Zacatecas owner is a man on a personal journey

Ernesto Padilla, the owner of Zacatecas in Neenah, is a quiet man with the strength that comes from having faced big challenges and overcome them. He came to the United States in 2002 to make a new life for himself not just in an economic sense but in a very personal sense.

He had had a good life in Mexico. He had a family and a successful restaurant, but he lost them due to alcohol abuse. Then, in 2001 he made up his mind to conquer his drinking problem. He succeeded in doing so thanks to the help of a support group in Mexico City and,  as he sees it, thanks to the help of God as well. 

“Yes, God helped me, but really he rewarded my mother who had always believed in me,” Padilla said. “God said, ‘Señora, I am going to allow you to suffer because of your son’s behavior, but I am also going to allow him to stop drinking so that you will feel happy.’ It was a blessing for me and a gift for my mother.”

After conquering his drinking problem, Ernesto crossed the frontier into El Paso, ready to make a life there despite not speaking a word of English. He came directly to the Fox Cities because he had a sister who already lived here. He managed to get a job cleaning tables at El Azteca, a Mexican restaurant in Appleton. He also got a job cleaning in a health club. 

There, he discovered a knack for repairing and maintaining the fitness equipment, and his employer gave him an opportunity to go to California for training. Today, although he no longer works full time for the fitness club, he continues to be available to maintain the equipment on a contract basis.

Ernesto’s employer also agreed to pay him his regular hourly wage to attend English classes at Fox Valley Technical College one hour each day. Thus, he received help on his personal journey here in the United States just as he had received help from the support group in Mexico City. Now that he is the owner of his business, he gives a hand up to his employees in the same way. He said that each of his employees must start at the bottom but those who want to stay with the restaurant will be given opportunities to learn, to contribute and to rise.

This approach is the basis of the restaurant’s focus on Mexican fine dining, its success the result of a team effort. Its employees, who come from all parts of Mexico, are encouraged to contact their parents and grandparents to acquire recipes for regional specialties. Those recipes become the basis of the restaurant’s special offerings, and the employees gradually learn to become cooks. 

Not content with just running a successful restaurant, Ernesto also works fifteen hours each week at the Outagamie County Airport, where he de-ices planes. His industriousness, he said, comes from a simple philosophy. 

“When you have dreams, you have to work for them,” he explained. “Some people are asleep, but you have to wake up to get ahead. Otherwise, nothing will happen. You have to study, and if you can’t study, you have to work and train in order to help your family to get ahead and to be useful to society.”