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Los Banditos is a hot commodity So, you think you know all about Los Banditos East and West, the two restaurants that dominate Green Bay's booming Mexican-food market?
Here are a couple of things you probably didn't know:
"PREFERRED CATERING PARTNER OF THE GREEN BAY PACKERS!"
• When Pat Beimborn and Craig Galloway took over the business in 1981, they had to import their tortillas from Milwaukee on a Greyhound bus.
• Corona beer from Mexico is a staple at lots of bars around town now, but when Los Banditos began serving it a few years ago, the beer had to come through a liquor dealer, not a beer distributor, and the restaurant had to pay in advance.
• Except for the tortillas, just about all the food is prepared fresh in the kitchens, not scooped out of cans.
• Los Banditos has a third restaurant in New Brighton, Minn., just north of the Twin Cities. It opened in April 1991 but is separate from the two Green Bay restaurants.
• In Entertainment Extra's first "Best of the Bay" contest, Los Banditos drew 120 of 168 votes cast for the area's best Mexican restaurant.
In a market where specialty restaurants come and go, Los Banditos has survived, expanded and become an institution. It's simply referred to as "Los" by regular customers.
"I think part of the reason we're still here is we stayed with the concept, and I credit Mickey Thompson with that," Galloway said.
The late Michael "Mickey" Thompson started the first restaurant rant at 1258 Main St. with his partner, Chuck Ryan, in 1977 but had to sell later due to financial problems.
"It was pretty obvious to us that it would go if it was run well," Galloway said. "We stayed with his ideas, to offer good food at decent prices, and we built on to it.
"We knew the recipes were good, but consistency was a problem," Beimborn said.
In their early years in the business, both men spent almost all their work time in what had been a tiny rear kitchen, cooking and washing dishes.
As they put the restaurant on a firmer footing, they were able to expand from the original small dining room and five-stool bar into the commercial space next door. By 1984, they owned the business and the building. By 1987, they needed to find a second location to handle the demand.
They settled on an old piano store at 2335 W. Mason St., near Northeast Wisconsin Technical College. They gutted, remodeled and expanded the building and opened the second restaurant in 1988.
"It looks like a new building but it isn't," Galloway said. "For all the work we put into it, we could have built our own."
The Mexican-food market in Green Bay has become more crowded in recent years. Franchises such as Taco Bell and Chi-Chi's have expanded in the area, and independent restaurants, including Cafe Ole, Taco Burrito and La Margarita, have opened.
But Beimborn said Los Banditos competition comes not from other Mexican restaurants but from other restaurant types especially franchises and sports bars.
"People like the sports-bar concept," he said. "I see that as competition for us. I see our customers at their places."
Each restaurant has developed its own personality over the years.
The 134 seat east side restaurant retains the lively atmosphere and younger crowd that it became known for in its early years when it was a Packers hang out.
The west side location, with its capacity of 167 people and its proximity to office buildings and new housing developments, draws more family and business traffic.
But the food is the same at both restaurants, no matter what people think.
"I've had people tell me the food is better at one or the other, and I can tell you, I've stood in the kitchen and it's made the same way," Galloway said. The menu is loaded with foods once considered exotic but now standard fare: tacos, chimichangas, burritos, enchiladas and rice and beans. The menu has expanded over the years to keep up with trends and customer demand.
"We try to buy the best ingredients we can and put them together the best way we can and not take shortcuts," Galloway said.
They've even investigated buying a tortilla-maker instead of buying their tortillas, but "we don't have any place to put it" at the east side location, Galloway said.
The two men also credit their employees who have been with the restaurants for a long time.
"We don't have the problem with turnover," Galloway said. "It's a pretty well-organized concept, but it's loose. They know what they're supposed to do. We don't have to tell them and that goes a long way to keeping people around."
Written by Janet Roberts of the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
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