Mitla Cafe

Mitla Cafe was opened in 1937 by Lucia and Salvador Rodriguez, a young San Bernardino couple of Mexican heritage who wanted to serve the working-class Mexican-American community on the city's west side. The location on Mount Vernon Avenue was deliberate — the avenue was the commercial spine of San Bernardino's predominantly Latino neighborhoods through the mid-20th century and remains a primary commercial corridor for Spanish-speaking residents today. The cafe's name comes from Mitla, the archaeological site in Oaxaca state in southern Mexico that the Rodriguez family had ancestral ties to.

The original 1937 menu was substantially shorter than the current menu — primarily tacos, enchiladas, tamales, beans and rice, and a handful of breakfast items — but the cooking style established during those first years has remained essentially unchanged. Tortillas are pressed by hand on a comal from masa harina prepared in-house. The red and green salsa recipes are family recipes that have been written down only as quantities and procedures rather than precise ingredient measurements, and have been taught person-to-person from Lucia Rodriguez down through her children, grandchildren, and now great-grandchildren who currently run the cafe.

The Rodriguez family has continuously owned and operated Mitla for the entire 89 years since opening. Three generations of family members have managed the operation across the decades; the current owner-operator generation took over in the 2000s and 2010s. Many of the staff have multi-decade tenures — some cooks have been at Mitla for 30+ years, and the consistency of the food across decades reflects this remarkable staff continuity in addition to the family ownership.

Glen Bell was a San Bernardino native, a World War II veteran, and a small-time roadside-food entrepreneur who operated a series of hot-dog and hamburger stands along Mount Vernon Avenue in the late 1940s. His Bell's Drive-In, located more or less directly across Mount Vernon Avenue from Mitla, was struggling against the larger McDonald brothers operation a few blocks east and against the steady draw of authentic Mexican food from Mitla itself. Bell ate at Mitla regularly during this period — the story is generally told as a sort of friendly competitive surveillance, with Bell openly admiring the cafe's tacos and the family being aware that he was studying their operation.

Bell's borrowing was selective rather than slavish. He took the taco concept, simplified it (pre-fried hard taco shells instead of hand-pressed soft tortillas, ground-beef filling instead of the slow-cooked carne or barbacoa typical at Mitla, milder spice levels calibrated for non-Mexican-American customers, Anglicized portion sizes), and added the assembly-line production methods that were spreading from the McDonald brothers' Speedee Service System three blocks away. The hybrid product was less authentic than Mitla's tacos but substantially faster to produce, more portable for drive-in customers, and more accessible to a broader American customer base. Bell added tacos to his menu in 1951.

The Glen-Bell-borrowed-from-Mitla story has been told for decades within San Bernardino but received broader national attention in the 2010s through journalistic profiles and food-history coverage. The Rodriguez family's general response has been gracious — they note the historical fact, acknowledge that Bell's modifications produced a different and distinctly Anglo-American food product, and emphasize that authentic Mexican food (the kind still served at Mitla) was always the original. Taco Bell Corporation has occasionally acknowledged Bell's local Mexican-food inspiration in corporate-history materials, though without specifically naming Mitla. The cafe receives a steady trickle of food-history-curious visitors specifically because of the connection.

The signature item is whatever combination plate is on the day's specials board — typically two or three enchiladas with rice, beans, and a small salad, in the $10-$14 range. The enchiladas come in cheese, chicken, or beef variations; the cheese version is the most traditional and is the most-ordered item across decades. The red sauce that covers the enchiladas is family-recipe and is one of the most-praised single elements on the menu — earthier and less aggressively spiced than typical Mexican-American red sauces, with a depth that suggests longer cooking and more careful ingredient selection.

The taco menu (a fitting irony given the Glen Bell story) is one of the cafe's strongest sections. Carne asada, carnitas, chicken, and bean-and-cheese tacos are all built on hand-pressed soft tortillas that arrive at the table still warm from the comal. The tacos are simple in the manner of authentic San Bernardino working-class Mexican food — meat, salsa, onions, cilantro, a wedge of lime — rather than the elaborate fusion-taco constructions that dominate contemporary upscale Mexican restaurants. The contrast with anything sold under the Taco Bell brand name is instructive and obvious.

Beyond enchiladas and tacos, the regular menu includes tamales (steamed-to-order, with both chicken and pork variations), chiles rellenos, burritos, breakfast plates (huevos rancheros, chorizo and eggs, breakfast burritos), menudo on weekends, and a rotating set of daily specials that reflect the kitchen's mood and the produce available that week. Vegetarian options are limited but present. The horchata is house-made and is the standard non-alcoholic order; the cafe is also licensed for beer and serves Mexican domestic brands.

The interior is small (roughly 50 seats across a single dining room and a small counter), the decor is unrepentantly mid-century Mexican-American (vinyl-upholstered booths, painted murals along the walls, photographs of three generations of the Rodriguez family at various stages of the cafe's history, vintage Mexican-music-themed posters, a small statue of the Virgen de Guadalupe near the entrance), and the lighting is warm but not particularly atmospheric. This is a working neighborhood restaurant rather than a destination food-tourism venue, and the atmosphere reflects that genuine character.

The regular customer base is heavily working-class Mexican-American — Mount Vernon Avenue residents who have been eating at Mitla for decades, multi-generational family groups celebrating birthdays and quinceañeras and graduations, construction crews on lunch break, and a substantial Spanish-speaking clientele who switch effortlessly between English and Spanish when ordering. Route 66 road-trippers and food-history pilgrims are a steady but smaller percentage of the daily customer base; the staff are practiced at welcoming both groups and the cultural code-switching at neighboring tables is part of the experience.

Service is fast, friendly, and unpretentious. Food typically arrives within 10-15 minutes of ordering. Bills are settled at the counter on the way out. The cafe does not take reservations, does not have a website with extensive online presence, and does not actively cultivate a tourism profile — yet steady word-of-mouth and Route 66 travel-guide coverage keep the customer base reliably mixed. Visitors who treat the cafe with respect and curiosity receive an immediately warmer welcome than visitors who arrive expecting performative authenticity.

Mitla is at 602 North Mount Vernon Avenue, about 1.5 miles west of the Original McDonald's Site & Museum. The neighborhood is working-class urban San Bernardino — not a tourist district — and the standard caveats about urban San Bernardino apply (park in the cafe's small lot rather than on surrounding streets, lock your car, treat the neighborhood with the same baseline awareness you would treat any urban area). The cafe itself is welcoming and the local clientele is friendly; the parking-and-neighborhood awareness is about general urban prudence rather than any specific issue with Mitla's immediate vicinity.

Hours are nominally daily 8am to 8pm. The family ownership and small staff means hours can occasionally vary — Sunday afternoon closures, early closures on slow days, or extended hours during community events. Calling ahead before a long-drive visit is sensible, though the cafe is open the substantial majority of advertised hours. Cash and standard credit cards are both accepted; the cafe does not require reservations and walk-in service is the norm.

The classic San Bernardino food-history itinerary combines Mitla with the McDonald's museum into a two-stop, two-hour exploration of how American fast food was born here. Time your visit for mid-morning at McDonald's (10am-11am), drive west to Mitla for a noon lunch, and you have a remarkably coherent two-hour San Bernardino visit. From there, continue west on Route 66 to the Wigwam Motel in Rialto (eight miles), or onward to the Sycamore Inn in Rancho Cucamonga (15 miles west) for an early dinner.