Not Really a Restaurant Review But a Shout-Out for El Maguey de Cotija

I know that this restaurant is not in our Ocean Beach / Point Loma area. However, I think that a shout-out should go to them for what they did. What do you think?

My husband – before he passed on – was a member of Veteran’s for Peace. I have kept semi-active in the organization and I think they do some wonderful things.

Today I received this message from Kate Beckwith – a retired Veteran – that hands out sleeping bags with so many others.  I think this might be appropriate to repost because it talks about a restaurant – one that should be given plaudits for what they did.

A feel good story about an amazing restaurant…

I went out again on Monday night with San Diego Veterans For Peace to distribute sleeping bags to the homeless downtown, part of our ongoing Compassion Campaign. As usual, it took us little more than an hour to deliver bags to 24 needy people who were sleeping on the streets without adequate protection from the cold. We could have handed out 124, the need is that great…

We came upon a woman with her 4 boys, probably 18mo – 7yrs old. They’d been waiting at one of the shelter doors to see if there was enough room for them to sleep inside for the night – sadly, there wasn’t. We gave them 4 sleeping bags, and they crossed the street to bed down. It bothered us that we had to leave them there. We drove further downtown, to ask if there might be room at another shelter, only to find it was closed completely, due to plumbing problems. We drove back to where the mom and her children were to let her know we weren’t able to find a place for them to sleep safely indoors.

The children looked hungry, and as we drove away, Dave remembered a Mexican take-out restaurant we’d noticed earlier, only a few blocks away. The 3 of us pulled money out of our pockets, but it was after 8pm, and the restaurant worker told us they’d just closed and couldn’t help us. We explained that we just wanted some food for the hungry children who were sleeping outside on the street not far away. I asked if maybe they had some rice or something leftover, that we were happy to pay.

The worker looked at us and said no worries, to put our money away. In a matter of minutes, he handed us a heavy bag filled with burritos he’d made fresh, rice, beans, tortillas…and another bag filled with bottles of water. He introduced himself as Christian, took our hands and thanked us. We introduced ourselves and squeezed his hands, thanking him. We drove the hot food back to the mom and her children, their faces lighting up in gratitude.

So, this is a shout out for El Maguey de Cotija restaurant, at 1870 Fourth St, San Diego. The people and food are nothing short of AMAZING, and we encourage everyone to eat there – often. Tell them San Diego Veterans For Peace sent you.  ?