Editor’s note: Some quotes in this story were translated from Spanish into English.
The Ellettsville area is set to get a new, family-run Mexican restaurant.
Don Chuy Mexican Restaurant will soon open its first and only location at 5621 W. State Road 46, which was previously occupied by Chicago’s Pizza. While the restaurant does not have a set date, the owners, brothers Jesús, Antonio and Cristian Vargas and their brother-in-law Juan Carlos Delgado, hope to open sometime in March.
For the grand opening, Delgado said the restaurant plans to offer special food and drink items, though they have not yet decided what those will be.
The regular menu will feature traditional Mexican cuisine, including tamales, chimichangas and quesabirria. Delgado said Don Chuy will serve vegetarian and low-carbohydrate variations to accommodate dietary restrictions.
To attract people of different tastes, the restaurant will also offer Tex-Mex items like enchiladas, and non-traditional items like steak, co-owner Cristian Vargas said.
“We want all people to feel welcome at our restaurant,” Vargas said. “That this restaurant is more for them than for us.”
Remodeling the kitchen was a challenge, Delgado said. The restaurant will have a 12-inch oven hood, which Delgado said is larger than the pizza hood used by Chicago’s Pizza. He also said finding an available building with a long enough lease term was an initial obstacle.
Delgado said he moved from Mexico to join his father, an agricultural worker, in California in 1991 at age 9. In 2001, he entered the restaurant industry to help his family’s restaurant in Bowling Green, Ohio, not expecting it to be a long-term career.
“It was only supposed to be a couple months, and, you know, I just kind of fell in love with the restaurant business,” he said.
Despite having industry experience, Delgado said Don Chuy would be the first restaurant he works at as an owner.
Delgado has lived in Indiana for 14 years, and he said his brothers-in-law had been looking for locations to open Don Chuy for the past two years when they noticed the Ellettsville Chicago’s Pizza had closed.
“I think all of us have about at least 15 years experience in the restaurant business, and we just thought it was time to venture out on our own,” Delgado said.
He said the three brothers were inspired to open a restaurant because of their father Jesús “Don Chuy” Vargas, who was a chef in Mexico.
In Spanish, "Don" is an honorific title for males, and "Chuy" is a common nickname for people named Jesús.
“The inspiration, we took from my dad, who has always worked hard,” Cristian Vargas said. “He has taught us many things, so this is a way of thanking him for everything he has done for us.”
Cristian Vargas said he and his brothers are originally from a ranch named Ayo el Grande in the Mexican state Jalisco, where their other two brothers, sister and mother and father live.
He said he credits his mother Genoveva for being instrumental in the decision to open Don Chuy.
“My mom, for us three as brothers, played a very, very important part in making this decision, because she always inspired us to be able to have something of our own,” Cristian Vargas said.
Both Cristian Vargas and Delgado said they want the community to know Don Chuy is a family-oriented business.
Delgado said while the restaurant will be run primarily by his family, they will employ the local community for extra help.
“We're thinking of doing, when we're all up and running, choosing a date or a night for, you know, like the college kids come out and enjoy some food and drink specials,” he said.
More than anything, he said, the restaurant is a thank you to his parents for everything they did for him and his brothers.
“This is the first time that the four of us will be working together on such a large project, and we are very excited,” Vargas said.
