Credit: Brian Adkins
After 67 years in business, La Fiesta Mexican Restaurant was forced to leave its longtime home in Richmond Heights, where it had been since the mid-1970s. The restaurant originally opened on Cleveland’s near-west side in 1952, making it one of the first such restaurants in town.

Fourth-generation partner Brian Adkins, and great-grandson of founder Antonia Valle, had intended to relocate the popular eastside eatery to Beachwood, but those plans never materialized. Fortunately, a new home has been secured and the restaurant is just a few weeks shy of opening day.

The restaurant’s new location is at the Shoppes at Plaza Place (783-A Alpha Dr., 440-683-1014), a shopping plaza off Wilson Mills Road in Highland Heights. That lands the restaurant just a couple miles east of its former home.

When it opens in February, La Fiesta will offer the same mix of satisfying foods that Valle brought with her from back home in Michoacán. Both the space and the menu will be a tad trimmer than it had been down the road, with a sharper focus on the foods that people really love, according to Adkins.

This article appears in Jan 13-26, 2021.

For 25 years, Douglas Trattner has worked as a full-time freelance writer, editor and author. His work as co-author on Michael Symon's cookbooks have earned him four New York Times Best-Selling Author honors, while his longstanding role as Scene dining editor has garnered awards of its own.