Adela’s Mexican Kitchen
The Long Version
Eating at Adela’s Mexican Kitchen is like coming home. The welcome begins as soon as you walk in. The upscale decor features the color of sunflowers. High back booths promise privacy and the multicolored globes of the chandeliers invoke joy. Lucio Monsalvo, 43, and co-owner Esteban Campos, 48, lifelong friends, dreamed of this restaurant after coming to America from Mexico nearly 30 years ago. They held fast to the dream while laboring in Kentucky tobacco fields, sweating it out planting trees, and making their way to jobs in an old Gran Marquis they bought for $350. They laughed when the Department of Motor Vehicles informed them the license plate was only good for 30 days. They felt sure it would outlast the car. But like their dream and friendship, the car lasted.
Once Monsalvo and Campos made enough money, they began working in restaurants. Monsalvo has 20 years of server and management experience and Campos owns four restaurants in Kentucky. Monsalvo took care of his mother in Mexico sending money home to build her a house. Then he began a family here. Anyone eating in a local Mexican restaurant has probably been met with that Monsalvo smile. He has five children ranging in age from 10–22. His firstborn son, Jonathan, works as a manager at Adela’s. His son Kevin and Kayleigh, both 17, serve tables. His youngest, Camila, 10, will be somewhere nearby.
The inspiration and love for his second born daughter, Adela Nicole, is what brought the unique beauty to the restaurant. In early 2019, Monsalvo’s dream of owning a restaurant had hit the nuts and bolts phase. Adela had agreed to help at the restaurant (not yet named Adela’s) while attending cosmetology school. She graduated from high school in June 2019 and headed to the beach to celebrate. Adela was in a freak golf cart accident and suffered a head injury. She slipped into a coma and died June 14.
As the restaurant’s opening neared, Monsalvo and Campos batted a few names back and forth, but could not agree on one. Then one day Monsalvo called Campos and said, “I know what I want to call the restaurant.”
Campos said, “Me too! But you tell me first.”
Monsalvo insisted Campos reveal the name first. They both had picked “Adela’s.”
Adela’s staff is mostly friends and family. The chef, Lancaster resident Cameron Dangerfield, left the corporate world to grill steaks for his hometown.
Following is the story I wrote about their opening.
Adela’s Mexican Kitchen opened earlier this month and is serving authentic Mexican cuisine in a beautifully remodeled building at 1436 Charlotte Highway.
Owners Lucio Monsalvo and Esteban Campos brought new life to the once drab and abandoned structure.
This past week, Monsalvo, Campos and Monsalvo’s son, Jonathan, sat down over coffee and shared the details of the past two years. And how a heartbreaking loss led to the name of the restaurant.
Monsalvo brings two decades of restaurant experience to the business. He was a server and a manager at Mariachi’s. Campos owns four Mexican restaurants in Kentucky.
Monsalvo looked around the restaurant and at the staff making preparations for the coming day. Then he looked out the window facing the Charlotte Highway.
“We feel the love here,” he said. “We are here because of Lancaster. They support us and we want Lancaster to feel a part of us. This is the beginning and we plan to be here a long time.”
After a pause, he said “If you serve love, you get love.”
In early 2019, they began developing their business plan, searching for a site, and recruiting friends and family. Monsalvo was working at Mariachi’s and Campos was busy managing his restaurants. They filled every minute of their spare time on their dream.
Lucio has five children ranging in age from 10 to 22 years. All but the 10 year old, Camila, had promised to work in the restaurant.
Jonathan, 22, would help manage. Kevin and Kayleigh, both 17, would serve. And Adela, then 18, planned to wait tables and pay her way through cosmetology school.
Everything was rolling along until late one night in mid June when the phone rang. It was the Grand Strand Medical Center at Myrtle Beach. Adela had suffered a head injury in a golf cart accident and was in a coma. She had been at the beach celebrating her high school graduation. The family rushed to the hospital and spent the next three days by her bedside.
Monsalvo said everything paused for the next few months after June of 2019. The new year brought pandemic restrictions. They hoped to open by early 2021.
By late 2020, they had found the ideal location and renovations were nearly complete. They had not yet thought of a name. Campos liked the way “Lucio’s Mexican Grill” sounded, but Monsalvo did not.
