Though he’s worked in the culinary industry for nearly half a century, Jaime Avila never had a restaurant of his own.
From beginning as a dishwasher in California to working as a cook, bartender, server, manager and food truck operator in five other states, Avila, 50, has devoted a majority of his life to the world of food.
Now, Avila is getting his chance to open his own restaurant, Rio Viejo Cocina de Mexico.
Located on 50 Franklin St. in Worcester, where the former restaurant Craft Table & Bar used to be, Rio Viejo Cocina de Mexico is a modern day Mexican restaurant that seeks to bring the best foods Avila has made throughout his decades-long career.
The restaurant’s interior is filled with wooden tables and chairs, with colorful glass lights hung from the ceiling. Paintings of women wearing Mexican clothing are displayed on the walls overlooking some of the tables. A statue of a man wearing mariachi-style clothing playing a guitar stands by the stairs leading to the restaurant’s door.
Wearing a dark blue shirt while leaning his arm across the table, Avila told MassLive that all the furniture, art and dining wear comes from his home country of Mexico.
“We got all the dishes, the glassware, everything is familiar,” Avila said, smiling. “Even the lights.”
As for the food, Rio Viejo Cocina de Mexico will offer well known Mexican street food like tacos, as well as authentic dishes including arroz con pollo and pollo con crema, according to Avila.
“We bring in the best dishes of every place we’ve been,” he said.
The restaurant is still under construction. Avila hopes the restaurant will open in late January or early February at the latest.
Nearly five decades of food
Born in Mexico City, Avila fell in love with food at a young age. He, along with his seven other siblings, was taught to cook Mexican cuisine by their mother.
“My mom, rest in peace, she was a really, really good cook,” Avila said.
That passion for cooking stayed with Avila, even when his family immigrated from Mexico to California when he was 14 years old.
After finishing high school and wanting to earn some money of his own, Avila earned his first job as a restaurant dishwasher. Whenever he had free time, he would watch the cooks prepare and make dishes, studying them and learning by observing them.
“I don’t see them as cooks; I see that they make art,” Avila said.
In 1993, Avila got his chance to become a cook. After spending four months as a dishwasher in California he received a call from Las Margaritas, a Mexican restaurant in Washington State. The owner of the restaurant offered Avila the opportunity to work as a chef at her business.
Avila accepted and began working at Las Margaritas. As a chef, Avila’s shift began at 10 in the morning. Wanting to learn how to be a better cook, however, Avila went into work early at 6 a.m. learning culinary skills from the restaurant’s head chef.
“He would tell me how to do the main ingredients for the whole kitchen,” Avila said. “I wanted to learn.”
It was also at Las Margaritas where Avila met his wife, Mayra, in 1995. Avila said she worked as a waitress at the restaurant and the two bonded over a passion for dancing.
“We’re decent,” Avila said. “I’m not winning any competition but I can dance.”
In 1996, the two married each other and moved to Idaho. Avila found work at Casa de Oro, another Mexican restaurant. There, Avila got the chance to help less experienced cooks in the kitchen. He enjoyed teaching them but was disappointed in how the restaurant had pre-prepared spices and cut up ingredients in the kitchen. Avila said he believes chefs should be more engaged with their cooking.
“When I was a chef, I used to do everything myself,” he said. “Mix my own spices, cutting my own meat, my vegetables. Nowadays, the kitchens, they are more easy to work with. Because they give you everything already made.”
Avila’s culinary career took him to other states, including North Carolina, where he worked as a chef, Maryland, where he worked as a bartender, and eventually, Massachusetts, where he worked as a manager for Casa Blanca in North Andover for 12 years.
In 2022, when he was still a manager at the restaurant, Avila and his business partner, Daniel Vargas, opened a food truck — Taco Libre at The Lot. Operated by Avila’s wife, the food truck serves Mexican street food such as tacos and burritos. Soon, Avila’s wife became too busy to operate the food truck on her own and Avila left Casa Blanca to help her.
Avila told MassLive that food truck customers asked him a similar question: when he would open up his own restaurant. Avila said that he wanted something to do during the non-busy food truck seasons.
Partnering with two other people who previously worked with him in restaurants, Avila began plans to find a location for his restaurant. At first, he wanted the restaurant to be in the Beverly area but no space could be found.
After consulting with a realtor, he chose the space on 50 Franklin St. in Worcester.
Though he still lives in Beverly, more than an hour away from Massachusetts’ second-largest city, Avila is confident that Rio Viejo Cocina de Mexico can become a hallmark of Worcester’s community.
“We love the bar, the kitchen, I think we’re going to be part of the city,” he said. “It think it’s one of those places where you walk into and you feel welcome.”
