From Tacones to Tacos
BROWNSVILLE - Henry Najera sat in the comfort of his restaurant enjoying a plate of fajitas and salad, discussing his transition from nightclub manager to restaurant owner. I was digging into the carne guisada special with beans, rice, and a pizza-sized homemade flour tortilla, while my friend, a vegetarian, appreciated the cooks' willingness to substitute avocado for chicken in her Swiss enchiladas.
The robust, amiable Najera opened Najera Café at 226 Security Dr. about a year and four months ago after leaving his job as general manager at Stiletto's in Pharr where he worked for seven years. The 28-year-old Najera, dressed in jeans and cotton shirt, spoke casually about his days in the nightclub business and his current occupation.
"I really enjoy the night club business," he said. "It's very interesting, the only thing is it's very tiring as well. I miss the people. I don't miss the hours. My whole life was at night. Sleep all day. Normal business hours for people, they go out, they go have lunch, they go have dinner. While people were having barbecues at their house or having dinner, I had to be at work."
Work, however, did have some dazzling perks.
"I would go on trips," he said. "I went to Europe to get some girls from London, we got some from Costa Rica."
He also remembers the Halloween parties.
"We would get different kinds of DJs, like DJ Diamond, she was a Playboy Playmate," he said. "Then we used to get a bunch of porn stars like Nikita Cash, Mary Carey, she was running for governor of California. We would get a bunch of big names like that, and then we would have parties. And you know every year we would have a different location. We would have silk aerial dancers, dancing in mid-air on ribbons of silk."
Over a period of time, the long hours began to wear on him. He needed a change.
"I figured if I'm making people this money, then I can probably do something on my own, make my own schedule and things like that," he said.
These days, he comes into his restaurant in the morning and he's out by 3 p.m. when the place closes for the day.
"I get to spend a lot of time with my family and I get to do things that I didn't normally do because my life was at night," he said. "Here, it's very nice, very relaxing."
He's pleased with the café's success, although construction on Security Drive has disrupted business for awhile.
"This morning was so slow," he said. "The street was closed because they are painting it. No one was in or out. The weekend was good. I have people who are regulars. My prices aren't very expensive, and that's what people are looking for."
He only opens for breakfast and lunch because the previous restaurant in the same building had that schedule. He would like to open for dinner.
"The only thing is with the economy the way it is so slow now, I don't know if there are people going out to dinner, because the dinner items will be a little more expensive," he said. "I would really like to open another restaurant. I would like to do it in Brownsville but on a bigger scale, and I would like to have a bar in it also."
