El Milagrito Cafe

This digital exhibit is about El Milagrito Cafe located at 521 E. Woodlawn. It was owned and operated by the Sonora family from 1969-2000. The Montoyas purchased the restaurant in 2004 and have owned it ever since. Is the oldest consecutively run establishment on the St. Mary’s Strip. Information for this exhibit comes from conversations with members of the Sonora family and newspaper articles. Visuals were shared by the Sonora family and myself, Abra Schnur.

Gilberto Sonora Sr.

Gilberto Sonora Sr. was born in 1935 in the town of Agujita, in Coahuila, Mexico. His family was part of the Mexican Revolution and Sonora has always taken great pride in this; adorning his establishment with photos of Mexican revolutionaries and Aztecan iconography.

Sonora worked as a field worker and coal worker, was a boxer and golf course greens-keeper in Mexico before moving to Texas in 1955. Sonora eventually moved to Mundelein, Illinois near Chicago, with his wife Lydia, in 1964. There they raised a family while Sonora was a groundskeeper for an East Chicago country club.

Mr. Sonora standing outside 521 E. Woodlawn as seen in the Daily Commercial Recorder.

Mr. Sonora in a boxing match.

Mr. Sonora at the Brackenridge Park Driving Range.

The Little Miracle

El Milagrito at 3012 N. St. Mary's St. The building is no longer there.

In 1968 after purchasing restaurant equipment, Sonora took several trips down to San Antonio, moving his family to the Northeast side of town. The move was riddled with challenges, so in 1969 they named their new business El Milagro because they felt it was indeed a miracle that they had made it. However, the business was quickly sued by another restaurant on the Southside of San Antonio, El Milagro Molino. At the suggestion of lawyer Mike Hernandez, Sonora changed the name to El Milagrito (the little miracle).

El Milagrito started out as a tortilleria located in a space located in the triangle of N. St. Mary’s, King’s Court and Mistletoe. This also happened to be an earlier location of Teka Molino, which moved down to 2403 N. St. Mary’s by that time.

Popularity of El Milagrito’s food quickly grew and in 1970 they moved to 3012 N. St. Mary’s. The space was built in the early 1950s and served as a storeroom, an appliance repair shop, and seashell gift store. It measured a simple area of 25 x 25 feet. The cinder block structure was not much larger than a living room. The restaurant held eight tables and 30 chairs. Daily preparations would start at two in the morning, with Lydia leading the kitchen with eventually their children attending to customers, serving as many as 300 people a day. Many of the classic offerings were named after family members, such as the Taco Lalito and the Chalupa Roberto.

Move to 521 E. Woodlawn

In May of 1990 El Milagrito moved across the street to 521 E. Woodlawn.The building was a restored historic home, which became part of the many restaurants opening up in the 1980s. Prior to it becoming El Milagrito, it was Bon Appetit and Bastille. Moving into this new space provided more room to serve customers, with an occupancy of 120.

The Sonora family with their new sign at the Woodlawn location.

Billboard for a voter registration campaign with Gilbert Sonora Jr.

Su Voto es Su Voz

Much of the ambiance and familial vibe was because of son Gilberto Jr.’s welcoming nature. He became synonymous with the El Milagrito experience. As his family recalls, he would greet everyone by saying, “Looking good!" as they would come into the restaurant. During the 1990s he was part of a voter registration campaign with the Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project.

New Ownership

In 2000 After nearly three decades, the Sonora family decided to retire from the restaurant and lease the business for a few years. Then in 2004 Amador Montoya from Monterrey, Nuevo Leon Mexico was looking for a business opportunity in San Antonio. Sonora sold the business to Montoya in late 2004 and their family has owned El Milagrito ever since. Much like the Sonoras, the Montoyas have made this a family business, as you will find son Amador Jr. running the register and daughter Lili serving customers.

El Milagrito in the late 1980s.

Legacy

Like all businesses in the strip, it was greatly impacted by the pandemic and the road construction. However, El Milagrito remains to many an important fixture of the N. St. Mary’s Strip. Area students, neighborhood residents, business and city employees, members of the military, and people who have moved away still return to support the restaurant.

Menus Over the Years

T-Shirts Over the Years

What El Milagrito Means to Me

I’ve been going to El Milagrito since I was too young to remember. I lived in the Edison, Tobin Hill, and River Road areas until I was seven, but my grandparents had lived on Mistletoe since the mid-1970s and El Milagrito was definitely their neighborhood restaurant. I remember the cramped feeling of the older building. It wasn’t a bad feeling, it made you feel good to be around it, to be part of it. It was always packed and bustling! When they moved into the Woodlawn location, I wanted to have my birthday dinner there, so we did! I think it was during their brief period of being open in the evenings. El Milagrito served as the place of countless breakfast tacos after early softball games and for family gatherings.

Me in the stroller with my step-aunt and step-grandmother outside the 3012 N. St. Mary's location. My grandfather was behind the camera.

Leticia Sonora and I at my 7th birthday party at El Milagrito.

Me and Leticia Sonora at El Milagrito in May of 2024 for the St. Mary's Strip History Harvest.

(Above) Me, my oldest daughter, and my grandfather at El Milagrito in 2011. (Below) "Another Happy Customer" was the caption of this photo of my daughter on a Facebook post from the restaurant in 2013.

When I moved back to Tobin Hill in my 20s, it took on new meanings for me. The first, as a hangover cure. Let’s just be honest. But second, and more important, it became a place where my grandfather and I could connect on a deeper, more “adult” level. I moved away from San Antonio in 2008 and my step-grandmother passed away in 2010. More than ever, it became a place of comfort for my grandfather. Before mobility became too difficult, I know he was going every morning.

He was there for when my oldest daughter had her first rice and beans, her first Tex-Mex, as we visited from Baltimore. Unfortunately he wouldn’t get to see that with my second daughter as he passed away before she started eating solid food. When he died, we couldn’t think of a more appropriate place to hold his celebration of life, and the Montoya family graciously agreed to open the restaurant for us. Family and friends gathered as we shared stories and photos. I don’t remember if we had food (memory is funny). But being in the space was enough.

This is why I keep going back to El Milagrito. Admittedly, it is hard for me to do, which is why I don’t go as often as I feel I should, to support my favorite local business. There are times though when I just so desperately need to be with him. Sometimes I go with my family, but I also go alone. To just -be- with the memory of him.

Written by Abra Schnur, 2024

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