Michael Palma, manager of the El Rey Mexican Restaurant and Food Truck, shares the latest on what El Rey is cooking up at their new location at 528 Iowa Avenue. Listen and get inspired by this family operation’s warm approach to hospitality, food, and community. And…is that your stomach I hear growling?
Theme Music: Riverbend by Geoff Roper
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Welcome to the Postcards From Palisade podcast. I’m your host, Lisa McNamara. Palisade is most famous for its peaches, but there’s so much more happening in our little town. Join me as I chat with our community members to hear about how they are making Palisade a great place to live and visit.
Today, I’m talking with Michael Palma, manager of the El Rey Mexican Restaurant and Food Truck. El Rey, which previously operated solely out of a food truck by the car wash, recently opened a brick and mortar restaurant located at 528 Iowa Avenue in Palisade. Hear how this family operation is inspired by a love of great food, excellent customer service, their community, and most importantly, each other.
Michael shares the latest on what El Rey is cooking up at their new location – get ready for some margs, music, and authentic specialties from the kings of Mexican food in Palisade.
Join us for Taco Tuesday here on today’s Postcards From Palisade!
Michael: My name is Michael Palma, but everyone knows me as Mikey. I am the manager the restaurant and I’m also the manager of the food truck. We are located in 528 Iowa Ave, Palisade. And if any to-go orders or anything, you guys can give us a call at 970-261-8370. And the food truck, we take it wherever they need us for events or wineries or anything, we’re always there. Or if they need us, say, in, wherever they need us in the Western Slope or in Colorado, we’ll be there. But yes, I’m the manager of the restaurant.
Lisa: What do you do as manager?
Michael: So I just make sure everything’s running good. Making sure whoever is the waitress this day, is doing the right job. And then I go check, making sure the cook, because we have a new cook we’re training, and I’m just making sure everything is going good. Right portions, right amount of time to cook all the foods. And I just go around and check if, how the customers are doing, if they’re enjoying the food. And yeah, that’s, that’s what I do. And then when it comes to the food truck, that’s when I turn into more like, like wherever they need me, if they need a cashier, I’m there. If they need me to prep all the food or cook all the food or just put all the garnish on the side or anything, I’m always there. And yeah, I’m the one that stays late if Oscar can’t. I close up the place or I’ll open up the place as well.
Lisa: Wow. Okay. So you’re just making sure everything is happening basically. That’s great. When did Oscar open the El Rey food truck? How long ago was that?
Michael: It was about April 10, 2022, so about like three years. So, yeah, he started off, I believe it was a Saturday that he opened. At first he was, like, scared. He was all like, I don’t know if I want to do it in Palisade. I don’t know if I should do it in Junction. But I’m like, you know, you guys should give it a try. Because at first it was my mom and him the first day. And I was like, you guys should get it a try in Palisade. Let’s see how it goes. So everyone started showing support because we were down at the Ace Hardware store here in Palisade and people just started showing us support and we’re like, you know what? Maybe this is gonna go far.
And then I started coming in, right after school because I was still in school at that time. And I would just come in and, just let my mom not work because that’s the only thing I don’t want my mom to keep on working. I want her to retire one day and hopefully it’s soon but yeah, I just. I’m like, mom, let me just take it on from here and, I’ll just start working. And my plan was to work for the summer and then go to college. But since I saw a real big future in the food truck, I was like, you know what? I’ll stay. We don’t have to hire anyone. And yeah, I would just help out Oscar and the food truck, running it. And yeah, three years passed and now we have a restaurant.
Lisa: Well, I’m really glad that you guys decided to open in Palisade because that was one of the first things that we, Well, obviously when we moved here, we lived downstairs from your dad and you know, met him really early and just we love the food. So, like, really? I didn’t know that there’s a possibility that you wouldn’t have been here. So. Glad you decided to stay here.
Michael: No. Yeah. And, that’s what also made us stay here because people were like, oh, finally we could have a place that you come and eat and not drive 20 to 25 minutes to 30 minutes. we’re like, you know what? Yeah, this is going to be a good place. And especially because when it comes the summer, there’s a lot of tourists and Palisade is just really busy and well, they have a lot of options in downtown, Main street. But once it comes down to them being full and then the roads being closed off, we’re the next option for them, you know?
