After a successful guests-only event on Feb. 5, GG’s Cafe officially opened in San Juan Bautista to a full house on Feb. 10 as owners Susanne Delavarpour and Jesus Zavala took over the historic Mariposa and Third Street location previously occupied by Mission Cafe. The menu will initially focus on breakfast and light lunch items and the restaurant will be open daily from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. but closed Tuesdays.
Former Mission Cafe regular Dante Bains said he is happy to see the location open again. “I am very pleased so far,” he said. “The food is very good. The place is nice and clean and fresh. The service is great and it’s very convenient for the community.”
Zavala, who also owns San Juan’s JJ’s Burgers, brings 30 years of restaurant experience to the cafe, having gotten his start in the kitchen of El Camarón Feliz (“The Happy Shrimp”) in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico. After arriving from Mexico in 1997, he worked evenings at Jardines de San Juan as a busboy.
“My English was not too good, so I went to Gavilan College in the mornings to learn,” he said. “Eventually, the manager at Jardines, Carlos Ortiz, heard me speak a little English and told me I could start working in the bar. ”
After becoming a waiter and a shift leader, Zavala moved on to Chevy’s and Black Bear Diner, both in Gilroy, before opening JJ’s Burgers in 2004. “I liked working in restaurants and wanted to have my own,” he said. “And I’m a people person, so I enjoy being up in front, dealing with customers.”
Delavarpour, Zavala’s sister-in-law, jumped at the chance to get involved in the business.
“Having a little eatery is something I have always wanted to do,” she said. “And this place has always been important to the town as a breakfast place. So Jesus sat down and figured out a way to get in, set up and do this. From his experience, he knew what we needed to run the business, then we brainstormed the menu and everything else.”
The opening was delayed for over a month as much-needed repairs to the building were carried out and most of the kitchen replaced. As the opening approached, a group decision led to the new venture’s name.
“We all threw out silly names and then names to honor different family members,” she said. “We chose ‘Gigi’ because that’s the name my siblings and I called our grandmother. But then we felt we wanted to extend it to our grandparents, Laura and Herman Botelho and our logo is their silhouette.”
While the cafe’s walls are currently bare, the owners plan on decorating them with historical photographs. “We want to get black and white photographs of people from that era,” she said. “We want to honor the generations that made San Juan great.”
Though the iconic ‘Mission Cafe’ neon sign is still attached to the building—it’s protected by the city’s preservation guidelines—the new owners plan to make the ‘G&G’ name well known.
“Jesus has a wealth of knowledge about business and how to run things,” she said. “And so far, the response has been wonderful. We see a lot on social media from people who have been very pleased with everything and we hope to become an important part of our community.”
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