A restaurant name born from tragedy. Adela’s is Lancaster’s newest place to eat.
In the lobby of a popular new restaurant, a large black-and-white portrait of a pretty teenage girl hangs above cushioned benches.
She is the restaurant’s namesake -- Adela.
Adela’s Mexican Kitchen, opened a little over a month ago in Lancaster. It has an uncertain future as it was planned over a two-year period. A possible location in Indian Land fell through. Then a Lancaster site that needed extensive renovations became available.
Then the restaurant needed a name.
Co-owners Lucio Monsalvo, 42, and Estevan Campos, 48, were taking mental notes of possible names when an unspeakable tragedy took place.
Adela, Monsalvo’s 18-year-old daughter, died during a vacation in Myrtle Beach.
“She begged me so many times to go to the beach,” Monsalvo said.
Tragic golf cart accident
Adela had recently graduated from Lancaster High School and wanted to spend the first week of summer, also called Senior Week, at the Grand Strand with friends. After a week, she called her dad and asked if she could stay a couple of extra days. He said yes.
On June 12, 2019, Adela and her friends were riding on a golf cart when Adela fell backwards and hit her head. She spent two days in a coma and before she died.
“When this happened, Estevan called me and said ‘I think I have a name for the restaurant’ and I said ‘I do too,’” Monsalvo said earlier this week after a busy lunch shift. “He said, ‘I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable or make you feel bad … he said, ‘how about Adela?’”
Monsalvo had the same idea.
“He said, ‘say no more, we’ve got a name,’” Monsalvo said.
Like her father, Adela had big dreams, he said. She was planning to attend Kenneth Shuler School of Cosmetology in Rock Hill and planned to open her own salon one day.
Not totally traditional food
Since they have opened, Adela’s friends from high school and people she worked with have poured in.
“A lot of people knew my daughter and a lot of people know me and I am so happy to see their faces here,” he said. “They make me happy and I see they are happy too.”
The name makes it stand out, Monsalvo said, but the menu has an edge.
“We wanted it to be a little different from other places,” he said. Aside from traditional Mexican cuisine like fajitas, burritos and tacos, Adela’s offers pasta, steak, seafood and tacos.
“This is not 100 percent traditional (Mexican), but we try to be as close as we can to the traditional food,” Monsalvo said.
The menu also includes specials like Tres Generations, which includes grilled chicken, ribeye steak and grilled shrimp with rice, refried beans and avocado salad. Another dish, Molcajete Grilled, comes with steak, chicken, six shrimp, chorizo, queso fresco, avocado and cactus, served with rice, beans and guacamole salad.
The bar serves drinks like the Paloma, a traditional Mexican cocktail made with tequila, grapefruit soda and fresh squeezed lime juice over ice and decorated around the rim with Tajín, Chamoy and fresh orange.
While the menu items are diverse, Monsalvo said they were not created by a chef, but by other cooks at restaurants where he previously worked.
Monsalvo said his dream was to open a restaurant. Before working in food establishments, he worked in fields, planting trees and picking onions, apples and peaches. Campos owns four other Mexican restaurants in Kentucky. The co-owners met while working together in a restaurant more than two decades ago.
Adela’s Mexican Kitchen is at 1436 Charlotte Highway in Lancaster. The restaurant is open 11 a.m.-10 p.m Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. - 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Visit www.adelasmexicankitchen.com for details.
This story was originally published March 24, 2021 at 8:37 AM.
