Maria Luisa Mendoza sits with her hands folded on the edge of a two-top covered with a weathered forest-green vinyl tablecloth. Her prescription glasses hang from an oversized croakie and clank against the table when she turns to look behind her as a server drops off the two chalupas plate to a young woman. The customer crunches into the vegetarian tostadas topped with the restaurant’s signature refried beans, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and guacamole.
“Our refried beans with some tortillas or tostadas is my favorite. We mix some aguacate and pico de gallo in at the very end—it’s delicious,” Maria Luisa says.
Maria Luisa and her husband, Jesus Mendoza, opened Mr. Natural on East Cesar Chavez Street on Oct. 7, 1988, and celebrate 34 years in business this month. When they arrived from Mexico, East Austin was home to only a few restaurants like Cisco’s (1943), Tamale House (1961), and Jo’s Bakery (1962). Adding a completely new flavor to the neighborhood, the health food concept was the first of its kind here—bringing vegan and vegetarian food to a city that loved barbecue, American diner fare, drive-thrus, and stick-to-your-ribs Tex-Mex. The restaurant portended the beginning of a transformation in East Austin that would later prompt businesses like Cenote and Counter Culture Cafe to open on Cesar Chavez as well.
The Mendozas first met in Monterrey, Mexico, in the 1970s. Maria Luisa learned about vegetarianism while reading a comic book as a teenager and shared the book and her newfound knowledge with Jesus, then her boyfriend. She had no idea it would change the trajectory of their lives forever.
“I realized how truthful all the content of this book was,” she says. “‘I want to be vegetarian too, [Jesus] said to me.’ And I said, ‘me too—so let’s get married.’”
The Mendozas’ marriage marked the beginning of a lifestyle transformation. Soon after, the young couple attended a health consultation with a holistic doctor, whom they call Maestro Rafael; he later became their spiritual teacher. After studying under the maestro, Maria Luisa left her teaching job. She and Jesus decided to travel around Mexico to teach vegetarian cooking, yoga, kung-fu, and meditation to pursue their newfound purpose.
“What came with that was a holistic life, taking care of the physical body, your thinking, your emotions, but mainly your spiritual life,” she says. “And when you have that, there is so much inside of your life to keep you going forward.”
However, Maria Luisa’s family wasn’t thrilled by their dramatic pivot. “Oof, they thought we were crazy,” she says with a laugh.
After a visit to see her aunts, uncles, and cousins—longtime residents of East Austin—the Mendozas decided to move to the United States with their daughter, Isabela, and their son, Jesus Jr. Their youngest son, Jose, was born in Austin just months before they opened the shop. Maria Luisa says he is like their real-life Mr. Natural because he grew up in the business.
Early on, she and Jesus sold house-made yogurt, granola, baked goods, vegetarian tamales, and vegan-ceviche (no longer offered on today’s menu). Maria Luisa’s goal was to reteach the Hispanic community about the medicinal properties of good food and herbal remedies from their ancestral heritage. She taught vegetarian cooking classes and yoga, while Jesus taught meditation and kung-fu. Soon after, the Mendozas began a tradition of an all-you-can-eat buffet every first Sunday of the month.
Isabela says her mother had ingenious ideas to bring in customers in the early days. “When we started, we didn’t have any plates for people to eat on,” she says. “So, she started telling people, ‘Hey, bring your favorite plates, and we’ll vote and choose the prettiest one. Whoever wins, your meals on us.’” Over time, the tradition expanded to every Sunday, then grew beyond that as the restaurant attracted non-Hispanics over to the East Side on weekends—something unheard of among Austin residents at that time. The buffet lasted until the beginning of the pandemic.
Today, the Mendozas, along with their cooks and bakers (some who have been with them since as early as 1989), serve a made-to-order menu that draws in diners from all over the city for beloved dishes: crispy potato flautas served with a bright herbaceous green salsa; mushroom, spinach, and cheese enchiladas smothered in spicy ranchero sauce; or the taco salad with soy chorizo, spanish rice, and a cilantro yogurt dressing. Customers also stop in for a plastic clamshell of eight fluffy vegan chocolate doughnuts (dangerously eatable in one sitting), a slice of moist vegan tres leches cake, or a glass of the pineapple spinach agua fresca.
To Maria Luisa’s delight, Mr. Natural now functions as a family affair with Isabela running the East Cesar Chavez location, Jesus Jr. running the bakery, and Jose at the head of the vitamin and herbal shop. As East Cesar Chavez continues to transform into a strip of trendy bars, restaurants, and lofts, Isabela screens calls from developers weekly. She tells them they won’t sell the restaurant for less than $20 million.
With its limestone masonry walls and plastic green corrugated patio cover, Mr. Natural still stands as a time-honored relic with an old Austin aesthetic. And the Mendozas uphold the original promise made to each other when they married: to live life as vegetarians, share the teachings of their spiritual Master, and keep Mr. Natural a community hub of spiritual wellness and healthy eating.