Cancun Restaurant: Try it and she’s sure you’ll like it

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Maria Cortez just wants people to give her a chance.

Three months ago Cortez and her husband, Agustin, opened Cancun Restaurant. It’s the latest in a long line of Mexican restaurants that has occupied a space at the corner of Highway 3 and County Road 50. But Cortez is trying to leave behind some of the problems that led those restaurants to close, in some cases just a few months after they opened.

“For now, for us it is hard, because the other people, they left a lot of problems with the people and the food,” Cortez said. “We try to make the service (better). We’re making changes.”

Those changes start at the walls and move in from there. Cortez and her husband painted those walls, including faux brick arches on one wall and on a window. They created a new menu. And they’re promising better service for customers.

Cortez picked Cancun as the restaurant’s name because she figures it will be easy for Americans to pronounce. And because Cancun is the Mexican city Americans are most likely to recognize.

The restaurant’s new menu is filled with traditional Mexican-restaurant fare like fajitas and burrtitos, but there are also items like cebiche de camaron, shrimp marinated with lime, onions, cilantro and “a special recipe.”

“We want people to have choices,” Cortez said. “They want choices to eat, something different.”

Cortez said her husband will handle most of the cooking.

Neither Cortez nor her husband has much experience running a restaurant. She was a housekeeper before they bought this restaurant and he worked in construction. But when friends who owned the restaurant in its most recent incarnation, Chaparritas, offered to sell, they decided it was a good opportunity for them.

Three months in, business has been a little slow. Cortez believes the lack of customers is related to problems the previous owners had. But she is confident once people try the restaurant they’ll want to come back.

“We’re trying to make more flyers, because a lot of people don’t know anything about, we are new owners. We do everything much better,” Cortez said. “We want a chance for them to know the new owners. The new service the new menu.”

She’s sure they won’t be disappointed. All she needs is a chance.

Tags: business news, cancun restaurant, business