Generations Flock to La Paloma

La Paloma has been a home away from home for Route 66 travelers and La Verne, California locals since its founding in 1966. In October 2024, mother and son team Cindy and Brian Zajicek shared the story of their family-run Mexican restaurant and property.

Brian Zajicek: "I'm Brian Zajicek. I am the manager and the grandson of the founders of La Paloma."

Cindy Zajicek: "And I am Cindy Zajicek, I am the daughter of the founders of La Paloma, and a current owner."

The community's growth and rural development were driven by the cultivation, harvesting, packing, and shipping of citrus. Homes, packing houses, and fruit stands dotted a landscape dominated by orchards. In the early 1900s, the site that is now La Paloma was an orange grove with a fruit stand.

Cindy: "I remember orange groves right behind me, that are now senior living apartments. There was orange groves and at night you could just smell the orange blossoms and it was just beautiful fragrance and just all around the areas, orange groves. I certainly remember that."

Cindy: "The building was a restaurant called Wilson's Sandwich Shop, and from there, I think they added onto their business and it became a Wilson Steak House, but they also sold fruits along Route 66 back in the day."

Note: Pictured building is of a citrus packing house, not Wilson's.

Brian: "We do have a more authentic Sonoran Mexican menu that we try to adhere to with that style and taste."

Cindy: "Our restaurant is known for being generational. We've had people who've started coming here and they're proud of it. They'll come and just say 'You know, we've been coming here for 30 years, Our parents brought us here..."

Brian: "Almost everybody."

Cindy: "All of my aunts and uncles, including my parents were involved in the restaurant business. And it was all started from my grandmother. So I think she just kind of showed everybody how to do things."

Brian: "Kind of an oral history. Yeah."

Brian: "I've heard in the past that the decrease in traffic to Route 66 has decreased business. I know that there was the other freeway, but at least for as long as I've been here, nothing has quite been as catastrophic as the pandemic."

Brian: I think just the attention of the centennial is pretty exciting. I think being part of the history of the street that runs all the way across the nation from..."

Cindy: "California to Chicago, it's just the Mother Road."

Brian: "It's exciting to be a part of it really."