A New Restaurant Opens in South Gate and Local Restaurateurs Call for More

Dons Quixote Grill, a high end Mexican and international cuisine restaurant, opened its doors this past Thursday on the corner of Tweedy Boulevard and San Antonio Avenue. The owner of this new establishment, Napoleon Garcia, 28, is optimistic about the future of his restaurant.  Stating that he hopes to get hold of the local demand for elegant dining, which usually leaves to neighboring cities.

“There isn’t a huge variety of elegant sit down restaurants,” said Garcia, who emphasized that the lack of such places made South Gate a good location. “[Local customers] have had to travel further distances for this, to cities such as Downey. ”

South Gate resident, Angel Colon, admits to practicing the tendency of going outside of South Gate to find a wider variety of higher end restaurants for special dinners with his family. However, with the opening of Dons Quixote Grill, he hopes to do so less.

“It looks like it is going to be a unique restaurant,” said Colon, who owns , a sports store, which is located right across from Dons Quixote Grill. “This is a restaurant that I would consider for dinner.”

It is widely believed by a lot of South Gate restaurateurs that Downey and other neighboring cities have a more vibrant and diverse restaurant market. Causing the local restaurant business to be more difficult, because of the ongoing exodus of clients.  

“Residents are not giving our restaurant much support,” confessed Esther Garcia, wife of the co-owner of Palermo Italian Cuisine on Tweedy Boulevard. “A lot of people go to Downey.”

Mrs. Garcia believes that more restaurant openings will actually be better for her business because of the customer traffic that would result from this.

“More restaurants would bring more people to the area,” said Mrs. Garcia. “It would help us.”

Grant Pstikyan, 25, owner of on Tweedy Boulevard, also believes that a larger number of restaurants in South Gate would increase his overall business. However, he warned that this will only be the case if restaurants with original products are opened.

“People have to learn that to be successful you have give something new to the customer,” said Pstikyan, whose two year old business is in the process of opening up a second branch in Riverside. “For example, there are already several ‘mariscos’ places, so instead of opening another one, maybe someone should open something different, like a sushi place. ”

Eulogio Marcelo Jr., 27, co-owner of on Tweedy Boulevard, concurred with the belief that different types of restaurants were needed for a more vibrant restaurant scene in South Gate.

“There are a lot Hamburger, Mexican and Central American places,” said Marcelo. “We need more of a variety, like more Italian places, that can bring other customers.”

The Azalea Retail Project, a shopping mall on Firestone Boulevard and Atlantic Avenue, whose financing is currently being negotiated between the city and its developer, has the potential to address the issue of bringing a more diverse group of restaurants to South Gate.

If the project goes through smoothly, Pstikyan says that he hopes it does not get taken over by more of the same restaurants that already populate South Gate.

“It will be pointless if they start leasing out to a lot of the same type of restaurants that are already in the community,” said Pstikyan.

Vice- Mayor Gil Hurtado believes that the Azalea Project will bring more businesses to South Gate. However, he warns residents that bringing new restaurants is never enough to keep them around, and that residents must also support them.

“I think the [Azalea Project] will bring more businesses,” said Hurtado. “But at the end of the day, it will be the support of the people, that will make the difference.” 

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