San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
A Cha-Cha’s for a new generation
Cha-Cha’s, a popular San Antonio restaurant that opened in 1984 and closed in 2017, has been reborn on the Northwest Side with a healthy, vegetarian twist under the direction of new owner and chef Bania Ruiz.
Ruiz is the daughter of original Cha-Cha’s founders Margarita and the late Ricardo Ruiz, and she worked in the kitchen there since she was 16. The new spot in the former space of the Leon Valley Cafe on Evers Road is called Cha-Cha’s New Gen Café, and it has plenty of indoor and outdoor dining space. It opened quietly Oct. 8, and the menu and set business hours are still being tweaked.
Ruiz, a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Austin, has created a menu that includes legacy Cha-Cha’s menu items, such as six types of enchiladas, caldo, fajitas, steak a la Mexicana and chalupas. But she is also has introduced a large selection of vegetarian options such as plant-based burgers and chicken, Thai eggplant red coconut curry and a fresh pasta dish made with vegan ingredients.
“I wanted to make sure that we represented the restaurant my family built while also making it my own,” Ruiz said. “People want to start eating healthier now, so I am putting a lot of energy into that to make us a little bit different.”
Ruiz, 45, also is serving “smoothies on steroids” with all-organic ingredients such as mushroom powders, fruit, cocoa nibs, hemp powder and wheat grass.
“I think it will be a big step up from what people are used to,” she said.
Cha-Cha’s also offers family meals with fajita and enchilada combinations that include rice, beans and saucy fixings. A bar is in the works.
Ruiz says that for San Antonians who’ve missed ChaCha’s, they can get a taste of the old — and the new.
“The response so far has been overwhelming,” Ruiz said.
Cha-Cha’s New Gen Café, 6417 Evers Road, no phone number or web presence. Current hours: 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays
through Saturdays.