Maryland Community Newspapers Online
Agustine Zmiga was serving in the early days of the Iraq War, and while the Marine's focus was on the mission, his postwar plans were never far away. He wanted to open a restaurant, so he sent e-mails back and forth with his lifelong friend, William Amaya.
Four years later, Amaya and Zmiga are co-owners of El Patron Restaurant, which had its grand opening on Old Branch Avenue in Clinton last month. Buddies since second grade, Zmiga and Amaya said opening El Patron was the realization of casual conversations in high school that morphed into serious adulthood talks about managing a thriving business.
"You're always skeptical," Zmiga, 32, said on a recent Saturday afternoon at El Patron, "but you have to step up and take risks sometimes, right?"
El Patron serves an array of dishes from Mexico and El Salvador. And the recipes come from the best possible sources: Mom and grandma.
"If the cooks aren't sure how to make something," Amaya's mother or grandmother conducts a tutorial on the finer points of Salvadorian and Mexican cuisine, said Amaya, a District resident. Both were born in El Salvador.
"We try to make things as tasteful as possible," said Zmiga of College Park. "We're really going for that home-cooked taste, not that restaurant taste. At [chain Mexican restaurants], you lack that authenticity and that original taste. … If it doesn't taste like mom's food, we don't want it."
El Patron's authenticity is smothered all over the Tex-Mex fajitas ($12.95), which features chicken, shrimp and steak cooked in a special sauce – the secret ingredients weren't revealed – that separates it from ordinary fajita offerings.
Other Mexican dishes include chicken, beef and shrimp enchiladas ($9.95 - $10.95), burritos featuring chicken, shrimp or shredded beef ($9.95 - $10.95) and chicken and beef tacos ($8.95 - $9.95). Chimichangas, which come with sour cream, pico de gallo, guacamole and rice and beans, are offered with chicken ($9.95), shrimp ($10.95) and shredded beef ($9.95).
The Salvadorian side of El Patron's menu includes El Tipico ($9.95), chicken tamale, a pupusa and sweet plantains; Pollo a la Parrilla ($9.95), grilled chicken breast served with sautéed onions, green peppers and tomatoes; and Lomo Saltado ($10.95), fajita steak grilled served in a chef special sauce with plantains.
The restaurant's seafood options are Salmon Campeche ($12.95), which has broiled salmon served with sautéed shrimp, zucchini, carrots and saffron sauce; and Mariscada el Patron ($12.95), a combination of squid, clams, mussels and shrimp with saffron seafood sauce.
It didn't take long for Eli Cordero to become one of El Patron's most loyal customers. Cordero, a Virginia resident who works near the restaurant in Clinton, eats at El Patron several times a week with coworkers. He was even there for the grand opening, when Amaya and Zmiga brought in a mariachi band to serenade their first guests.
"I come here for the value, the fresh meat and the good service," Cordero said as he sat down for lunch on a hot August Saturday. The meat was a key for Cordero – the way it melts in his mouth keeps him coming back to El Patron.
"It's not plain," he said. "It doesn't taste like paper."
Amaya and Zmiga hope their restaurant's name – Spanish for "big boss"– draws the metro area's growing Hispanic population.
"They like it because it's very original," said Amaya, 31. "It reminds them of home."
"We want to bring that home feeling to customers," Zmiga said. "We want them to be able to relate."
El Patron
8319 Old Branch Ave., Clinton
Phone: 301-877-8180
Hours: Monday through Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
