Full of flavor: Navarrete brings Tex-Mex to Brandon VFW
By:
Keeley Meier, staff writer
Keeley Meier/BV Journal
After his brick-and-mortar restaurant closed due to COVID, Rudy Navarrete took his Tex-Mex on the road. The Brandon VFW is one of the Iowa native’s regular stops.
In the 1960s, Rudy Navarrete’s family brought Tex-Mex to Iowa, and 60 years later, Navarrete has brought Tex-Mex to the Brandon VFW.
Navarrete had to close his Sioux Falls brick and mortar restaurant—Rudy M. Navarrete’s Tex-Mexican—due to COVID-19. However, the closure hasn’t stopped him from serving his family’s food to area diners.
Navarrete says his grandmother and family moved from Texas to Sioux City, Iowa, in the mid-60s.
“As a means to take care of herself and her kids, she introduced Tex-Mex food to the area before Taco Bell, Taco John’s,” Navarrete said. “It was a foreign food when she introduced it. So, when she started, she just used ground beef, beans, rice, sauces to keep it familiar.”
Since then, Tex-Mex has been a staple in the area, with his aunt and uncle still running the original Navarrete’s that was opened by his grandmother in 1970.
Navarrete’s dad expanded their reach beyond the restaurant and traveled to nearby cities to cook and serve the family recipes. Navarrete began helping his dad at a young age and had his first catering gig at the age of 18.
Eventually, he went on to take restaurant management classes and open additional restaurants with his aunt and father.
In September of 2018, he realized a long-time dream, opening Rudy M. Navarrete’s in Sioux Falls on 57th Street.
Then, the pandemic hit, and the restaurant wasn’t established enough to do carry-out, so Navarrete decided to cut his losses and sell the building.
But, that wasn’t the end for Navarrete, who travels to four cities in Northwest Iowa to serve his food.
He also found a home for his cuisine here in Brandon.
On the first and third Wednesday of each month, Navarrete prepares and serves Tex-Mex at the VFW, which is open to the public.
“Rudy approached some of the local bars and different entities after he lost his brick-and-mortar restaurant,” said Rick Vanden Hoek, commander of the Brandon VFW. “We decided to do this on a trial basis, and it’s been good for us and good for him, too.”
Last Wednesday, March 17, Navarrete transformed one of his bi-weekly dinners into a fundraiser for the VFW’s Veterans’ Relief Fund. Vanden Hoek says, in recent months, the fund has helped a local veteran whose daughter was hospitalized. The fund also supported the purchase $200 in groceries for each local veteran in need of assistance at Christmastime.
Navarrete says giving back to the community is his “warm and fuzzies.”
“They help out veterans and do other things for the community,” Navarrete said of the VFW. “I appreciate what they do.”
The March 17 fundraiser included a $10 all-you-can-eat dinner for adults and $5 for kids. Navarrete said his goal was to raise a couple thousand dollars with all proceeds going to the VFW.
During his normal Wednesday nights at the VFW, he serves his full menu.
“On a normal Wednesday night, we’ll have 10 to 15 people in the VFW,” Vanden Hoek said. “We’ve probably gained as far as 50 to 60 people through the door on these Wednesday nights.”
Navarrete said he’s starting to see familiar faces, which he appreciates, and a lot of new ones, which he appreciates even more.
“This is my purpose—to help others and get people involved,” Navarrete said. “I always say it’s like a ripple effect with giving because people get involved. It takes them just seeing it and then they want to be a part of it. Then they start doing their own things, and others want to join in, and that’s what I mean by ripple effect.”
Navarrete’s full menu includes a variety of options like tacos, burritos, enchiladas, nachos and entomatadas.
“Tex-Mex is known for a lot of flavor without the spice,” Navarrete said.
Navarrete makes his food fresh at the establishments he travels to and encourages attendees to try his Rudy’s Special—a flour tortilla with your choice of filling, topped with chili gravy, onion and cheese, plus another tortilla cheese baked with lettuce and tomato on the side—followed by mole. Mole is a traditional marinade and sauce originally used in Mexican cuisine and which Navarrete says contains cocoa, brown sugar, honey, peanut butter and typical Spanish spices. He says he encourages customers to try it, despite the uncommon combination of ingredients. After they try it, he says the hesitancy usually disappears.
“It’s just a matter of getting the food to the people,” Navarrete said.
For those interested in trying Navarrete’s authentic Tex-Mex, it’s served at the Brandon VFW on the first and third Wednesday of each month from 5 p.m. until it’s gone.
