{"id":2422,"date":"2012-02-16T10:43:24","date_gmt":"2012-02-16T15:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/?p=2422"},"modified":"2012-02-16T12:15:58","modified_gmt":"2012-02-16T17:15:58","slug":"mexican-independence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/?p=2422","title":{"rendered":"Mexican independence"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Clyde Ross opened the first Mexicali Rosa\u2019s restaurant in Ottawa 33 years ago, in a squat concrete building that still stands on Bank Street in the Glebe. Several other Mexis popped up all over Ottawa \u2013 and across the country. And when Ross sold the Mexicali Rosa concept to a franchise company a decade ago, he kept control of his location.<\/p>\n

But more recently, the owners of Mexicali Rosa restaurants decided to drop the well-known name, in hopes that customers are loyal to good food first and a familiar name second.<\/p>\n

Ottawa\u2019s Mexicali Rosa\u2019s had been serving up chimichangas and burritos independently since 2009, when the franchise company quietly went out of business. But when Mathew Youden, a Mexicali\u2019s owner in New Brunswick, bought the rights to the name last year, Ottawa owners were presented with an ultimatum: re-join the franchise or go it alone.<\/p>\n

Not one location signed a franchise agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they felt that they could do it as well under their own name and under their own banner,\u201d said Youden.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s been the goal for Ottawa owners, although each location has tackled the challenge in a different way, and with different success.<\/p>\n

Ross\u2019 restaurant in the Glebe is still festooned with bright paint and life-size murals. But the faded Mexican theme that had adorned the walls for decades has been painted over with scenes that evoke the open road: a red convertible, and some old-fashioned gas pumps. While the theme is different, it still looks as out of place in Ottawa\u2019s snow and ice as it ever did.<\/p>\n

Dropping the Mexicali\u2019s banner didn\u2019t faze Ross\u2014he said he had already been planning to change the restaurant into a southern barbeque joint.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already have a Mexican restaurant right here,\u201d he said, meaning his other restaurant Feleena\u2019s, only a few blocks away.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we felt that the concept was tired and that there was no potential for growth, and that Ottawa needed new ideas, and new restaurants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ross grew up in California with a love of Mexican food. But with both parents hailing from Oklahoma and extended family across the southern United States, southern barbeque is just as much part of his culinary pedigree.<\/p>\n

Hence, the transformation from Mexicali Rosa\u2019s to Annie and Clyde\u2019s Southern Barbeque, named after Ross and his wife. There are a few nods to recent history on the menu, with nachos and guacamole, but pulled pork and beef brisket are the new headliners.<\/p>\n

Annie and Clyde\u2019s opened under the new moniker in late January, and according to marketing director Sofie McGarry, the restaurant is \u201cgetting busier and busier.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wonderful thing is that everybody who loved Mexi\u2019s is still coming in for the nachos, but what\u2019s great is that when they come in for the nachos, they try the barbeque and they come back for the barbeque,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For others, a departure from the menu their customers have come to expect is not on the table.<\/p>\n

Mohamad Maurad bought the former Mexicali\u2019s restaurant on Hunt Club Road\u2014now known as Twisted Lizard\u2014in October.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe previous owner basically opened up a whole new restaurant,\u201d after changing the name, he said, complete with a new menu.<\/p>\n

What that meant is that customers would come to the doors, look at the menu, and leave once they realized they couldn\u2019t get their old Mexicali favourites, said Maurad.<\/p>\n

So he launched his own Mexican menu in early January.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very recent change, but we can already see a big difference\u2026much, much better. The menu is still Tex-Mex, so they end up staying. Before, they used to leave,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The former Mexicali Rosa\u2019s location on Dow\u2019s Lake took a more direct route, sticking with Mexican food from day one of their name change to GuadalaHarry\u2019s, a reference to a now-closed Tex-Mex joint that ran in the Byward market during the 1990s<\/p>\n

The name change was \u201cnot a big deal,\u201d said owner Kalil Saikaley. The important thing was that he didn\u2019t have to change the way he ran his restaurant.<\/p>\n

Opting for continuity seems to have worked\u2014his sales haven\u2019t dipped, he said.<\/p>\n

While Ottawa\u2019s restauranteurs are content to leave the Mexicali\u2019s banner behind, Mexicali Rosa\u2019s may not have left the city for good.<\/p>\n

Bringing the Mexicali Rosa\u2019s franchise back to Ottawa is \u201cdefinitely one of our targets\u2026in the very near future,\u201d said Mexicali owner, Mathew Youden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clyde Ross opened the first Mexicali Rosa\u2019s restaurant in Ottawa 33 years ago, in a squat concrete building that still<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2422"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2702,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2422\/revisions\/2702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}