Family-owned Mexican restaurant in Gainesville closing after more than 30 years in business

A family-owned restaurant that's been a Gainesville staple for more than three decades is closing its doors for good later this month.

La Fiesta Mexican Restaurant, 9513 NW 39th Ave., will close on Dec. 16, according to David Castro, whose parents Jesse and Guadalupe Castro started the business in 1989.

"You just keep watching the bank account go down and down. You want to just have enough many to pay the employees," David Castro said. "Everything just keeps going up. It's a tough market now. It's a tough business."

Many loyal customers will remember La Fiesta's original Gainesville location, just east of I-75 near the La Quinta Inn off West Newberry Road. That location closed in January 2014.

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Regulars will certainly miss Guadalupe Castro's beans.

"They're pretty famous," David Castro said of her beans.

News of the planned closure spread fast on social media.

"This is heart breaking. I love this place," one person wrote on Facebook.

"My family is gonna need that refried bean recipe pleassssse," wrote another.

David Castro said he's not sure what's next for his family, only that they plan to take some time off and "regroup."

"Everything happens for a reason. God works in mysterious ways," he said. "It could be a good thing, it could be a bad thing. But we'll take it day by day."

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: La Fiesta Mexican Restaurant closing in Gainesville Florida