After 36 years, Baja Cactus restaurant closes
Brady Maples, who has been coming to Baja Cactus “since I was in my mama’s belly,” stopped by the Milpitas restaurant Wednesday for his weekly taco or enchilada platter on the sunny front patio.
“It’s a homey little spot. The food is good, and everyone’s really nice,” said Maples, who grew up in Milpitas and now works in sales at nearby Piercey Toyota. “The employees haven’t changed since I was a kid.”
He didn’t realize until he came in that he’d be looking for a homey new spot next week.
After 36 years, this Main Street mainstay for Bajastyle Mexican food closed permanently at the end of dinner service Wednesday. The building has been sold, with no option to renew the lease, co-owner Tony Peña said.
It has been a family operation since 1985, when founders Jose and Edelmira Banuelos opened with recipes from their native Ensenada. Baja Cactus has been serving generations of customers and receiving raves ever since, with thenMercury News restaurant critic Sheila Himmel calling the restaurant “the 84seat pride of Milpitas” in a review two decades ago.
That was the year the Banuelos patriarch and matriarch handed the reins to their daughter and her husband, Anna and Tony Peña, and headed to Southern California to open a restaurant there. The second generation has run the Milpitas place ever since.
Anna Peña reminisced Wednesday about her family’s years here (“My father’s pride and joy was this restaurant”) and the legendary 27-layer apple pie that they baked for years (until diners got too health-conscious and stopped ordering it).
But most of all, she said, it has been about the customers. Generations have grown up celebrating their milestones with Baja Cactus. “We catered their baptisms and then their weddings,” she said, and then those customers would bring their children in. “We’ve been blessed.”
‘It’s been very emotional,” agreed Tony Peña, wiping away tears as he spoke of the many customers who have “come to say bye and wish us good luck.”
Among them was Robyn Seal of Saratoga, who lunched with friends Marilyn Sotirhos of Campbell and Penny Martell of San Jose. “I came here with my parents years ago,” Seal said. “Anna and Tony are wonderful hosts. They’re like family.”
Besides the hospitality, “I like their enmoladas.”
The restaurant’s cofounder, Edelmira, reached Wednesday at the family’s Temecula (Riverside County) restaurant — also called Baja Cactus — said
Bay Area customers are welcome to visit if they miss their favorite dishes.
“All the recipes in Temecula and Milpitas are mine,” she said proudly. “The mole is the most popular. The next one is chile verde,” along with the Veracruzstyle seafood specials.
At 78, she still works at the restaurant. “Seven days a week. I have to work. I have to do something.” Her husband died four years ago.
After they finish closing down in Milpitas, the Peñas said they may go to Temecula to help out at that Baja Cactus. But they wouldn’t rule out a comeback in the South Bay.
“If we find a good spot in our area, we will probably continue with the business,” Tony Peña said.