Gorditas El Durango

 Spreading Happiness on Lake Street with Authentic Mexican Cuisine

Photo by Carina Lofgren

After opening Gorditas el Durango in December 2019, owner Manuel Rutiaga faced a lot of adversities that even the most experienced business owners would never see coming. Covid-19 and the civil uprising pushed Manuel to try new methods of serving food to customers and physically protect what he built from being damaged.  

Gorditas el Durango serves traditional Mexican cuisine inside of Supermercado La Mexicana at 1522 E Lake S. Gordita means “chubby” in English and the name fits the dish, which is a corn or wheat pastry filled with meat and/or vegetables. Gorditas el Durango offers over 10 filling options along with other traditional Mexican dishes. Manuel values giving his customers an experience from his own hometown, “I named the restaurant after Durango and put a map of Durango in the restaurant to represent the authentic taste of Durango”. 

Manuel opened Gorditas el Durango on Lake Street because he knew it was a high traffic area for people to eat and shop. He is thankful to Lake Street and his customers for reacting positively to his food in the short time he’s been open.

“I just want to make good food and make people happy”

• Manuel Rutiaga, Gorditas El Durango owner

When Covid-19 began to take over the United States, like all small business owners, Manuel wasn’t sure what to do or what was going to happen. He removed all of the tables from the restaurant and began to promote takeout and delivery, utilizing six different online apps/services. Manuel emphasizes that it is a lot of coordination “It was hard, but we’re still here.” Now that Minnesota is approved for limited dine-in service, Gorditas el Durango has 5 tables available in the restaurant in addition to maintaining their six takeout and delivery services.

Then came the civil uprising. During one of the first nights of protests  the restaurant windows were broken and all of the fridges were opened, leaving all the food and inventory to spoil. In addition, their entire cash register was taken and is still unrecovered. As a way to physically protect the restaurant, Manuel and his team slept there for a couple of nights. Thankfully, no further damage occurred. 

Moving forward, Manuel hopes to see improvement for all of the restaurants and businesses on Lake Street, “It used to be beautiful, I want to see that again.” He is focused on continuing to establish Gorditas el Durango’s presence as its first year anniversary on Lake Street approaches. He hopes to grow through the hardships and one day open a stand alone Gorditas el Durango location, “I want to work hard and prepare good Mexican food for people.”