A Mexican restaurant with a heart
Tulsa, OK- Arizona is a Mexican restaurant that opened its doors almost 30 years ago, winning a special place in the hearts of Tulsans.
Back in 2008 it was named the best restaurant of its kind by the Independent Restaurants Association, but what people don’t know is that behind the counter there is an impressive cultural mix and a strong immigrant woman willing to fight to keep on providing the best of services, even in times of pandemic.
Heyka Zambrano is the owner of the restaurant and believes her success is the result of multiple factors, but above all the support of her workers.
“Probably it is the quality of the food but mostly, the reliability of our staff,” she said. “We don’t have many changes around here, some of our employees have 15 and 20 years working here, a very long time.”
Arizona may include new dishes in the menu from time to time, but they do not change their providers, making the ingredients taste the same for the most exigent palates.
“We have customers that have come here for so long that we prefer not to change anything,” explained Heyka, aware that almost 97% of her customers are Anglos.
Some may wonder why a German woman is in charge of a Mexican restaurant. Well the answer is simple: love, obviously. Though Heyka is a professional chef, she studied in Germany before moving to the USA. After moving to Tulsa she met her husband, who was from Guadalajara and owned three Mexican restaurants in the city.
“In 2004 I had to take the business over when my husband died one day unexpectedly,” said Heyka about her loss. “I used to be a stay home mother of three and all of a sudden I found myself with three restaurants. So, over the years I´ve streamlined and this one is the only one remaining.”
“The day el patron died, was the worst one,” recalled Leutevio, one of the longest term workers at Arizona. “He had an aneurism and none of us knew what would become of our futures. They had to close the other two restaurants and stay with this one.”
But Heyka is a survivor. She kept her restaurant and her employees despite her luck, and now she fights the pandemic times with a to go menu confident that sticking together with her crew will help the restaurant recover.
“Here we are a family, and we very much look out for each other,” she said. “We all do everything here, we help and do what’s needed. I’ve found myself washing dishes several times.”
While the pandemic is still on, the restaurant struggles to get back to normalcy, even with the help of the government.
“It was very difficult when they shut us down last year for four months. Suddenly we went from 100% table service to doing only 50% in take out and that was a lot harder. Beause if you forget something people were going to get angry. Fortunately, the kitchen staff stayed on almost in full, we kept two of our service staff, and we delivered to hospitals and police stations,” said Heyka, who also faced Covid herself during the winter and had to rely on her staff to keep the boat afloat.
The restaurant might be small, but Arizona’s heart is big and the dishes are generous. So, if you want to try the greatest Mexican food, with personalized service, fresh ingredients, and a history of resilience that may inspire your meal, drive over to 58th and Lewis and dine at Arizona, where, like Heyka says, “All paisanos are welcome.”