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Citizens of Windsor and beyond have a place they can go to for authentic homemade Mexican food, and that establishment is known as El Mexa Mexican Restaurant.

Open since January, El Mexa is a family owned and operated business located in Suite E at 11409 Windsor Blvd. in Windsor.

El Mexa owner Maria Amaya noted that her mother was working at the same address when it was the home of Costa del Sol Mexican Restaurant & Cantina, which closed its doors permanently July 30, 2023.

Amaya said, “The owner of the other restaurant, he tried to sell it, so my mom asked us if we wanted to buy it and help her.”

“Us” included Amaya, her brother and her sister.

“So we said, ‘Yeah,’” Amaya said. “And that’s how we opened here.”

Amaya’s mother, who bears the same name as Maria, is a driving force behind El Mexa via her contributions in the kitchen.

“We have an authentic Mexican restaurant, like homemade food,” Amaya said. “My mom, she makes homemade rice with many vegetables. She made the tortillas with her hands.”

Amaya said she, her mother and the rest of her family want people to know about the new restaurant and want to encourage people to come out and try the food of El Mexa.

Amaya had already been working in the restaurant business prior to the opening of El Mexa, but she had a desire to continue in the field, and El Mexa represents the first time she has been a restaurant owner.

Describing what it has been like owning and operating her own restaurant since January, she said, “It’s good. You meet many people. Some people start to be like family, or some people come here and say, ‘The food is really good!’”

She said that the level of business at El Mexa across the last eight-and-a-half months has been good.

“We’re having a lot of support,” she said, adding that she thinks the majority of the restaurant’s clientele has come from within the town of Windsor.

El Mexa Mexican Restaurant is open Tuesday-Saturday from 11 a.m.-10 p.m. and on Sunday from 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m.

“We decided to close on Mondays, because we’re a family restaurant, so we try to get one day together,” Amaya said.

El Mexa accommodates call-in orders at 757-242-8477.

For more information on the restaurant, find it on Facebook and Instagram by searching for El Mexa Mexican Restaurant.