The restaurant is bright and colorful inside and out — featuring the yellow color of sunflowers. The exterior sign, welcome mats and menus feature a sunflower. A huge framed black and white portrait of Adela hangs in the entranceway.
The stone floors are polished to a shine. Bright chandeliers with purple, orange, yellow, blue and green globes hang from the ceiling. A glossy black marble bar stretches over 30 feet with 15 chairs ready and waiting. Three TVs hang above the bar. The license to serve liquor should be approved in the coming days and by spring time, Monsalvo plans to have an outdoor deck for dining.
As the restaurant neared completion, Monsalvo said he knew they had to call the place, Adela’s Mexican Kitchen. Her spirit was everywhere. Campos agreed.
Jonathan said he is pleased how the restaurant had helped his dad.
“He loves the interaction with people,” Jonathan said. “And the joy we bring all in the name of my sister.”
Adela was named after her dad’s mother. The name is derived from Adelitas — female soldiers who fought bravely alongside the men in the Mexican Revolution from 1910–1917. The uprising ended dictatorship and established a constitutional republic. Monsalvo said eventually he will have a mural painted featuring Adelitas.
Adela was known for her passion, her honesty and her ease with strangers and friends.
Jonathan Salvo said his sister was bright, independent, outspoken and very kind.
“If you knew her, then you loved her,” he said. “And she was very strong. Her favorite quote was ‘where there is no struggle, there is no strength.’”
“One thing about Adela passing away so young is that everyone will always remember her as 19, happy, and laughing,” Jonathan said.
Tory Knight, the love of her life, described Adela’s laugh and joy as contagious.
“Adela longed to live her life to the fullest and to experience everything she could,” Knight said. She described Adela’s joy when they found a field of sunflowers in Horry County.
She said Adela waved her arms in joy and smiled.
Adela’s Facebook photos feature many of her with her father.
“That man meant so much to her and I know she is smiling so hard down at him for naming it after her and accomplishing his dreams,” Knight said.
Adela’s mom, Kala Cordova, said she often visits Adela’s grave at Memorial Park and each time finds something new that someone left for her daughter.
“So many people just take things over there, it’s crazy but I love to see it ’cause it shows me how much she was loved,” Cordova said.
Adela’s Mexican Kitchen
Jonathan Monsalvo said they wanted Adela’s to offer more than food.
“First the ambience — the colors and the lights are eye-catching,” Monsalvo said. “When you see them, it makes you happy.”
The servers are dressed formally in black and take a team approach to serving. The upscale feel comes with prices comparable to local restaurants.
Monsalvo said many of the guests from the first week talk about Adela and share memories of her with him.
“I am so happy,” he said. “Every table I walk up to and people say ‘Hey Lucio, I am so happy you stayed in town. I’m glad you are here. The name is beautiful.’”
“And they care,” he said smiling.
Monsalvo said his restaurant features steaks — filet mignon, New York strips, t-bones and rib eyes.
Jonathan said he has not seen any guests ask for A1 or Heinz 57.
Chef Cameron Dangerfield, 23, works the magic on the grill.
He has been cooking professionally for four years. He began as a corporate chef at Red Ventures and has cooked for many VIPs, CEOs, and NFL coaches and players. The Lancaster native is happy to be cooking for his hometown.
“I love making great food, but more importantly, I love the joy my food brings to people,” he said.
Reviews on Facebook are overwhelmingly positive.
Filet Mignon is the most expensive and popular item on the menu. The $28 meal includes the steak grilled with four shrimp and onions, broccoli, carrots, rice, salad, and baked potato.
Daily lunch specials are $5.75 and dinner specials range from $9.99 to $13.99.
Adela’s can seat 240 including 15 at the bar and a party room that will accommodate 15–25 guests.
The restaurant is open 11 a.m.-10 p.m. seven days a week. Order takeouts by phone at (803) 286–2435 or online at adelasmexicankitchen.com.
For more information visit Adela’s website and Facebook page. http://adelasmexicankitchen.com
Originally published at http://spilledinkabovethefold.wordpress.com on February 24, 2021.
