Garcia’s fans in Columbus have almost a religious devotion to the restaurant’s tacos and enchiladas, but have been missing their favorite restaurant for three years.
But now, Garcia’s is back.
On a drizzly, 50-degree Thursday morning, some 25 people had queued up outside the Holiday Center in Columbus with one goal in mind — to order what they say are some of the best plates of Mexican food to be found in southeastern Indiana.
The customers were waiting for Garcia’s Mexican Restaurant, located at 3932 E. 25th St., to open its doors for what is now a three-hour mad dash for lunch since the restaurant reopened Oct. 18 after being closed for three years.
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The restaurant, which has been in Columbus for nearly 44 years, has acquired a cult following of sorts, with throngs of people willing to wait hours in line to place their order and then find a table.
At 11 a.m., Wes Jones, a pastor at Flintwood Wesleyan Church who has moonlighted as a dining room staff member at Garcia’s for several years, opened the doors and people quickly moved into the restaurant, lining up patiently to place their orders.
Inside the restaurant, there are about 15 tables. Several rows of white Christmas-style lights were strung about the ceiling and the horn and string arrangements of Mexican ranchera music poured out of a speaker system.
At the back of the line…
Meanwhile, at the back of the line, which curved around the restaurant and out the front door, Columbus native and longtime patron of Garcia’s Susan Christophel was brimming with excitement about ordering a chicken chimichanga.
Christophel said she had been eating at Garcia’s since 1975.
“I was in ninth grade at Central (Middle School), and my Spanish teacher took me there and we had to order in Spanish,” Christophel said. “I didn’t know how to say anything other than ‘uno taco.’ I got one taco, and I was hooked after that.”
In the kitchen, Anna Garcia, 81, co-owner of Garcia’s, was busy helping her staff handle the non-stop orders coming in. She and her husband, Joel Garcia, 85, founded the restaurant in 1970 in Seymour, she said.
After around six years in Seymour, the couple had some issues with getting water and sewage service at their location by the Seymour Motel on U.S. 31, so they decided to move the restaurant to Columbus, where it has been ever since.
“Me and my husband are the only ones who do the cooking,” Anna Garcia said.
In 2016, however, the Garcias closed the restaurant due to “a lot of problems with sickness,” she said. “My great-granddaughter had leukemia, just different things, so we just didn’t open.”
Customers from far away
After three years, and improved health for their family, the Garcias announced on Facebook on Oct. 16 that they would reopen two days later, causing a frenzy on Facebook as the post went viral.
Anna Garcia said she and her husband have been “amazed” by how long people are willing to wait to place an order, with some customers coming from as a far away as Indianapolis, Louisville, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio, only to wait hours in line.
One tradition at Garcia’s, which their fans have learned to work around, is that the restaurant has rather restrictive hours. It is open for lunch on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m and for dinner on Fridays from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Despite limited hours, the lines have been forming every day the restaurant has been open, with people sometimes lining up out into the parking lot.
“We’re just amazed,” Anna Garcia said. “I couldn’t even believe in myself. Sometimes they bring an RV out there so they can go to the bathroom.”
On opening day Oct. 18, there were 179 people waiting outside by the time the restaurant opened at 5 p.m., including several people who waited all afternoon and one woman who had been waiting since 8 a.m., Anna Garcia said.
That woman was Donna Barajas, 58, of Columbus.
Barajas said she was so “ecstatic” that Garcia’s was reopening that she arrived 7:50 a.m. — nine hours before the restaurant was scheduled to open — to be first in line when the doors opened for the first time in three years.
“I had not had their food since 2016, so I was going to be the first one in the door,” Barajas said. “…If it was any other restaurant, I wouldn’t wait more than 45 minutes or an hour, but for Garcia’s, I will. The food is just so unique. You can’t find anything close to it, no matter where you go.”
Barajas said she spent the nine hours crocheting and chatting on Facebook while she waited in a chair near the door. At 9:30 a.m., more people started arriving and got in line behind her, Barajas said. Employees of a nearby beauty shop offered to let the people in line use the restroom throughout the day.
When the restaurant opened at 5 p.m., Barajas said she ordered a chimichanga, some enchiladas, nachos, tostadas and tacos.
“I ordered all my favorite things,” Barajas said.
Barajas said she has eaten at Garcia’s every day the restaurant has been open since Oct. 18.
Consistent wait times
The wait times have not abated since the restaurant opened, according to the restaurant staff and customers. About 30 minutes after the restaurant opened for lunch this past Thursday, the line to place an order was still about 25 people long.
Terri Hurd, 51, of Columbus and her husband, Jeff Hurd, 51, were among the customers waiting in line at around 11:30 a.m. Terri Hurd said her first job was waiting tables at Garcia’s when she was 15 years old.
“As a waitress working here, you could get anything you wanted to eat (for free),” Terri Hurd said. “So I’ve had everything on the menu. You could eat before your shift or after your shift.”
Terri Hurd said “the tortilla with the beans and the cheese and jalapeno peppers on it” is one of the restaurant’s specialties.
“I can’t wait to eat,” Terri Hurd said. “That’s why we’re standing in this giant line.”
Tom Davidson, 76, said he and his wife, Becky, made the 35-mile trek from Medora just to eat lunch at Garcia’s. Davidson, who has been eating at Garcia’s since the early 1970s, had grabbed a table while his wife waited in line to place their order.
“I have the same order every time,” Davidson said. “I order two chile con quesos, and I order one beef soft taco and two enchiladas.”
Davidson said he has known Joel Garcia for years and worked with him at Cummins in the 1970s.
“I was working at Cummins with Joel, and we both quit the same day,” Davidson said. “He opened a restaurant up (in Seymour) and I went in as an electrician and I wired his restaurant.”
Davidson said he and his family came to Garcia’s when the restaurant reopened on Oct. 18. They arrived at 2 p.m. to get in line, and there were 62 restaurant patrons ahead of them, he said.
“It was probably four hours before we could get in,” Davidson said.
Davidson said the atmosphere and food are what keeps him coming back.
“It’s 70 miles round trip, but it’s worth it,” Davidson said. “It’s food you don’t get nowhere else. It really is.”
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Visit facebook.com/GarciasMex/ for more information about Garcia’s.
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