By Mike Hazlip—
Felipe’s Mexican Restaurant has been part of Citrus Heights for decades, and the family that owns the business say they plan to keep serving customers for the foreseeable future.
Paul Lee’s uncle started the restaurant in August of 1983 when Lee was in his early 20s. He started working with another employee, Adela, and the two soon began dating and later married. The Lee’s then bought the restaurant in 1988, and have owned Felipe’s ever since.
Lee said at one point during the 1990s, the restaurant employed eight to ten family members. He says even now, the employees are like family at the business.
“It’s been a great journey,” Lee said. “We’ve been fortunate enough to have our families work here all together. All got along really well. Our children worked here when they were in high school. It’s been a great run.”
Felipe’s original location was across Auburn Boulevard, but Lee moved to the Grand Oaks shopping center in April of 1990. Before that time, Grand Oaks was an interior mall, and the Southern end that is now a Bingo Hall was a Lucky’s grocery store, Lee said. The space that the restaurant now occupies was once the entrance to Grand Oaks mall.
Felipe’s briefly tried to expand with a second location in Folsom that opened in 2007, but Lee said they didn’t anticipate the economic recession, and the Folsom location closed in 2015. He says they don’t have any plans for another location now.
“If you’re not hands on the whole time, and that’s kind of the way we like it, it’s hard to be in two places at once,” he said.
Felipe’s still uses recipes Lee says he modified from his uncle, and little has changed in the three decades the restaurant has been open.
“We do everything such old style ways, we do everything from scratch” Lee said. “We teach all the employees how to make everything so everyone can help. We know what’s in our food as far as ingredients, and we’re happy with our results.”
Another secret to his success is customer service, and customers on Yelp seem to agree, with few exceptions.
“We try to treat all our customers the way we would want to be treated when we go out,”
said Lee.
The restaurant has earned a 4-out-of-5 star average rating on Yelp from nearly 300 reviewers, many who say it’s the best Mexican food in the area — although a handful of reviewers during the pandemic have commented about a decline in service or flavor.
With so many other restaurants struggling to get past those first few years in business, Lee says he is very lucky to have made it this long, and credits the community for their success.
“It’s been such a good ride with all the folks. Even with the employees we’ve had, it’s been like family a experience,” said Lee. “We’re all very fortunate, my wife and I feel very fortunate to have been able to be part of the community.”