Lisa: Yeah.
Michael: If they need anything fast or. Yeah, if they want to have some good, authentic Mexican food, then they can come over here as well. And we try to do it fairly quick and all the to-gos. We try to do them as fast as we can. So no wait there.
Lisa: So why did you decide to open a food truck?
Michael: So the food truck was supposed to be like. Like a just in case something happened, like college was working for my siblings or it was just a bounce back for anything, if work didn’t go right. Yeah, it was just a bounce back. But since we saw a big future, we started being more involved into it, like doing promotions, then, opening more days and wherever they want to call us, we would go. But yeah, we just started seeing a lot of future. And we’re like, you know, this could go far, so let’s just start working on it more and more. Be more dedicated to it.
Lisa: So it was like something he knew he could do. He was like, I know how to do this. This is like I’m set here.
Michael: Yeah. My mom and Oscar, they both started at restaurants. The one that they met was El Tapatio. That’s where they met. Oscar, he was the manager at El Tap.
Lisa: In Fruita. Okay.
Michael: And yeah, Oscar was a manager. My mom was a waitress. And together they had a lot where my mom would always come and tell me, oh, yeah. Everyone that comes in loves me and this and that. And I’m like, wow, like, that’s really motivational. And once I started going in the food truck, I’m like, I’m just gonna be like my mom was. Let’s see how it goes for me. And yeah. Just thought I would learn from her. I’m like, mom, what would you do in these situations? Or how do you handle when some people come back to you? And then she just started telling me everything and customer service is first and just always keep a good smile, you know, towards the people. And that’s what I did.
And when Oscar, he would just always guide me, like, how to be the manager. You know, like, oh, never tell them that we don’t have this. Always check if you have it in the fridge. And then just tell them. Just give me a couple minutes and it should be ready. You know, he always tries to tell me not to tell them that no, we don’t have it. Yeah. And he just. And then like, wherever if we would need napkins or anything, try to try to see what’s the next solution. We had Bountys. All right, there you go. We got you guys some Bountys. Or just always trying to think if we don’t have anything, just try to think of a solution. So it works, you know.
Lisa: Yeah. So you’re not saying no. It comes across from, just from all the times we’ve gotten food from you. And, you know, a lot of the things, obviously the food is great. That’s really important. But also important is just having somebody who’s like happy to see you and is like, hey, and remembers your name. And you know that’s. That’s critical. You guys have that.
Michael: we would always go to different restaurants where like, dang like, do these people really like their job? They’d just be like, OK, have a good day. Like they don’t really want to talk or anything. I’m like, you know, I got changes to that I want people to actually be like, well, that kid, that kid is nice and the cook. He’s really good, Oscar. And yeah, I just wanted to do that. Just want. Want people to come and think that we’re actually really good people. Because we are.
Lisa: Because you are. Right, right. And so that’s really cool. So from 2022 to today, just a few years later, going from a food truck to actually opening a restaurant, that’s really great. So it’s very exciting. And so we’re sitting here in the space right now and it looks just. It’s really cute. It’s really vibrant and looks like a street taco stand. and so right now there’s like two booths and a couple tables and bench seating. And I think there’s a plan to open and go through to the next door, right?
Michael: Yes, that is our plan. Hopefully the owner said by next month it should be ready the place to move in. We’re trying to get on that, trying to open up over here. And our plans for over here for the next building is to have a little section for live music. Try to get the high schools out here. Like they can play solos, duos, trios, whatever it is. And yeah, we want them to come over here and play an hour and we’ll pay them. That’s the plan. We’re thinking maybe like if everything goes good, maybe I don’t know, towards like midsummer. We’ll trying to see if we get some famous Mexican groups or anything out here.
Lisa: that would be amazing.
Michael: And yeah, more seating over there as well. And liquor license. Hopefully get it soon. So some peach margaritas and all that, Palisade themed.
Lisa: Sweet. Well, that’s gonna be really fun. I’m excited about that. Menu is the same?
Michael: Menu should be different sometime next month. We’re almost done with our menu that has all the pictures and prices and we’re gonna add more stuff to it. Oh yeah, getting more like a, a restaurant going in here for the building. But this menu would be just for I believe just for the food truck.
