Goodbye, Mr. Taco Guy

DANA POINT —  It is considered the passing of an era, reminiscent of the recent closing of the old Hobie Surfboards shop about a mile north on Pacific Coast Highway.

The landmark Villa Mexican Restaurant alongside Doheny State Beach closed its doors with a small, nostalgic party Sunday night, ending not only the longest run of any restaurant in this coastal city but a late-night South County tradition.

“After nearly 30 years of your life, with all the good times and bad times, it’s pretty tough,” said owner Gary Folgner, who opened the Villa in 1970. “But it wasn’t making any money, so we just decided to close. It’s the end of the Villa as we know it.”

Even more than its food, the Villa was known for its wild night life, for “Mr. Taco Guy” at midnight, its salty margaritas and its cocktail waitresses who made “I Love Villa Girls” bumper stickers a local cottage industry in the 1970s and 1980s.

“I can’t believe that it’s gone,” said Dan Lefler, a singer and songwriter from Dana Point who considered playing the Villa a rite of passage for local musicians. “Sometimes I played to two people in the audience, sometimes I played to 200, you never knew. But anyone who is a musician around here knew that if you were ever going to make it, you had to play the Villa.”

The beginning of the end came in 1995 when Folgner, who also owns the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano and the Galaxy Theater in Santa Ana, lost the adjoining Villa Motel to foreclosure. The 68-year-old motel was built by S.H. Woodruff, one of the early developers of Dana Point, and purchased by the Folgner family in 1956.

The motel has been refurbished and remains in business, said Dan Harkey of Capistrano Beach, its new owner. Harkey said he is looking for a new owner for the restaurant.

“The good news is that this an excellent location for a restaurant, about the best location in Dana Point,” Harkey said. “I’m hoping we can retain the Mexican theme.”

The theme may stay, but it would be impossible to duplicate the history the Villa restaurant and bar can claim.

In its heyday in the 1970s and early 1980s, it was a not-to-miss destination for the party crowd.

“They served dinner until midnight and there would be a line out the door until then,” said Janice Basich, 39, who became a Villa waitress after graduating from Laguna Beach High School in 1977 and now owns J.C. Beans Coffee House in Dana Point. “It was a really great place to work. We made good money at the time, people loved their margaritas and we had a lot of fun. It’s a shame it’s closing.”

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The closing also marks the end of the Villa’s midnight tradition--called “Mr. Taco Guy”--of serving a hearty spread of free tacos. The free offering typically brought people out of the woodwork of the community, some who had possibly not eaten in days.

“I didn’t want to do happy hours, people got too drunk, so we thought let’s feed them,” Folgner said. “It was a sobering effect. It was good.”

In 1980, the restaurant burned down and Folgner and his employees managed to scramble and reopen in 30 days.

“In 28 of those days, I had only four nights sleep,” Folgner said.

The Villa always had a loyal clientele, judging by the thousands of postcards from around the world that were plastered on the wall above the bar.

“If you’ve been around Dana Point for some time, you’ve been to the Villa,” said Diane Harkey of Capistrano Beach. “What will Dana Point be without it? It’s kind of sad.”

Many of its patrons are now claiming some of the old furniture for memorabilia, Folgner said.

“One guy wants to buy one of the booths and stick it in his garage,” Folgner said.

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Folgner plans to a keep a catering business going with the Villa name and perhaps relocate somewhere in Dana Point.

He has one year left on his liquor license and tried for seven months to open at the old Dana Trader and Sunset Grille site on Coast Highway.

“That would have been perfect, but there were so many restrictions on the building, we couldn’t have any entertainment whatsoever, it was like why be in business,” Folgner said. “If we can find another location, we’ll be back.”