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Family roots run deep in Las Palmas restaurant

Atilano brothers operate four restaurants but tailor their menus to each locale

Published: November 18, 2016   

By Dwain Hebda
Arkansas Catholic

Dwain Hebda
Jaime Atilano (left) and his son Edgar take a break in the North Little Rock Las Palmas. Jaime opened the Mexican restaurant in 1997 and it has since grown to four locations.

It’s a brisk lunch crowd at Las Palmas, tucked into the corner of a North Little Rock shopping center. Locals from nearby retail establishments, blue-collar workers on a break and retirees chat and laugh over cheese dip and burritos while lively music dances from the speakers in the ceiling.

Clad in black, owner Jaime Atilano leans back in his seat and takes in the dining room scene. A member of St. Anne Church in North Little Rock, the trim Atilano likes what he sees.

“The first two years were no good,” he said of the restaurant. “But now …” he smiles and waves his hand.

Atilano’s story in the restaurant business is a classic American success tale. Landing in the United States from Mexico at 17 years old with his family, he’s picked apples in the Pacific Northwest, lived and worked in southern California and arrived in Arkansas in 1994.

He cut his teeth as a cook at a competing Mexican restaurant owned by his cousin before launching Las Palmas in 1997. Today the company also has locations in Little Rock, Conway and Russellville, each owned by the family and operated by one of the Atilano brothers.

“We’re not active in the Church when we start here, but we trusted in God,” Atilano said. “But 10 years ago the faith has helped us to be more all together, the family. And now I know we’re devoted to God.”

American tastes

During his restaurant career, Atilano learned quickly the difference between authentic Mexican food and the typical American’s idea of Mexican food and developed recipes to suit local tastes. But as the Latino population in the state multiplied, he’s found the opportunity to tinker with the menu by location.

“When I started working in the restaurant I never know what is a chimichanga. I know burritos or taco, but chimichanga? No,” he said with a broad smile. “But the American people accept this food and so we try to change a little bit our recipes from our family. 

“Also we have the four restaurants but in each restaurant our customer is different. In Little Rock we have some dishes that are traditional, like sometimes we have menudo (tripe soup); we have tacos de lengua — tongue, you know. We try to put it in this location, nobody asks for it. If we compare (North Little Rock) to (Little Rock), it’s a lot different. Over there it’s a lot more Hispanics out there (in Little Rock).”

Variances in the menu aside, Atilano said the key to the family’s success is providing a consistently good experience for guests, from the freshness of the food to the quality of ingredients and speed of service. It’s a philosophy he passed along to his son Edgar, who’s grown up in the business.

Raised in the restaurant

“Ever since I was little, I’d come around, stick around, watching, helping out instead of going out on the weekend. I’d just come here and help them out,” said Edgar Atilano, 24. “I was raised here in the restaurant. I’ve tried doing something else after high school, but there’s something about the restaurant business.”

Jaime Atilano said besides having so much family around, the thing he likes most these days is experimenting in the kitchen. He’s fascinated with the way flavors play off of each other.

“The food I love, because I like to play with the food,” he said. “If you have on your plate rice, beans and sour cream or guacamole and pico de gallo and lettuce, if you eat everything separate it’s one thing, but if you mix the rice and beans and put some salsa — completely different.  I know many customers that they mix rice and beans and they put on salsa or cheese dip. Delicious.”

Lately he’s been trying to cut back and eat healthier but when led by his palate, he’s a creature of habit.

“For me, it’s fajitas or chili Colorado. All the time, I am the same,” he said, adding quickly, “but everything is good.”

The fierce loyalty of customers in a market saturated with Mexican restaurants backs up this assessment and is the reward Las Palmas enjoys for years of hard work and attention to detail. But it hasn’t earned them any slack from longtime customers, who can be a tough crowd.

“Cheese dip one time we tried to change because the price of the cheese was too high,” Jaime said as Edgar shook his head at the memory. “One time we tried to get another cheese, but people knew it. Also we use the same jalapeno pepper and one time when we order, the company sends us a different kind of jalapeno. The customers know.”

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