Lisa: Okay.
Michael: So when we go to events or anywhere in Junction or Palisade or anywhere, any place in the Western Slope, then yeah, these are our menus. But yeah, our menus for the restaurant should be coming in next month.
Lisa: Ooh can you. Is it a surprise or are there any new things that you want to talk about?
Michael: So we are gonna have like pollo con mole, a lot of the restaurant stuff like pollo con mole or what do you call it? Like seafood, like shrimp cocktail we call it coctel con camaron. So it comes with like the shrimp, then ketchup. It’s just a whole bunch of stuff but it’s really good. And then yeah, we’re gonna add more seafood stuff. And one of our plans that we’re trying to do, we saw it in Denver. It’s like a mini trompo. Like where you keep all the pastor and people cut it themselves and make their own tacos. They cut their own tacos. They have the sauces in there and yeah, it’s just like a mini ones. But right now we’re trying to. We’re trying to see if it’s the right time to put it out. But first we have to get the mini trompos as well.
Lisa: Oh, I think people would love that.
Michael: That’s a fun dish. We were over there in Denver and oh man. We ordered one of that for us four. We were full with that one. Like you know, we’re bringing it over here to Palisade.
Lisa: I can see people getting really excited about that.
Michael: Yeah. And just. It’s just a big portion of meat and spread out evenly. But yeah, those are what’s coming up in the future.
Lisa: Very exciting.
Michael: Thank you. Every month there’s going to be more improvements to the building. We’re trying to put up a what do you call a painting over there for like the dia del muertos, like the ones at Los Colonias. We want to put them up over there. And then the other building. We just want to do so much stuff to the building and just so can have a good vibe in here and just enjoy some food and hopefully sometime in the future, liquor as well. We want to do the peach margaritas for Palisade and yeah, we just want to get all that going for the people and yeah, that’s. That’s all I want to say that there’s gonna be a lot of improvements to the building. So if you walk in one day and then you’re like whoa, this wasn’t here last time. Or woah this was. You guys added this or a lot of. A lot of stuff because that’s what’s been going on. A lot of people come and they’re like, whoa, when did you guys put this?
Lisa: Yeah.
Michael: Or oh, man. When did you guys paint this? Oh man, like, when did you guys install a bar? Yeah.
Lisa: Yeah. So keep coming back to see what’s new every time.
Michael: And not to be scared of, if you’re in the right building because it’s still the same building. Same spot, same people, same restaurant. Just. It’s just different. Like, everything. Everything’s gonna be different.
Lisa: What’s it like working with your dad every day?
Michael: well, sometimes there’s a. There’s a pros and then there’s a cons. Sometimes, like, we will argue. if we didn’t think the thing was right. Oh, if I thought it was right, he thought it was wrong, we would just argue the whole time. Since I don’t really see him like a boss. I can argue with him all day.
Lisa: He’s not gonna fire you.
Michael: Yeah, he’s not going to fire me. That’s the whole thing. That’s the pros. Well, the cons is that sometimes we’ll take it towards the house, but then we’ll make up later. But yeah. But yeah, it’s. I like it especially because I’m like, I know he can’t fire me. So we’re good. I like especially because he teaches me how to cook and all that. And overall how to just keep a food truck going and. Well, now a restaurant. That’s. That’s what I like because they would always tell me, like, if you ever were to go work in a restaurant, it’s gonna be hard, you know, you’re gonna have to try to do whatever you can to be where you’re at right now. If you want to have good tips as a waiter, you’re gonna have to like, be on that. And I’m like, you know what? They’re right. Because I don’t know if I would. I would be able to compete with all them. Waiters from El Tap or Aztecas or the managers. Like, they’re on it. They’re always on it. Professional. So, yeah, he’s just helping me out.
Lisa: I was gonna ask if you also like to cook, because I think your dad is such a great cook. I’m curious if you liked it too.
