For more than 50 years, Margarita and Salvador Avila’s El Ranchito restaurants have been a go-to in Orange County for combo plates and margaritas. Regulars will definitely feel the loss the next time they step in for dinner at a place they’ve been coming to for decades.
Margarita Avila, the 93-year-old matriarch behind the Orange County restaurant empire, died at her Corona del Mar home Tuesday, Feb. 5. Avila’s health had weakened about 12 years ago when she suffered a stroke, and she had another last week, her family said.
Her daughters described her as a business woman ahead of her time and a role model. She was also a Mexican grandma with a heart of gold.
Avila and her husband Salvador, who celebrated their 72nd wedding anniversary last year, immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico. He was working 14-hour days to support his wife and six children when a friend offered to sell him a restaurant for $2,000. In 1966, they opened their first in Huntington Park.
It was “a bit of a taco shop” with a few picnic benches, according to granddaughter Maribel Avila. Eventually it grew to 13 restaurants in Los Angeles and Orange counties, each individually owned, operated and financed by family members. Today, three generations of Avilas work in the family business, which includes locations in Corona del Mar, Costa Mesa, Foothill Ranch, Huntington Beach, Lake Forest, Laguna Beach, Laguna Niguel, Newport Beach, Orange, Santa Ana, San Clemente and Seal Beach.
Her daughters Margarita Avila and Maria Elena Avila said in an interview that their mother taught them that hard work and family unity was the key to success. Margarita Avila operates the original Huntington Park location and Maria Elena Avila runs the Costa Mesa location.
“She set that example for all our nieces that they could be in the business,” Maria Elena Avila said. “The greatest thing about her was her love for her family and the foundation she taught us from the beginning was that if we work hard we can accomplish much.”
Their mother came to the U.S. from Guanajuato, Mexico, and the recipes that she used for the restaurant were her family’s and her own. Her children described her as a natural cook who knew how to add the just the right seasonings to perfect her dishes of beans, enchilada sauces, moles and her popular chicken soup called “Mama Avila Soup.”
The family will hold a private memorial service. Her daughters said it is too soon to say what the restaurants might plan to commemorate her.
Margarita Avila is preceded in death by her son, Jose Luis. She is survived by her husband, Salvador Avila; daughters, Maria Elena and Margarita; sons, Salvador Avila Jr., Victor, and Sergio. She has 14 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
Maria Elena Avila said that in her mother’s later years she would take her to the restaurant in a wheelchair and she got the greatest pleasure from interacting with the diners. “She loved her customers.”
That love extended beyond the business, her daughters said.
“She had an accepting spirit about her if you came to the house she would want to feed you and to know everything about you as a human being,” Maria Elena Avila said.
They said that is her legacy to her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren as well as to all the fans of El Ranchito. Through the years, loyal customers were always telling her which dish was their favorite. “She truly was so humbled and so happy,” Margarita Avila said, “That people loved her food.”
