LA GRANDE — Armando and Irma Robles, owners of La Fiesta Mexican Restaurant and Lounge, 1802 Adams Ave., will host a 25th anniversary celebration at their restaurant on Friday, Oct. 11 from 5-8 p.m.

The community is invited to the celebration with a chamber-sponsored ribbon cutting, a large cake with a Mexican touch and live music by Los Beakos, featuring Michael Snider and Mary Ann Zimmermann.

The musicians have been playing at La Fiesta for the past eight years once a month from October through May, and they are well-known performers at the Union County Fair and throughout Northeastern Oregon.

“Michael plays banjo, bass and harmonica, and I play guitar and sing, and sometimes we bring in a mandolin,” Zimmermann said.

For the celebration, Snider and Zimmermann will perform from a wide genre of music, including old and new Mexican tunes, some Italian and French songs, and also folk, pop, rock, bluegrass, reggae, songs from the 1920s, The Beatles, Dean Martin, Fleetwood Mac and Armando’s favorites.

Sometimes for special occasions, they will perform your favorite sappy songs or a repertoire of Irish songs sung in Gaelic by Zimmermann.

Los Beakos are proud to sing and entertain the community, marking this special occasion with their good friends, the Robles.

“I think what they have exemplified in their business, la familia, is so lovely,” Zimmermann said. “They are inspiring and hardworking, but they always have a positive and encouraging word to make you feel like part of their family.”

The couple came to La Grande as newlyweds. Armando had worked in Walla Walla at a restaurant and accrued 10 years of food service experience before starting La Fiesta. He also attended two years of community college in Walla Walla. Irma managed a grocery store in California before marrying Armando and coming to La Grande.

In June 1998, they purchased the former Taco Time restaurant and remodeled it. They opened La Fiesta on Dec. 1, 1998.

The building underwent three phases of expansion and remodeling — the banquet room, then bar, a lottery room, and finally additional dining space. When customers enter the restaurant, their eyes feast on exquisite tile work, mosaics of bold-colored design — all Armando’s artistic work.

“Armando was the mastermind of the interior decorating,” Irma said. “He did all this (mosaic) work before and after hours.”

It was something Armando always wanted to do, and he found a way to put his ideas onto the walls, the arches and even the ceiling. Working in phases and small sections, he eventually accomplished a tapestry of color and texture using tiles of all shapes and sizes, and polished stones cut with a flat side to adhere to the walls.

“It takes inspiration, and you have to be in the mood to do it,” he said with a smile.

His innovative mind also came to the rescue for the business during the pandemic when restaurants were not allowed to have indoor dining.

“It was tough during the pandemic, so I made a window and created a drive-thru that we used for a few months,” he said. “We also got some financial help through the city during the pandemic.”

To help them operate the restaurant through the pandemic, their daughter, Natalia, and their son, Alex, and Irma’s sister, Natty, all pitched in.

“Natty has been here from the beginning of our business,” Armando said.

He admitted that when he first started his business, he had the desire, but he needed more business knowledge to run the restaurant. That came through experience during the first 20 years. He hired employees to do the cooking, but at the 20-year point, he said something unusual happened.

“I had a sort of rebirth, and I began cooking for the first time,” he said. “I wish I had known how to cook from the beginning, but when I started cooking, it was a special moment.”

Ever since then, he’s been in the kitchen. His menu is extensive, but he is now serving meals cooked the way he remembers them growing up. This has been a big turning point in his business career.

“I have pride and I wanted things to be perfect,” he said. “I like to do my best. Work to me is not a punishment, but an opportunity to express myself and enjoy my employees and customers.”

Admittedly, he is a perfectionist, and he believes that his micro-managing techniques have been a contributing factor in his business success. Today, he is teaching two employees how to cook his food his way, and he’s able to take some time away from the kitchen, trusting that they are trained well to carry on.

However, he’s never away for very long. That instinct to check on things is always with him.

Irma does the bookkeeping, and she came to the business with some knowledge of how to open and manage a business.

“Irma helped me so much, serving customers, getting licenses, doing the books and raising the kids at the restaurant,” Armando said.

There was a back room in the restaurant where their two young children stayed. She left the door cracked so she could peek at them between serving meals. Their kids grew up in view of their customers, so the Robles feel like part of the community.

In a way, their customers’ children also grew up in view of the Robles.

“They have been with us for 25 years, and we’ve known them personally,” Irma said.