It’s 5:45 on a Friday evening, and a server leads a family — mom, dad, three children under 10 and two sets of grandparents carrying mylar balloons and presents — down a long corridor. The group makes their way to the main dining area of Mexicali. From her vantage point, peeking outside her office at the end of the hallway, Irene Ramirez, 71, the third-generation owner and general manager of the restaurant, clocks the group and pauses mid-sentence to scribble something down on a notepad. Her gaze returns to the room and she addresses the small parade that just went by.
“I like to see what kind of parties I have,” Ramirez told SFGATE. “I like to make it an experience, you know, bring out the big hat.”
Ramirez smiles and makes a generous circular gesture around her head roughly the size of a giant sombrero. “If it’s a regular customer, or if it’s a brand-new customer, I have a lot of things in my arsenal to bring out to the table, to make it something they’ll remember,” she said. “It’s a pleasure to have them here, every last person. They appreciate it. They’re not looking for anything special, but when something special happens, they’ll come back again.”
Something special has happened at Mexicali now for nearly 70 years. The restaurant’s flagship sits on an oversized lot on the corner of 18th and R streets, a handful of blocks east of the heart of downtown Bakersfield. The restaurant was first purchased and opened by Ramirez’s grandparents in 1957…