La Fiesta Mexican restaurant, oldest in Cleveland, uses new trick to keep workers after 2-year shutdown
Coronavirus latest chapter in restaurants history starting in 1952
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ohio (WOIO) - La Fiesta is back after two years.
The food is familiar, but the building is different.
The family-owned restaurant planned to move the restaurant last year, when the pandemic hit.
“I signed my lease and two weeks later it changed everything,” said Brian Adkins, La Fiesta’s fourth generation. “The thought of opening during a pandemic was kind of scary.”
The restaurant opened in 1952 on Fulton Avenue on Cleveland’s West side by Adkin’s great-grandmother, the oldest Mexican restaurant in the area.
“We predate McDonald’s by a few years,” Adkins said. “That’s how old we are, seriously.”
They moved to Hilltop Plaza at Wilson Mills and Richmond in Lyndhurst in 1976, then moved across the street in front of the Richmond Mall in an old Manner’s Big Boy building after a fire in 1981. Now, they reopened three weeks ago on Alpha Drive in Highland Heights.
Adkins has a unique way to attract and keep workers during the labor shortage.
“I’ve eliminated servers,” he said.
Everyone shares the tips and it eliminates the discrepancy in pay for some of the lower-paying restaurant jobs.
“I got a bunch of chefs that make all the food, run all the food, run all the drinks. When you tip, I split it amongst everyone who was part of the process. The dishwasher gets tipped out. Everybody.”
A new building, a post-pandemic pay scale, but the same food.
“I couldn’t change that if I tried!”
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