Thanks to in no small part to its ground-in-house masa, San Antonio eatery Lala’s Gorditas is a local Tex-Mex favorite, but the winter months have been tough.
Owner Steven Pizzini took to social media last weekend to ask Lala’s 10,000 Facebook followers to help out by placing walk-up or curbside pickup orders because business was desperately slow. Supporters came through early in the week, but things have trailed off again, he told the
Current
.
“The initial response was good for a couple of days, and [Thursday] was good because it was nice [outside],” said Pizzini, whose restaurant is located at 1600 Roosevelt Ave.
Some customers may be staying away because of tight budgets brought on by inflation, Pizzini said. However, some of the recent downturn may be due to a misconception that Lala’s only has outdoor seating, he added.
“I don’t know that the word has gotten out to everybody that we have an enclosure that’s climatized,” he said.
The restaurant’s enclosure keeps out the wind, rain and cold, Pizzini said. For the summer, he even installed a swamp cooler that uses evaporated water to keep the air around 80 degrees even as outside temperatures soar past 100.