Jalisco A Buckhead Institution
By S.B. Williams

 Family members working at Jalisco include, from left, Jaime, Roseanne, Juan and Christopher.

 Austin, Meredith and Charlie Chase enjoy their dinner at Jalisco.

There is an immutable quality to certain special places – some small cafČ, a favorite pub or a coffeehouse – that draw their loyal patrons to their welcoming ambience with the emotional pull of a home away from home.

Jalisco in Atlanta is such a place. You won’t see it advertised. Small, and not concerned with expanding or changing the magic that keeps its booths and tables filled with a patient crowd waiting to get inside every noon and night, the owners feed their regular customers, know them by name and history and treat them like the old friends most of them are.

Jalisco has altered neither its menu nor its physical space much in the past 30 years except to add pictures, handmade pottery and crafts brought back from the owners’ trips home to Mexico.

You must get there early for supper to avoid waiting on the sidewalk. In the winter, there’s a heater outside to warm the patient, shivering guests. The few benches can’t accommodate the hungry crowd, which includes many families with active children who run up and down the sidewalk visiting with each other.

For many families, supper at Jalisco is a weekly ritual in which they can count on seeing people they know. Many of them came first as babies and are now taking their own children – third and fourth generations of regulars. An added attraction is the Baskin Robbins ice cream shop next door – a popular stop after the nourishing, spicy food at Jalisco.

The staff dotes on the small children with obvious pleasure. The manager and one of the family owners, Eduardo Coronado, said that the staff is carefully chosen for such qualities as kindness and friendliness, which helps to explain the lure for a remarkable number of devoted families

The extensive menu includes family specialties from their native Jalisco in Mexico – Beef Steak a la Ttampiquena, Carne Asada, Carnitas, Mexican stew, a well as tacos, nachos, quesadillas, chalupas, chili, enchiladas, chile reillanos, chimichangas, tamales, burritos, sopapillas, flan, guacamole, the celebrated jalapeno cheese dip and what some say is the best chicken tortilla soup in the city.

Eduardo Coronado credits his father Guillermo, who opened the restaurant 30 years ago, for the vision, values and philosophy that have made Jalisco what it is today.

Guillermo, with roots deep in the state of Jalisco, brought his wife Josefina and family to this country when Eduardo was 13, along with two brothers and two sisters. He chose the Peachtree Battle/Peachtree Road location after noticing that there are three large churches close by amid a pleasant, prosperous neighborhood.

Except for one sister now living in Mexico, the immediate family is involved in running the restaurant:

• Eduardo’s sister Guillermina, called Mina, is the brains of the business.

• Jaime, Eduardo’s cousin, works the cash register.

• Eduardo’s sister-in-law, Roseanne, is the gracious hostess.

• Roseanne’s husband, Juan, not only greets everyone, he also decorates paper cups for the children.

Guillermo, Eduardo said, felt that a business owner had to be on hand to stay on top of things. He never considered expanding or opening more restaurants.

In Mexico, said Eduardo, the most important thing is family, and after that it is culture. Family is what makes you happy. Culture gives you identity. Money comes far behind. "My father never thought about putting up a bar," says Eduardo. "Liquor attracts a different crowd, and Jalisco is a place for families."

Laura and Craig Mullins and their three now-grown girls have been weekly customers for 26 years. They speak almost reverently about Jalisco and its place in their lives.

"It’s hard to say this about a restaurant, but it is like home to us," said Laura. "All three of our girls have at some time been required in school to write about a place that meant most to them, and all three chose to write about Jalisco." Like many regulars they have a special booth they prefer, but they accept the fact they can’t always get it.

Four generations of the Callahan family from nearby Peachtree Heights East have been regulars at the restaurant, too. When one son went to work in China, Jalisco would be his first stop on coming home, said his mother, Rosalind.