elk rapids news · 1 mar elk rapidsnews presort standard u.s. postage paid elk rapids, mi permit...

NEWS NEWS ELK RAPIDS ELK RAPIDS PRESORT STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE PAID ELK RAPIDS, MI PERMIT NO. 10 Postal Customer SERVING THE ELK RAPIDS ALDEN KEWADIN RAPID CITY EASTPORT TORCH RIVER BRIDGE WILLIAMSBURG ACME AREAS Volume XIV Issue No. 44 75¢ March 26 2020 BY BARB MOSHER, CONTRIBUTING WRITER COVER STORY continued on page 2 Elaine Vasquez doesn’t think in terms of closed doors. She prefers to see the future as an open one that she’s eager to step through. “We had a good run, so let’s go home and look forward to a new door opening,” she told family, friends, and staff last October after shutting and locking the front entrance of Vasquez’ Hacienda restaurant to the general public for the last time. Elaine and her husband, Al, owned and operated the popular establishment south of Elk Rapids for 45 years, serving up authentic Mexican cuisine and occasional Polish Night dinners to hungry residents and visitors. But for Elaine, the closure marked the conclusion of a literal lifetime in the food service industry. She was born in 1948, the year her parents, Alexander and Elizabeth Matusky, moved here from Detroit to buy the Rainbow Garden restaurant, home now to Pearl’s New Orleans Kitchen. Growing up in and around the business and their home just behind it, Elaine, older sister, Pat, and younger sister, Sandy, knew no distinction between the two. “We would get off the school bus, come in the back door of the restaurant for a snack, and then head to the house to do chores,” Elaine recalled. By the time she was eight, she was washing dishes in the restaurant’s triple sink. “No automatic New horizons for Hacienda owners dishwashers back then,” she said. As teens, she and her sisters would invite friends to potato parties — peeling, cutting, and blanching a hundred pounds of potatoes in preparation for the weekly ﬁsh fry. At 15, Elaine started cooking alongside her father while her mother recuperated from health issues. “Anything to get away from having to wash those dishes,” she laughed. Elaine laughs a lot when she talks about the business that has sustained multiple generations of not only her own family but the cooks, servers, hostesses, bartenders and, yes, dishwashers (she affectionately refers to them as dish dogs) who have earned paychecks from the Hacienda along the way. It’s those people, she says, who made it all worth it. “We’ve had three, four generations here,” she said. “I always told the kids who worked for me, ‘This is your ﬁrst job. If you hate it, you can still learn from it, or you can move on. It’s not for everyone, but it can be a lot of fun.’” It was 1964 when she met Al whose family had moved to Elk Rapids from Brownsville, Texas. She was 16; he was 18. Elaine and Al at the 30th anniversary celebration of the Hacienda, with the original Taco Hut sign. Courtesy photo The Hacienda at the time Elaine and Al purchased it in 1974. Courtesy photo

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Page 1: ELK RAPIDS NEWS · 1 mar elk rapidsnews presort standard u.s. postage paid elk rapids, mi permit no. 10 postal customer serving the elk rapids alden kewadin rapid city

1Elk Rapids NewsMarch 26, 2020

NEWSNEWS ELK RAPIDSELK RAPIDS

PRESORT STANDARDU.S. POSTAGE PAID

ELK RAPIDS, MIPERMIT NO. 10

Postal Customer

SERVING THE ELK RAPIDS ALDEN KEWADIN RAPID CITY EASTPORT TORCH RIVER BRIDGE WILLIAMSBURG ACME AREAS

Volume XIV Issue No. 44

75¢

March 262020

BY BARB MOSHER , CONTR IBUT ING WR ITER

COVER STORY continued on page 2

Elaine Vasquez doesn’t think in terms of closed doors. She prefers to see the future as an open one that she’s eager to step through.

“We had a good run, so let’s go home and look forward to a new door opening,” she told family, friends, and staff last October after shutting and locking the front entrance of Vasquez’ Hacienda restaurant to the general public for the last time.

Elaine and her husband, Al, owned and operated the popular establishment south of Elk Rapids for 45 years, serving up authentic Mexican cuisine and occasional Polish Night dinners to hungry residents and visitors. But for Elaine, the closure marked the conclusion of a literal lifetime in the food service industry.

She was born in 1948, the year her parents, Alexander and Elizabeth Matusky, moved here from Detroit to buy the Rainbow Garden restaurant, home now to Pearl’s New Orleans Kitchen. Growing up in and around the business and their home just behind it, Elaine, older sister, Pat, and younger sister, Sandy, knew no distinction between the two.

“We would get off the school bus, come in the back door of the restaurant for a snack, and then head to the house to do chores,” Elaine recalled.

By the time she was eight, she was washing dishes in the restaurant’s triple sink. “No automatic

New horizons for Hacienda ownersdishwashers back then,” she said.

As teens, she and her sisters would invite friends to potato parties — peeling, cutting, and blanching a hundred pounds of potatoes in preparation for the weekly fish fry. At 15, Elaine started cooking alongside her father while her mother recuperated from health issues. “Anything to get away from having to wash those dishes,” she laughed.

Elaine laughs a lot when she talks about the business that has sustained multiple generations of not only her own family but the cooks, servers, hostesses, bartenders and, yes, dishwashers (she affectionately refers to them as dish dogs) who have earned paychecks from the Hacienda along the way. It’s those people, she says, who made it all worth it.

“We’ve had three, four generations here,” she said. “I always told the kids who worked for me, ‘This is your first job. If you hate it, you can still learn from it, or you can move on. It’s not for everyone, but it can be a lot of fun.’”

It was 1964 when she met Al whose family had moved to Elk Rapids from Brownsville, Texas. She was 16; he was 18.

Elaine and Al at the 30th anniversary celebration of the Hacienda, with the original Taco Hut sign. Courtesy photo

The Hacienda at the time Elaine and Al purchased it in 1974. Courtesy photo