El Zocalo: ‘It’s the end of an era’
Chandler eatery announces closure
For 20 years, El Zocalo Mexican Grille, a restaurant in downtown Chandler, introduced diners and dancers to musicians in the Valley.
In the early days there were mariachi bands regaling guests on the back patio with songs of love and heroics. In the later days Zocalo morphed into a dual nightclub scene, where DJs entertained a new generation of clientele inside and Latin bands catered to a different crowd outside.
But after rising rent and the uncertainties brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, the restaurant’s owners have decided to close El Zocalo for good.
Zocalo was the third restaurant for husband-and-wife team Obed and Panfila de la Cruz. The longtime Valley restaurateurs also operate El Sol Mexican Cafe & Bakery in Chandler, Mangos Mexican Cafe in Mesa and PHX Burrito House in central Phoenix. El Sol and PHX Burrito House remain open for takeout while Mangos is closed temporarily.
“It’s the end of an era,” Obed said. “We’ve been there 20 years and we couldn’t come to terms with our lease after so many years. We’ve been closed since mid-March and with COVID going on and everything, and just the amount of money in rent, I didn’t want to dig a deeper hole. It’s sad. I’m still in mourning.”
Why they ‘took a chance’ to open El Zocalo
Obed moved to the Valley in 1987 and met Panfila at a now-defunct Phoenix nightclub called Vinnie’s, later known as the Roxy. Vinnie’s was a hot spot back then, Obed said. He remembered thinking he wanted some kind of place like
that of his own, a place where people could gather for music and dancing.
Years later, when he suggested opening up a restaurant in historic downtown Chandler, Panfila thought he was crazy, Obed said. Chandler was his wife’s stomping grounds, but the downtown area wasn’t the lively hub of restaurants and bars it is today, he explained.
“We took a chance,”
“Nothing was going on, downtown had potential.”
In October 1999, the de la Cruz couple used profits from their other restaurants to take over the Monroe building at 28 San Marcos Place. Built in 1912, the Monroe building has housed various businesses over the years, from small shops to Parkway Theatre.
Obed and his crew put in new tiles and painted murals outside. On the patio they set up a fountain and planted ash, ficus and citrus trees, along with aloe vera, bougainvillea and oleander.
In 2000, El Zocalo Mexican Grille opened its doors.
“El zócalo means grand meeting place,” Obed said. “Mexico City has its zócalo. So we just ran with that for downtown Chandler, because for us, our zócalo was the downtown area.”
Obed said. but I knew
‘It was more like a birthday party than it was a restaurant’
Over the years Zocalo served popular Mexican food, such as tacos, burritos and enchiladas. The shrimp and chicken chile rellenos were the top sellers, Obed said. But the restaurant struggled in the beginning, so Obed brought in mariachi bands on the weekend to attract people.
People liked the mariachi bands perhaps a little too much, however; the restaurants couldn’t turn tables and wait times grew to two hours, Obed said. After that, he moved the mariachi artists to the weekdays and brought in a mixed lineup for the weekends — Latin acoustic, funk, salsa, big band.
The Chandler Jazz Festival also brought traveling artists to the restaurant, such as revered drummer Bernard Purdie.
Freddie Duran, a singer-songwriter from New Mexico, was at Zocalo for about 17 years, performing Mexican and classic rock covers, mixed in with his original material. \When he started playing at the restaurant, San Tan Brewery
next door was still Valley National Bank, he remembered.
“It was a nice, mixed crowd, families, guys bringing their girlfriends on dates, kids,” Duran said. “I used to really enjoy playing in front of the fountain while kids ran around the fountain having a good time. It was more like a birthday party than it was a restaurant.”
He was there long enough to see some of those kids grow up and go on their first dates, Duran said. He’s also played at weddings for people who met at Zocalo, he said.
In 2010 Duran premiered the video for his song, “Where the Birds Sing in Spanish,” at Zocalo. The video’s theme was a response to SB 1070, Arizona’s controversial immigration law. Duran, a third-generation Mexican American, said he chose Zocalo to host the premiere party because the restaurant felt like another home to him.
“It was a hub for not only Latinos, but for other people too,” Duran said. “It was a hub for people to join together and celebrate life, you know?”
What’s next for El Zocalo?
Obed said he didn’t realize what an influence Zocalo had on people until he posted the closing announcement on the restaurant’s Facebook page. He and
Panfila have teared up reading some of the comments their customers posted.
The de la Cruz couple hope to find a new Zocalo location once the pandemic passes.
“It wasn’t something negative with the property owner,” Obed said. “We just couldn’t afford it anymore with this dagger COVID. That just hit it out of the park for us. If COVID hadn’t happened, absolutely, we’d still be there. We wanted to be there forever.”
Getting to be a part of the revitalization of downtown Chandler has been an honor, he added. The last three to four years, the restaurant transitioned at night into a clublike atmosphere with strobe lights for the younger crowds that were showing up more, Obed said.
Phoenix musician Gustavo Angeles said he played at Zocalo on and off again for about 10 years, usually performing Latin fusion with Afro-Cuban influence, plus a bit of flamenco. He started with a violin player and they later turned into a full band, he said.
For Angeles, the restaurant helped provide an income, but it also helped his band grow a local following, Angeles said. The fans they made at Zocalo would turn up to their gigs in other places around the Valley, he remembered.
“I’ve been so long in this business to just really treasure the good times and the places that you get to hang out with and make connections,” Angeles said.
“Everything changes, so you have to learn to kinda let go,” he said. “Places come and go and all that. But still, Zocalo was one of those place where it could truly make an impression on you.”