NOVEMBER 2019 MARKETPLACECONTRACOSTA.COM 33
Breakfast Burritos, just to name a
few. Breakfast is served in Point
Richmond Mondays through
Saturdays from 8:30 AM to 11:00
AM.
Armando and Josephine
personally prepare most of the
food at their respective locations,
assisted by dependable, longterm
cooks. All of El Sol’s food
is homemade from scratch using
fresh, locally sourced ingredients,
including their salsa and their
signature red and green mole
sauces that are used in many
of their menu items. Food is
prepared fresh daily, with cooking
starting as early as 4:00 AM most
days. Armando, Josephine, and
Ramon typically work very long
days to run both locations and
their catering business, so the
restaurants are closed on Sundays
for rest and coveted family time.
Josephine and Armando were
high school sweethearts since ninth
grade, so she has been around this
long time family business since the
Rodeo location opened in 1982.
However, Josephine did not begin
working at El Sol until many years
later. After college, she worked
as a landscape architect for many
years. Her last position before
she transitioned to work at El Sol
was with the East Bay Regional
Park District. Although she
thoroughly enjoyed her landscape
architect career, Josephine had
long harbored a passion to develop
El Sol’s catering business. For
many years, the Rodeo restaurant
had prepared large take-out
platters, upon special request
from their customers, for events
such as birthdays, baby showers,
baptisms, quinceaneras, and holiday
celebrations. Josephine wanted to
expand that aspect of the business
by enhancing the catering menu
and marketing their services
to a broader network. When
Armando’s parents eventually
stepped away from the business,
Josephine partnered with Armando
to begin her focus on the El Sol’s
catering business. Although she
now operates the Point Richmond
restaurant, she continues to focus
on further expanding El Sol’s
catering opportunities. Her efforts
have been successful thus far, as El
Sol now provides regular catering
services for many large business
and corporate customers, including
Bio Rad, Chevron, Mechanics
Bank, Kaiser, Pacific Gas &
Electric, and the West Contra
Costa County School District
(WCCSD), just to name a few.
They continue to provide catering
for personal and special occasions,
from small to large events,
including weddings, anniversary
and retirement parties. All catering
orders are prepared on site in
the kitchens of the two El Sol
restaurants by Armando, Josephine
and their experienced staffs.
I used to eat occasionally at the
Rodeo El Sol during the years that
my daughter took dance lessons
nearby. I hadn’t eaten there for
many years, and was pleasantly
surprised to learn about there
being a second restaurant in Point
Richmond. For this review, my
guest and I visited El Sol on a
Friday evening, arriving between
5:30 and 6:00. Parking in Point
Richmond was quite challenging,
as there are no parking garages
and there was no street parking
available. After several trips around
downtown, we found a spot, and
then strolled down Park Place
to find El Sol. We initially were
uncertain as to which storefront
was El Sol as there was no visible
signage. (We later learned that the
exterior sign had blown off during
a recent storm.) We entered and
sat at a table near the front of the
dining area, and began to look
over the menu. A waitress brought
us water and complimentary chips
and salsa as we pondered our
selections.
El Sol’s menu has a plentiful
variety of items from which to
select, many of which are standard
fare at most Mexican restaurants-
224 PACIFIC AVE | RODEO | 510-799-7070 | ASK FOR ARMANDO
MON – SAT: 11:00 AM – 8:00 PM