New restaurant owner and menu bring diversity to uptown Lexington
Owner Jay Magana stands in front of a new Mexican folk art mural inside El Comedor, formerly The Eatery, in uptown Lexington. The restaurant is adding some authentic Mexican flavors to the Southwestern menu. {Vikki Broughton Hodges/Davidson Local}
Jay Magana aims to bring diversity to his new Main Street restaurant, The Eatery, through his clientele and revamped menu.
Magana purchased The Eatery, a Southwestern restaurant at 101 N. Main St. this past November and renamed it El Comedor (Spanish for dining room or eatery). Since then, he has been remodeling and adding authentic Mexican food to the menu such as street tacos, tortas and quesabirrias.
“I bought it because the opportunity came along and I think we need more restaurant options in uptown Lexington — I want to spice it up a little,” said the Lexington native of Hispanic heritage. “I’m going to bring more diversity in the menu and customers. There’s no other Hispanic restaurant on Main Street.”
The interior renovations include a colorful Mexican folk art mural of a skeleton, the addition of several large-screen televisions for watching sports and a new fold-up bar where customers can dine and drink with an optimal view of the aforementioned TVs. Magana hopes the restaurant can be a gathering spot for a variety of customers, noting El Comedor’s slogan, which is imprinted on its T-shirts, is “Good Tacos — Good Vibes.”
The authentic Mexican food, as well as the Tex-Mex items such as burritos, nachos, regular tacos and bowls that will remain on the menu, will start out with tortillas made fresh daily. “Everything is going to be made in-house every day — the tortillas, the guacamole and salsas.”
The street tacos will have either beef or chicken topped with cilantro, onion and salsa. Tortas, a Mexican sandwich, offers a choice of protein topped with lettuce, tomato and onion, as well as other condiments, on a toasted bun. Quesabirrias feature tortillas stuffed with shredded beef that has been slow cooked overnight in a broth of chilis, onion and cilantro, with the addition of more onion and cilantro as well as cheese once the beef is in the tortilla. Magana said the dish is more savory than spicy.
On weekends, Magana plans to offer two traditional Mexican soups — posole and menudo. Both have hominy and a variety of spices with posole typically including pork and menudo featuring beef tripe.
There are new additions to the beverage menu. The restaurant is now carrying a wide variety of Jarritos, a Mexican brand of fruit-flavored sodas. Magana plans to add aguas frescas, nonalcoholic Mexican drinks. The most popular are horchata, which is made from rice milk sweetened with cinnamon and sugar, and Jamaica, a tart hibiscus iced tea drink.
In addition to Bud Light, he has added Mexican beers to the menu - Modelo, Corona and Dos Equis. Magana hopes to add frozen margaritas to the beverage menu as well.
Magana is not new to entrepreneurship. He opened Yummy Botana (Spanish for snack), an authentic Mexican ice cream and snack shop at 4 W. Second St. in uptown Lexington in June 2021. The restaurant is just across Main Street from the snack shop.
In addition to Yummy Botana, Magana has his own business, Exclusive Workforce, which does mechanical contracting work. He has worked on large construction projects such as the Egger Wood Products manufacturing plant in Linwood and the Hampton Inn in Lexington.
While experienced in business, Magana admitted the restaurant industry faces a lot of challenges right now. “This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It came at a tough time with rising food costs and staffing shortages. But it’s going to be worth it.”
El Comedor is currently open from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Monday; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; and 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
Magana aspires to soon expand hours if he can find more staff. He would like to stay open until 9:30 or 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights and be open on Sundays as well.
