Joe Garcia leans out of his Casa de Hibachi food truck to talk cuisine. 

“We did research, at first watching more for amusement, but then we figured let’s do this,” Garcia said of he and his partner Ray Cano. “Let’s add our twist to it, cilantro, limes, the things from our culture. So that’s what we’ve got, a fusion.”

The mixing of Japanese and Mexican food cultures is just one part of the story at the Queen City Food Park in Mercedes. It celebrated a ribbon cutting and grand opening on April 2. It was a breezy Saturday morning right by Expressway 83, just west of Texas Avenue, the main street running through Mercedes. The project was well over a year in the making due to delays, but Ashley and Roy Gonzalez saw it through. 

The couple had gotten some restaurant experience under them in recent years with a crawfish business in town. There is a RGV Crawfish Shack at the Gonzalezes’ new food park. It’s operated by one of Ashley’s older brothers. The crawfish business is one of four food trucks at the roughly half-acre spot at 350 North Virginia. It’s a complete package with paved parking, picnic tables, bathrooms and a space dedicated to cornhole playing.

The latter was proving to be an early favorite. A father and son were taking turns tossing bean bags at a raised platform.

“This is what we wanted, a family-friendly place for our community to get together,” Ashley Gonzalez said. “And now here it is, a spot in the middle of Mercedes.”

Centrally Located

It’s also a spot in the middle of the Rio Grande Valley.

Heading east or west on the expressway, the Mercedes food park is readily accessible off Vermont Street exits, be it a straight-ahead drive heading from Weslaco or a turnaround if coming from Harlingen. 

“It’s a huge advantage,” said Gaddi Rodriguez, a food truck owner, of the park’s mid-point location. “It’s easy to get to, right off the expressway, no matter which way you’re going.”

Rodriguez’s day job is being an accountant. His “passion project” is Gaddi’s Snow Shack. Rodriguez wants to give a twist of his own in adding some modern-day ice shaving to the raspas he grew up enjoying as a child in Mercedes. They were his grandmother’s snow cones back then as a young Gaddi watched her operate a raspa stand. With his wife Sarai and their young children in and around the Rodriguez food truck, Gaddi talked about what it meant to open a small business in his hometown.

“We love the small-town feel,” he said, after recounting a story of moving in recent years from West Texas back to Mercedes. “I hope what we’re doing here is giving the community some options it didn’t have before.”

Garcia, like Rodriguez, returned to the Valley after years of living away in San Antonio, working in the insurance business. The pandemic, Garcia said, convinced him to move back. He reconnected with a high school buddy, Ray Cano, who had managed chicken wing restaurants in several Valley communities.

Garcia’s love of food coupled with Cano’s restaurant management business made for a good partnership to start a new business. The topper was they could do it in their hometown. Garcia called it bringing “new flavors from the big city to our town.” Cano said the Queen City Food Park will attract visitors from other communities.

“It’s going to make our community stronger,” Cano said.

Emotional Connection

After the mayor and some other city and chamber dignitaries left after the grand opening, Roy Gonzalez began to get the couple’s own food truck ready for business that Saturday. 

It’s called Queen City Daiquiris. Gonzalez spoke of the uniqueness of having such beverages at a Valley food park. He and his wife strive to make their Queen City Food Park a bit different from others in the region. The couple spoke of their appreciation for the information shared by other food park operators. They are also thankful for the assistance of local government, the chamber and the Mercedes Economic Development Corporation.

“I thought I’d know how it would look after all of the work we put into it, but seeing everyone here and it happening right in front of me, it’s emotional,” Ashley Gonzalez said.