Michael: Yes, I cook whatever. Whenever our cook needs help. I’m right. I’m like, all right, here, let me show you how to do it. And then I go and do it. Back then Oscar would leave me alone. He’d be gone for like three hours. I’m like, oh, man, he’d leave me alone by myself. And I’m like, you know what? I’m have to take them all out. And yeah, I would take the orders, then wash my hands, start making up the food. Right, here’s the next one. All right, who’s next? Start making up all the food. Yeah, little by little. My first ever, I remember, was a burrito. And, so it just came out all flaky. My tortilla. And then after that I’m like, you know what? I don’t want that to ever happen again. So I just started improving each time and. Yeah, trial and error for when I started off.
Lisa: Is there anything that I was curious about, like if there’s anything your dad cooks or you cook that you just. You like to cook more than others or you don’t like to cook?
Michael: One thing that I like to eat, when he’s cooking is I like to say the pastor. The pastor is my favorite one. Like, especially when it’s already. He has the pineapple mixed, all ingredients mixed into it. I always ask him, can you make me some tacos el pastor? And that’s, the number one thing that I love that he makes.
Lisa: That’s one of my top three also.
Michael: Or the birria too as well. Like whenever it’s done. I’m like, can I get a little bowl of it? Rice, beans, and then yeah, he will give me that. Oh, man, it’s really good. But the thing that we, like, we struggle a little bit on is I have to say breakfast burritos. Breakfast burritos are. It’s because on our food truck, we don’t have a lot of space. So the tortillas take up all the space. And then we gotta have a what do you call it, like it’s called a pan.
Lisa: Like a griddle type thing?
Michael: yeah, we gotta put all the meat, like potatoes go in, eggs and then the meat. So yeah it’s just a lot of work. And then once we know the tortilla are ready and the eggs, potatoes, and the meat, then we have to throw it on. And then it just takes a lot of time. And especially because it takes a lot of time to cook. So that’s the only thing. But we do it every. Every day and then throughout the whole day. We learned how to do it. Well, for me, I’m still struggling, but Oscar, yeah, he’s an expert at it.
Lisa: OK so when you were. When you were a little kid, when you were younger, was there anything that he would make for dinner that you would just be like, ugh, gross, I don’t want to eat that.
Michael: Let’s. Let’s think. I think here and there he’d make tacos of liver. Oh, yeah. Like, they weren’t really my favorite. I just don’t like liver. But yeah. He’d always be like, oh man, they’re so good. And I’d try them and I’d be like, not on me.
Lisa: Yeah.
Michael: That’s the only thing. Well, a lot of people in Mexico City they eat that.
Lisa: Yeah.
Michael: It’s really good for them. But for me, it’s not really my go to. Yeah. That’s the only food.
Lisa: I hear that. That sounds. That’s fair. That’s totally fair. Honestly, as much as I like his cooking, I wouldn’t eat that either, so. No, no. What’s the most popular thing on the menu that people order the most?
Michael: So top two has to be. Well, I’ll say top three. It’s the burrito supreme that ones like, you know, it comes with all the beans, rice, lettuce, pico de gallo, sour cream, guacamole. And then all that inside the burrito and the sauce on the side. So that one, everyone loves that because it’s great burrito. People can split it and then eat it for two. Or they could eat the first half and then save it for later or the next day.
Lisa: Yeah, that’s what I do. I save this. I save half for breakfast. It’s so good.
Michael: Yeah. I’m like oh, a lot of people do that. Because sometimes I get hungry then I’ll just eat it throughout the whole day, but I’ve never done it for breakfast.
Lisa: Yeah.
Michael: And the other one has to be the tacos quesabirrias. Those ones. Oh, yeah. Soft tacos, cheese, shredded beef, onion, cilantro, and then the carrots, radishes, the consomme (the dipping sauce for the quesabirrias), lettuce and yeah. Choice of sauce if you want it any spicier or mild. Yeah, yeah, we always have that, That one’s really good. Like those are like the supreme and the tacos quesabirria. Those are like the ones competing for number one.
Lisa: Okay. Those are my two favorites.
Michael: Yes. And the third one has to be the street tacos, yeah. 4.5 inch tortillas with whatever meat, onion, cilantro, and then the carrots, radishes, and limes on that one. And yeah, those are go-to on Taco Tuesday, especially because they’re two dollar tacos. And yeah, people. People get as many as they like and they love it.
