Although the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting restrictions have made running a restaurant an uphill battle, Papa Jose’s Union Cafe is surviving thanks to dedicated customers and a little help from some government programs.
The restaurant launched 22 years ago, at 320 S. Union Ave., when Mike Pacheco left his job with the telephone company to help his mom, the late Elisa Pennington, start the restaurant.
“I started to see the writing on the wall and my job wasn’t going to last,” Pacheco said.
At the time his mom was working at his cousin Jeannie Breaux’s Mexican Deli and she asked her son, “Why don’t we try opening one. So we just got it started and never looked back,” he said.