Mexican owned and operated restaurants are thriving in Goshen, many still going strong after decades of serving up treasured family recipes in a variety of styles.
Goshen boasts 19 food-related Latino businesses, including restaurants, food trucks, groceries and bakeries. According to Nick Kieffer, president and CEO of the Goshen Chamber of Commerce, 33% of Goshen’s population is Latino, and Latino businesses are the fastest growing sector in the Michiana region.
Two of the oldest thriving restaurants—Universal Tamal and Los Primos—are family-run businesses operated by the original owners. They make their salsas, sauces, rice, beans, guacamole, meats, tamales and other menu items in-house from scratch.
Universal Tamal, opened in 2006 by Isidro and Edna Sanchez, is in its original location on 225 S. Main St. Over the years it has shifted from a simple take-out business with a few tables on site to a cozy, full-service sit-down restaurant where one can linger over a pleasant meal. The masa for the tamales and the tortillas is made on the premises. In additional to homemade tamales, Universal Tamal makes all of its tortillas from scratch. Light and delicate, they are perfect for soaking up the juices on a taco order. In the weeks before Christmas, tamales are especially popular with Latino families, who order dozens for Christmas Eve.
The idea for the restaurant grew when Edna’s cooking gained a reputation among the families in the trailer park where they first lived in Goshen. Isidro, who works in construction, proposed opening the restaurant that has since become a successful family project.
Their sons Jocsan and Jeru, who serve as managers, credit the restaurant’s lasting success to a supportive community and clientele, along with hard work and Edna’s dedication to maintaining the quality of the food. Graduates of Goshen High School, Jocsan and Jeru love to mentor young servers and see training them in customer service skills as an investment in their future success.
Los Primos Mexican Grill began with a taco truck, as have a number of Mexican restaurants in the Goshen area. Ten years ago, owners Martin and Marilu Lopez opened a small sit-down restaurant at 5th and Clinton streets. Martin had attended culinary school and worked in restaurants with a variety of cuisines, so the restaurant’s ambitious menu included international dishes from Spain and Cuba as well as traditional Mexican fare. As the menu and customer base continued to grow, the work became increasingly labor-intensive. When the restaurant moved to its current location at 124 W. Jefferson St. in June of 2017, the format changed.
Up front, the restaurant offers a burrito and taco bar, where customers can build their own order from foods they see. The food items at Los Primos are all house-made fresh daily from traditional recipes. The change in format was due to customer demand for a quicker lunch option, said Carlos Maldonado, who has worked at Los Primos since the restaurant opened.
Latino families out for a treat, on the other hand, prefer to order from the menu for a more leisurely meal. Los Primos brought back items from its à la carte menu, offering greater variety, from its caldos (stews) to its delicious Ropa Vieja.
The Lopezes tend to keep their employees for the long term, Maldonado says, because they offer help and guidance, making their workers feel like part of a supportive family. “Los Primos” (the cousins) was named after the Lopez children, Mari and Martin, and their cousins Javi and Itzel. The cousins grew up in the restaurant business together and now Javi owns and operates a series of taco trucks. The new cocktail and music lounge next door at 114 W. Jefferson Ave., Barecito, is the venture of Martin Lopez.
Menudos La China Authentic Mexican (100 N. 8th St.) and La China Mexican Bar and Grill (905 Linway Plaza Drive) are named for the Esparza-Padilla family’s matriarch in Aguascalientes, Mexico, according to her granddaughter Alondra. The first restaurant, located in north Goshen, opened in 2017, and its reputation for menudos and birria led to the opening of the larger and more centrally located Bar and Grill in 2023. Both restaurants serve traditional fare from family recipes, but the Bar and Grill serves more seafood and, of course, cocktails. The menu also offers a wide array of organ meats alongside their birria, pastor, pollo, barbacoa and chorizo.
El Patron ((231 Chicago Avenue) is among Goshen’s newest full-service Mexican restaurants. Outside, it greets diners with life-sized whimsical metal sculptures; inside, its wall-sized murals painted by Chicago artist Fernando create a festive atmosphere. With an extensive menu and cocktail offerings, El Patron is an ideal place for parties and larger gatherings. The restaurant is the brainchild of two brothers, Ismael and Jhonny Ruiz, who got their start in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and have built 14 restaurants in Indiana and Michigan, each with a different name. A new one, El Guadalajara, will open in Elkart, Indiana, in June. When I asked the server for a house specialty, she pointed out the Birria Ramen, an intriguing fusion twist on a Mexican classic.
Across the street is El Portal’s food truck (428 W. Pike St.), owned by Lourdes Avalos, who opened a stand-alone restaurant further south in Goshen (2702 Caragana Court) in 2023. Cooks from three areas of Mexico—Mexico City, Guadalajara and Aguascalientes—have contributed to the menu. Both locations offer a specialty dish called “Huaraches,” as in the sandals. It’s a delicious open-faced blend of salad and meats of choice on an oblong masa base. A special savory dessert, Chasca, is a cup of corn smothered in sour cream and cheese.
At Tacos: Nine Juan Juan (2015 Lincolnway East), the owner is also the chef and the server. Juan Lopez Delgado parks his truck in front of Maple City Chapel and opens for lunch and dinner on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Juan says he likes the idea of a restaurant, but while his family is growing he prefers to limit his hours and stay with the truck. Offerings include beef tongue, beef head and beef liver—popular with his Latino customers. His specialty dish, Asada Fries, is a California Mexican–style version of meat and cheese nachos over French fries. He offered to make it for me and a few minutes later handed me a heavy, warm package on the house. I took it home and shared it with my husband. We were both full but kept scooping up the queso.
Eating Mexican food in Goshen is more than just having a meal, it’s participating in an intercultural exchange full of nuance, flavor and living traditions.
Carlos Maldonado credits the community of Goshen for the success of its Mexican restaurants. He moved from California to Goshen at the age of 15, when he began working at Los Primos, and has never looked back. “Goshen is unlike any other place I’ve lived,” he says. “It is an open, curious, friendly and accepting community.”
Ann Hostetler is a writer and poet who lives in Goshen, Indiana, where she is a big fan of the Goshen Farmers Market and local food culture. She is Professor Emerita at Goshen College where she taught English and Creative Writing for more than two decades. She has written a number of articles for Edible Michiana, is the author of two books of poetry, the editor of an anthology, A Cappella: Mennonite Voices in Poetry, and co-editor of the Journal of Mennonite Writing at www.mennonitewriting.org.