Lisa: Do you all make your own salsa?
Michael: Yes, we make our own salsa. Our own horchata. We make them. Then our lettuce, we freshly cut it. Everything except the tortilla is and the meat is not made by. Made by us. But everything else it’s made by us.
Lisa: Yeah, but with the meat you’re still like seasoning the meat, preparing it.
Michael: Yeah, we make it, marinate it. And then the carrots, the vinegar carrots we also make them. Because a lot of restaurants, they just get the canned ones. Yeah, but yeah, it takes, it takes us. We do it. Usually if we run out, we’ll do it like once we get inside the building, like at 8am we’re ready to go on that one. We start making it and then it’s ready for the rest of the day.
Lisa: Wow.
Michael: Yeah. So everything’s freshly made.
Lisa: That’s awesome. And you can tell the difference, especially with like the pickled carrots and things like between the canned version and the fresh homemade.
Michael: Yeah, it has a different flavor, right?
Lisa: Yeah, huge difference. I love those carrots so much. let’s see. Yeah, you’ve been operating out of that food truck for a few years now you’re in this restaurant. Huge by comparison. Like how, how different is it to be working out of here versus working out of the food truck?
Michael: The difference is that I never get bored. In the food truck, like if people weren’t coming in and I did do all my stuff and I would get bored, I would just wait for the people to come. That’s the only thing. But over here, there’s endless amount of things to do. Like fill up the drinks, then fill up more, fill up more ice for the machine or put more water for the machine so you make ice and just do a whole bunch of stuff like cleaning up all the tables before people start coming. The windows, just the whole. Clean the bathroom. Making sure we have enough food over there for the. For them to cook. Yeah. So there’s a lot to it. But yeah, I prefer restaurant because I’m also protected by this building from all the, all the elements outside. Like the sun, the wind, rain, whatever it is. And then also protects people because people, they would. They would be outside in the wind getting blown away while trying to order some food. I’m like, you know, people need to come over here and not be so, what do you call it? Bothered by the elements outside.
Lisa: Yeah, yeah.
Michael: We’re like, you know what, we need to start a restaurant asap. That’s what we did.
Lisa: I bet that it’s just so much nicer for work working too. Especially in the summer when it gets so hot. It’d be so hot in there.
Michael: Yeah. We would step outside and even in the sun. It was still cooler outside inside the food truck. Yeah, that was the only thing I don’t not miss. But I’m gonna this summer we’re gonna have the food truck still. So I’m gonna go back to it.
Lisa: Okay. Okay. Yeah. Are you gonna be going into different events and things like that or.
Michael: Yes, so far we’re just trying to get the information on when air show is and then for sure we’re trying to be in peach festival this year and then bluegrass and then we’re trying to see who else in the western slope needs up for summer or whenever.
Lisa: Okay. So it’s more like you will just go to events or go to things for hire instead of being at the car wash. Or stationed anywhere.
Michael: Yes. And our plan is to as well if because we try to use the food truck more we want to take it to like Grand Junction or Fruita. Yeah. And just to get our name out there and let them know, hey, we have a restaurant as well over here in Palisade. So people could come in and have some wine in the wineries and also come and dine in here.
Lisa: And for this location here, what days times are you going to be open in the future.
Michael: So in the future, for right now, for this month of February, just from 10 to 7, from Tuesday through Saturday. And then starting next month, I believe we’re going to be from 10 to 9 all day of the weeks from Monday through Sunday. And then we’re just trying to see how it goes. And if we get that liquor license, we’ll try to be open maybe even later, you know. And yeah, that’s the plan for coming up. So next month from 10 to 9. And then sometime in the summer, we’re trying to see 10, 11 or wherever and especially wherever the city let us. Whenever, whatever time the city lets us. Because everything has to go through the city. That’s why a lot of restaurants, they close up early because the city tells them that there’s a certain amount of town that you could be open.
Lisa: Right. I know each liquor license and things has different hours of operation tied to it and yeah, so it’s gonna depend how that plays out. Hopefully that works out smoothly for you guys and doesn’t take too long.
