Business

POSTED: Friday, Mar. 06, 2009

El Nopal to open second location in Ferndale

Each week, The Bellingham Herald takes a closer look at a construction project or checks in with a business in Whatcom County. This week: El Nopal.

WHATS NEW

After more than 20 years of running El Nopal, José González, owner of the Mexican restaurant in Sumas, has decided to open a second location in Ferndale. Between March 15 and 20, González to plans open a smaller version of the Sumas El Nopal in the old Madison’s Restaurant & Pubbuilding, at 6104 Portal Way.

González’s daughter, Virginia Perez, will operate the Sumas El Nopal with her husband, Mel Perez. González will run the new restaurant, which is about 2,200 square feet, half the size of the Sumas location and more manageable, he said.

Virginia Perez hadn’t originally planned on taking over the family business. She was at the restaurant “constantly” growing up.

“I was there every weekend,” she said. “It was my dad’s way of keeping me out of trouble.”

Perez started working at El Nopal when she was 11 or 12 busing tables, then waited tables through high school and college.

It was Perez who first suggested taking over the Sumas El Nopal, so her father would be free to run the new restaurant in Ferndale.

“I don’t want to see it taken over by other people and have something bad happen,” she said. Perez said her father has become a fixture at the restaurant — spending time chatting up customers, playing cards with them or offering some brave souls the spicy habanero salsa.

WHAT IT DOES

El Nopal serves up traditional Mexican cuisine, but the restaurant’s margaritas are a customer favorite, Perez said. Customers can order El Nopal’s house margaritas or specialty ones made with tequila chosen from the roughly 30 brands the restaurant carries.

BACKROUND

González, originally from a small town in Mexico, opened El Nopal in Everson in 1988 with his wife, Wendy González. The year before, he helped start another Mexican restuarnt, Gloria’s, in Bellingham with his brother.

“Back in ’88 when we opened up in Everson, some of my friends said it was going to be crazy to open there. It worked out. We kept getting busier and busier,” González said.

When it moved to Sumas five years later, the restaurant already had a following of loyal customers from Everson and other places in the county, like Nooksack and Kendall. The Sumas El Nopal sees about 200 customers a week, González said.

For the past several years, González had been looking to expand his business but had yet to find a suitable spot to set up another El Nopal. He said the Ferndale space is the right size and is located in a high-traffic area, with ample parking.

EMPLOYEES

El Nopal in Sumas employs about eight people. The new Ferndale location will have four employees at the most, González said.

SOURCES: JOSÉ GONZÁLEZ, OWNER; VIRGINIA PEREZ, RESTURANT MANAGER