Last week, the Vigil siblings — Amparo, Patricia, Lorenzo, Ofelia and William — gathered with friends and family in ceremony to remember their mother, Maria Refugio Vigil. Alongside her husband, Ildefonso Vigil, Maria opened two restaurants in the Mission District that have served authentic Jalisco cuisine for decades.
The couple opened Puerto Alegre at 546 Valencia St. between 16th and 17th streets in 1970, then Puerto Alegre #2 in 1992 at 2950 25th St., at the intersection with Bryant Street. The first is still in business today, while the second shut its doors in 2019, following Ildefonso Vigil’s death that same year.
On Monday, Aug. 26, Refugio Vigil died of congestive heart failure at her home in the Mission District, the same house where her husband had died five years earlier. She was 91 years old and was buried at Holy Cross cemetery in Colma, beside Ildefonso.
While they shared stories and memories at former Puerto Alegre #2, Refugio Vigil’s children described their mom as a woman who was, and is, a legacy of the Mission.
“Good, strong and very hard-working woman, so kind,” said Lorenzo Vigil. “Her heart and her smile, you couldn’t resist.”
“One of the things that I don’t think that any of us will ever get is her sazón,” her special seasoning, added Patricia Vigil while her siblings nodded and smiled in agreement. “We can make the same thing that she made, but it’s not her hand.”
Refugio Vigil brought her sazón all the way from her native Ayutla in the central-west Mexican state of Jalisco. She moved to the United States in 1957, following her husband, who had been going back and forth between the two countries for eight years.
The couple eventually settled in the Mission, and soon bought a building in partnership with Ildefonso’s three brothers, who also migrated around the same time. The group started a restaurant on the bottom floor of the property, where the wives cooked the recipes they had brought from Mexico.
The restaurant, “Mexico Lindo,” was located on Folsom Street between 19th and 20th streets, next to John O’Connell High School.
With so many cooks in the kitchen, the brothers decided to assign the restaurant to a different family at stipulated times.
Initially, a family had the restaurant for one day, then a week, a month and, finally, a year. But such a split did not work and, after 10 years, Refugio and Ildefonso Vigil sold their share.
The couple then made an investment that would change their lives forever: They bought the building at 546 Valencia St., where they opened Puerto Alegre.
“It wasn’t a really good neighborhood, and people told my dad, ‘You’re crazy to go over there.’ ‘Don’t do it. It’s going to fail,’” said Amparo Vigil. “But my dad was set on having his own restaurant.”
Refugio cooked and Ildefonso ran the front of the restaurant, with the siblings helping out at different times after school. It was a true mom-and-pop-and-kids operation, with a fish tank and a pool table.
People flocked to eat Refugio Vigil ‘s sazón in dishes like chile verde, birria, chile colorado, tostadas, enchiladas, menudo and burritos.
“People from the neighborhood would come with their ollas,” said Amparo Vigil, referring to clay bowls
Customers came in for the sense of community the space offered, and for that unique sazón that only Refugio could create.
“I think her legacy is her food. She was cooking at the restaurant until she couldn’t anymore,” said Patricia Vigil about her mom’s cooking. “We all tried to do the same as her. Everything was the same, but it wasn’t, because it wasn’t hers.”
Aside from her sazón, the siblings described their mother as a loving and generous person who enjoyed old-school music and Mexican movie stars such as Pedro Infante and Cantinflas, road trips and the beach. Above all, she had a passion for chiles.
“She always had a chile in her pocket,” said Amparo.
“She carried a little napkin with chili peppers,” added Lorenzo. “I remember being in Mexico with her at a resort one time, and they brought us food and then she pulled out her little napkin with different types of chiles.”
Amparo recalled their mother’s famous “tacos paseados” — tacos taken out, on a walk or a drive — rolled up with beans in a flour tortilla, wrapped in aluminum foil.
“She would make them and then she would go for rides,” said Amparo. “If you get hungry, you eat a couple, but when you brought them back, they were so much better because they had gone on a ride. That’s what she used to say.”
On Tuesday, Sept. 3, the siblings made enough tacos paseados for Refugio’s funeral service and burial. They distributed them to mourners at the church and the cemetery.
The siblings also wanted to make sure their mom had some for her next journey.
“We packed some up with her so she could take them out over there with her,” said Amparo Vigil.
Very lovely article 🫂 A neighborhood institution with delicious food and great people. Really wonderful to hear the story of the restaurants original and mother <3