Our Friend Ernesto and his restaurant

In 1994, we asked a vendor on the beach in front of our resort, Los Tules, in Puerto Vallarta, where he goes to get a great CHEAP meal.  He directed us to "Ernesto's Good Grub."  Ernesto's was housed in a small, open-air storefront with a roll-down garage door used to close the entire front of the place at closing time.  No more than four tables, a kitchen, a bathroom with a shower curtain for privacy and a yellow labrador retriever that took up much of the available floor space made up the whole place.  Ernesto waited tables and his wife, Dionesia was the cook - I mean the chef - and a couple of women helped her in the small kitchen.  The food was glorious.  Later that week, Barb and I took my Dad and Mother there. Mother had me stand guard at the shower curtain while she used the toilet, but the food was terrific once more.  And did I mention CHEAP?


When we came back another year, we were a party of seven, but Ernesto's was gone!  We were directed to a hotel where a big banner strung from the balcony of the open air top floor proclaimed "Ernesto's Good Grub."  When we arrived, it looked like a really nice restaurant, but not a soul was in the place except Dionesia and a waitress, but we were welcomed, served a great meal and it was still CHEAP!


In subsequent years, we didn't see the sign and didn't find Ernesto's again.  When we purchased our timeshare at Los Tules, it was Beverly who was the salesperson who sold it to us.  Several years later, we had bought a second week in a huge unit during Spring Break and Beverly had become the concierge at Los Tules.  She had a booth near the pool by our unit. We talked with her often and we became friends. She had married the agent with whom she worked and who had closed our original purchase.  One day we mentioned Ernesto's and how we loved the food, but lost track of him years ago.  Beverly exclaimed that she and Roy were friends of Ernesto's and that his restaurant was within a kilometer of Los Tules.  We went there that same day and we told Ernesto how we had been patrons in the past and that we were so glad to find him again!  The food was still great and still CHEAP!  Now, however, their daughter, Jackie and some nieces wait tables and Ernesto visits the tables to schmooze a bit with patrons before settling into his chair to watch sports programming on the TV on the bar.  He gets up now and then to give directions or to adjust a fan to make us more comfortable.  Dionesia wins the award for the Best Tortilla Soup in all of Puerto Vallarta year after year and they have an all-you-can-eat ribs night on Thursdays.  The seafood is still wonderful and we love this place.

Mary, Mick and Barb - March 2011

Ernesto gives credit to the chef - Dionesia

As we came for lunch last week, I was thinking to myself that my greeting would go something like, 'Hola, old friend! Are you still alive?', but he wasn't there.  He has been gone in the past, out fishing or hunting, but this time, after we had been sitting a while, I noticed the altar and the banner.  At first glance, I thought it was a Dia de los muertos - Day of the Dead - decoration, but then realized it was real and that it was for Ernesto.  We were stunned.  When Jackie came to wait on us we gave her our condolences and I got up and held Dionesia's hands and kissed her on the cheek telling her that we were so sorry for her loss.

My translation:  "Give a child a fish and eat that day. Teach him to fish and eat forever." We thank your wife, daughter, grandchildren and friends and all those of you who found in him a teacher.

Click on the photo to enlarge it

I urge you to find Ernesto's Good Grub on the corner of Raphael Osuna and Milan in the Versailles District, raise a cerveza or a margarita (or both) to Ernesto's memory and enjoy one of the best meals at the best price in all of Puerto Vallarta.  Vaya con Dios, mi amigo.