Michael: Hopefully they told us hopefully by two months, we should get that liquor license. But you never know. Right. With the whole process because we got to go, we got to talk to the city, then we got to talk with the state and there’s just a whole process around it. So that’s why we’re not really sure when are we going to get it.
Lisa: Yep, that makes sense. Yep. Just gotta go through it and you’ll get there.
Michael: Yes, hopefully. In the food truck, well in all the events, because we’ve been in the Ace Hardware next to Ace Hardware and the car was right and we just get people but like one by one coming in. And then once we start hitting up events then we started getting a whole bunch of lines we’re like oh my God, this is never ending. So the first time I was not prepared and we had a lot of voids, a lot of refunds and I was just all over the place. But then after that I started getting the hang of it. Oscar was at first he wasn’t cooking the food as fast as now and we just, we weren’t prepared for any of the big events. Sorry about that. But yeah, once we started a rolling going, peach festival was a piece of cake. Then we started getting the air show that was the only tough one. But we started getting kicked some butt on that. We took out the orders then. Yeah, we were all the events that we went, we started doing good. So when it starts coming to the restaurant, we’re already used to it. And then that’s how people like minimum they’re gonna wait is if it takes a long time like the fish or the shrimp, then minimum they’re gonna be waiting is like 15 to 16 minutes. But anything else it’s like from 10 to like 5 minutes it should be ready.
Lisa: Well that’s a really hard thing to deal with because you don’t know how many people you’re gonna get, when, what they’re gonna order. And yeah, you just get slammed all at once. And what a really good thing to learn how to deal with.
Michael: Yeah. Because there’s a lot of fighting with Oscar and my mom at that moment. And then after that I’m like, know what? You guys are right. You guys know more than me. And I’m just gonna do this better next time. And once next time hit. We’re rolling and going. And now we’ve had a lot of times where on Saturdays a whole bunch of people come, but right away we take it out because we’re used to it. We already know how it goes and yeah, we take out everything as fast as we can.
Lisa: Yeah. The more you deal with it, the more efficient you get. You find out. Right. How do you need to be prepared and. Do you foresee yourself being in this role for a long time?
Michael: Yes. My, my plan is to once it’s, once it’s going good, I want Oscar and my mom, to just, just come in and see whenever they have a chance just to see how it’s doing and so they don’t have to work as much because, well, they’ve been working for a long time. And I just feel like it’s right if my siblings start, taking control and just making sure everything’s running good because we’re young and they’re already going to an age where they just want to relax a little bit because they’ve been work. They would work all from Monday to Sunday. They’d work all the time. And then I would only see my mom on Wednesdays. So Wednesdays was our only day to, see each other. But. But yeah, I would just want to work for them. So one day they don’t. One day so they could stop working and just come and just look at how everything’s doing. Talk to some customers, make some drinks for them, just ask them how everything’s going. And yeah, I just want to take control and just making sure everything is running good. And yeah, we want to try to. Hopefully one day we’ll expand to maybe like Fruita or Parachute or wherever we feel like people need more Mexican authentic food then we’ll be there. But yeah, that’s the plan for myself and my siblings.
Lisa: It’s really hard to picture your dad not working.
Michael: Yeah.
Lisa: But I mean, I know from experience, just from living next to you guys, it’s like basically, I think he sleeps maybe like three hours a night?
Michael: Yes.
Lisa: I mean, really almost never stops working. And it’s amazing to be that dedicated and that hardworking. It’s hard to picture him relaxing.
Michael: It is. Yeah. He said, even he told me one time once, once everything goes good in the restaurant, I think my plan is to retire Mexico and just open up my own stand over there and just make food on like the weekend. I’m like, oh, alright. So I guess it never wants to stop working.
Lisa: Yeah, right. It’s fun for him. And when you make food that people really love and enjoy, like, it’s got to be really nice to just make people happy too.
Michael: Yeah. I feel like especially him he like, he loves people when they come back, they’re like oh, man, that those taco quesabirrias were really good. And then you just, you know, makes them more eager to work. He’s like, you know, I gotta do this more dedicated. Once he hears all that.
Lisa: Yeah.
Michael: And all the smiles he gets. Yeah. He just loves it so much.
Lisa: How did you guys end up in Palisade?
