Author: Kelsey Alarcon-Aguilar, BSU student
From a small town in Mexico, Maria Elena Delgadillo and her husband Miguel Ramos worked together to give Brockton a taste of Mexico. With their authentic Mexican inspired dishes like crispy chimichangas, tacos, enchiladas, and much more! They have a large variety of authentic drinks like horchata and their exhilarating margaritas. Elena and Miguel own several other Locations of Casa Vallarta in Massachusetts, but the Brockton location stands out for their friendly staff, amazing chef with original recipes, and stunning bartender. They also offer fresh guacamole to be made at the table.
On December 15, 2017 the grand opening in Brockton happened a couple minutes away from the Westgate Mall. While interviewing Elena about her reasoning behind opening up her business she said “I chose to open up this location to expand my restaurant’s business and the reason I opened up any restaurants to begin was because I love food. I love cooking and I like to help people by creating jobs!”.As she was able to have her good friends and family working there, it made the restaurant experience better as she had a lot of support and people to count on. Elena and her husband Miguel have two kids, Anayelli and Miguel. The Delgadillo/Ramos Family lives in Connecticut and travel a little over two hours, and three when caught in traffic, to the business in Brockton, which can sometimes be a challenge for Miguel and Elena. Elena said the restaurant business has gotten in the way of her “mom duties” as she was at times unable to attend school events as she worked long hours, was caught up with inspection, or something went wrong.
Luckily, the location on Oak Street was already a restaurant before so they didn’t start from the bottom. At this location, the restaurant things were in place giving Elena and her husband an advantage. They had previous experience since they already had opened a couple restaurants before, but they had to make sure they would be successful. Elena said when her kids were old enough to understand what was going on, she immediately was able to bring them to work and introduce them to the business. She said “I would never change a thing, I would do it the same way over and over again”.
The technology aspect of things runs smoothly. Elena and her husband invest in numerous ads and nowadays everyone googles for places to eat, which gets a lot of customers in the restaurant. Elena mentioned about how GrubHub and DoorDash were a big hit for her restaurant with the constant take-outs. Being the 21st Century and everyone relying on the internet, Elena says, “it helps my business a lot and we get more customers in, since everyone is on their phones and posting pictures helping get more people in”. Elena’s kids are also always on their phones she said and that helps a lot as they attract a younger crowd.
Some obstacles she has been caught in were: during coronavirus when they had to shut down for a little bit, but once they were up and running for takeout she still had all her supporters which helped to maintain the restaurant open and she is grateful for that. Elena and her husband live in fear the pandemic will get worse again before it gets better and restaurant business will have to shut down.
Visit Casa Vallarta at 610 Oak Street in Brockton, MA.
You can contact them via:
Phone: 508-857-0401
Website: casavallarta.us
Facebook: @casavallartabrockton