.
"I wasn't worried about leaving my family, but I didn't want to leave the job. The owner was real nice to me and supportive," Natalie said. "I wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for him. He worked with me on everything. He used to live in Berrien Springs, but moved down because he didn't like snow."
Joel wanted to thank everyone responsible for getting them to this point since July – "God, for giving us the opportunity to do this," his parents, her family in Arizona, Pastor William and Martha Nichols of Unity Temple, Virgil and Candy Lovelace of Dowagiac Heating and Air Conditioning and Amigo Pepe in Niles.