Michael: Honestly I don’t. I don’t really know. He just got an apartment over here. He’s like, you know waht, I don’t really like all, that because over here Palisade it’s a little bit more calm and not too much going. And then over there in Grand Junction, it’s like, it’s like there’s a lot of stuff going on. There’s a lot of people. Sometimes you get some rude people, then there’s just a lot of going on in the city, or town. And yeah, he just loves Palisade, it’s just more calm and he just loves it a lot. He. You go to the park because we live near Riverbend park, well close to Riverbend park, and yeah we just go to the park and they’re like, you know what, let’s just start a business here instead because it’s nice and people are really nice over here and. Yeah. He just decided to be over here because it’s nice and calm in Palisade.
Lisa: Yeah. Fair. I think that’s.
Michael: and there’s wine.
Lisa: I think that’s why a lot of people like it too. Small town, kind of calm, and everybody’s friendly.
Michael: Yes, everyone’s friendly. We really love it over here.
Lisa: So in the rare time you have off, what do you guys do for fun as a family?
Michael: So it depends. Sometimes so on Sundays we’ll go to church and then after that we’ll go eat at a restaurant and whenever we’re in town and they’re not working, like if we’re not over there because Junction is where we have our church and then we go eat. But whenever we’re in town, we go to riverbend park and do some fishing. They like to do a lot of rafting but we always like to go and support the locals as well. Just go eat, try some food from the locals and yeah, that’s what we like to do. We just like to just do whatever we can take advantage of our day off.
Lisa: Yeah.
Michael: Yeah.
Lisa: Nice.
Michael: Yeah. We also like to do some snowboarding and if we’re ever on vacation we also like to do some deep sea fishing. So we’re just like a fishing type of family. Oh, and also day offs we like to, what do you call it? We like to cater for our family. We like to just, we have really small little cousins, we like to make them a huge selection of tacos and just to give out to his friends so they can try and yeah, a lot of people even ask. They’re like, whoa, you guys cater for everyone. We’re like, yeah, here’s our phone number. And then they call us and then they cater for their kids and we cater for their kids. But yeah, or their. Or it’s. What do you call it, weddings or birth, or anything, we’ll cater.
Lisa: Well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me. I really appreciate it.
Michael: Thank you, Lisa, for having me today. And I’m sorry Oscar couldn’t be here today, because he just got back from Texas. And he was out of it. I think he only got one hour of sleep, ran out again. But I’m glad I could be here today.
Lisa: Me too.
Michael: And just, just like, be the face of the restaurant and food truck for today.
Lisa: And you’re on the face that a lot of people see anyway, so it’s good for people to get to know your voice.
Michael: Yeah. A lot of people to call me, well, the kid with the braces. Like where’s the kid with the braces? When my mom would be over here at helping us out. Like, wait, the kid with the braces? And then my mom tell me, everyone was saying, where is the kid with the braces? I’m like, oh, okay. I’ll be back next week.
Lisa: And you’re not with kid with the braces anymore, though.
Michael: oh yeah, no braces.
Lisa: Michael or Mikey, yeah.
Michael: Michael or Mikey now, or like, the kid with the good smile now.
Lisa: Nice. The kid who had braces.
Michael: The kid who had braces.
Lisa: Love it. Well, thank you so much.
Michael: Yeah thanks for having me.
Lisa: As I mentioned earlier when chatting with Michael, when Paul and I first moved to Palisade, we lived in an apartment downstairs from Oscar and his family. I quickly gained a deep respect for them all as I saw how hard they worked and the pride they took in their work. And for their generosity. The first day that Oscar added red posole (aka pozole), a delicious stew made with pork and hominy and topped with fresh veggies, to his Saturday menu, Paul and I were so excited. It’s one of our favorite dishes, but we weren’t able to make it to the truck before it closed for the day. But later that night, there was a knock on our front door. Oscar and Erika were standing there with two huge containers of posole and toppings that they had set aside for us. That generosity brought tears to my eyes then and it still does now. They truly embody the community spirit that we all love so much in Palisade.
Go experience the El Rey family’s hospitality for yourself at 528 Iowa Avenue.
The podcast’s theme music is Riverbend by Geoff Roper.
Thanks for listening. With love, from Palisade.