Emiliano's Mexican Restaurant to open in downtown Duluth (2024)

DULUTH — Emiliano’s Mexican Restaurant is preparing to open downtown in the near future, according to owner Nestor Tapia.

Brielle Bredsten / Duluth Media Group

The new restaurant is located at 220 W. Superior St., formerly home to Toasty’s, in the historic Duluth Herald Building. The sandwich shop moved to 324 W. Superior St. in 2021. R.T. Quinlan's Saloon is in the lower level of the Duluth Herald building.

Brielle Bredsten / Duluth Media Group

Emiliano’s will offer fast, homemade cuisine. The menu includes chimichangas, burritos, salads, tacos, enchiladas, fajitas, vegetarian fare, seafood, a kids' menu, desserts and beverages.

“We offer the Mexican pure side, but we also offer a lot of things that a lot of Americans consider Mexican, which is Tex-Mex food,” Tapia said.

The new restaurant is expected to open very soon, pending the state's approval of its liquor license.

“Margaritas are a really good attraction for Mexican food. If you have a place without margaritas, it's pointless,” Tapia said.

The restaurant features a bar near the entrance, with additional booth and table seating in the back. The hours will be 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week. DoorDash will be available.

Brielle Bredsten / Duluth Media Group

“Downtown is just coming back,” Tapia said. “A lot of people work here. No one lives here, but all the people who are here during the day, they need to be fed.”

Brielle Bredsten / Duluth Media Group

The restaurant’s name is inspired by the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata. Born in 1879, Zapata led his neighbors in protest against the hacienda that had appropriated their land and eventually led them to take the land by force to return it to the communal Indigenous ejidos, according to Britannica Encyclopedia.

Along with fellow revolutionary Pancho Villa, Zapata occupied Mexico City and began to implement land reform, but he was tricked, ambushed and killed in 1919 by the forces of Venustiano Carranza, whom the U.S. recognized as president.

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Images and memorabilia are displayed throughout the building to pay homage to Tapia’s idol.

Tapia’s great-grandfather, Pedro Cedillo, was a peasant who served in the revolt by commanding people on horses. Tapia’s cousin, also named Pedro Cedillo but who goes by the pen name Tiesto, created a painting inspired by an old photo of Tapia’s great-grandfather that now hangs in his restaurant.

“I always like to remember where I come from, because that makes me rethink about where I am, what I'm doing every day and be thankful for the opportunity of being here,” Tapia said.

Tapia hails from a small middle-class family in Puebla, Mexico. The town is known as a bountiful sugarcane area. Both of his parents worked at the sugarcane plantation until retirement.

“And actually, the theme of the restaurant has to do a lot with it because the Mexican Revolution in the South started because the government had given Spaniards a lot of land that belonged to the natives,” Tapia said.

While attending college in Mexico, Tapia majored in modern languages and went on to teach basic English.

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“I started seeing that the path that I have shaped with the school, he was not going to take me anywhere,” Tapia said. “And I saw that I was going to struggle economically. That was it. That's when I decided to do something out of the ordinary. I told my dad, ‘I want to go and try my luck in the States.’”

Tapia described the border between Mexico and the United States as a dangerous “no-man’s land” controlled by drug cartels.

“After I did it, I thought to myself, ‘I will never try to get anybody who I know like this. I will never recommend this, ever.’ And it's a shocking experience,” he said.

Brielle Bredsten / Duluth Media Group

After he came to the U.S. in 2008, Tapia began working in Mexican restaurants in Missouri and later Minnesota, where he gained experience and knowledge on how to run a healthy business. With his savings, Tapia also started a project in his hometown to install a water purification plant, which is now run by his mother.

“It's basically a dream that we chase, coming to the States,” Tapia said.

However, the reality of leaving his home and family was lonely and depressing, he said.

“You get separated from all that you know as your life," Tapia said. "The way you eat. The way you dress. The way you speak. The way you hear music, everything. The weather. Everything is completely different. You are in land that is not yours."

According to Tapia, his six-year journey to gaining citizenship was an expensive, long and difficult process.

“I know the struggles. I know the reasons,” Tapia said. “I met lawyers and doctors who were washing dishes because they did it the same way. They don't have the proper documentation, and they just have to man up and do it.”

Brielle Bredsten / Duluth Media Group

After moving to the U.S., Tapia married Sage Chavez and welcomed two children. Chavez runs a nonprofit organization called Heart To End Hunger, a free food distribution service in Washburn.

Having worked his way up, Tapia and a few business partners started a restaurant in Washburn. While it is temporarily closed during the major road construction in the area, he decided to branch off and start his own business with Emiliano’s.