Just off Homer’s Main Street sits the Old Inlet Bookshop and its adjoining Mermaid Cafe. The building's owner established the space over 20 years ago, filling it with historic books and a cafe that’s hosted several restaurants over the years. Now, amidst the bookshelves and mermaid-themed decor, Timothy and Marilyn Gentry hope to write a new chapter – a family-run Mexican restaurant rooted in traditional recipes.
They call their menu “Mermaid Cocina”. Their recipes are derived from family recipes in northern Mexico, they call it “Sonoran-style”.
While they both grew up with these foods, Marilyn said she is carrying on a long-time family tradition.
“My Nana is the one that passed all these recipes down to us from generation to generation. And they just keep going, so I plan to teach these to my children as well,” Marilyn said.
They say they will focus on traditional-style cooking, a method that can be time-intensive. For one menu item, tamales, Timothy said the process of making them from scratch can take days.
“Everything that goes into the tamales is kind of a low and slow process. And then, of course, the assembly is very technical and takes a lot of time as well. So they disappear a lot more quickly than they take to produce,” Timothy said.
The couple held a grand opening last week after opening quietly earlier this month. Marilyn said they ended up being overwhelmed by the number of people who showed up.
“We ended up running out of all the food that we had prepared by 2:30 pm. But that same day, we just quickly got back to work and started prep for the next day, and kind of kept going,” Marilyn said.
While this is the first kitchen they will operate, they aren’t new to the restaurant rush. Timothy entered the industry when he was just 17 years old.
“I spent the first 12 years of my life in different kitchens working. That was my primary job,” Timothy said.
He then worked at several different restaurants once he got to Homer. Marilyn also has experience working in a restaurant. Timothy said operating a restaurant is a new experience for them and comes with some challenges like finding a reliable way to source ingredients.
He said they opened in Homer’s off-season to give themselves some room to get used to running the restaurant. Also, it allows them to build up their relationship with the community that lives here year-round.
“Our personal thinking is that when we really serve the community with great food and are attentive to their needs, as a business should be, then those people that visit us seasonally or live here seasonally, will benefit from that the way everyone else does,” Timothy said.
Overall, Marilyn said they are excited to see people come in – and to give them a taste from home.
