Read the origin story of El Taller / Cafe Azteca

Written by Julie Todd

Mary O’Brien and Antonio Guerrero met in Mexico City, when Mary took a study year abroad during her junior year in college. Mary met Antonio’s sister-in-law Amelia at a bus stop. Amelia invited her to the Guerrero family Christmas Eve party, where she met Antonio.

Antonio’s sister Soledad’s family owned a metal shop called El Taller, in the part of Mexico City where Antonio grew up. The family’s apartment was above the metal shop. Since the family was scattered around the huge metropolis of Mexico City, they often met at Soledad’s house. Mary remembered hearing the family making plans: “I’ll see you at El Taller.” “Let’s meet at El Taller.” The metal shop El Taller is still there today.

Mary and Antonio got married after Mary’s college graduation. Eventually they moved to Massachusetts, to be near Mary’s family. They found a place to live in Lawrence, MA. Antonio started working for a local Mexican restaurant in the Merrimack Valley as a dishwasher. Eventually he moved up to help with the cooking. Working at numerous restaurants over the years, he kept saying, “I know we can do this better and cook better food. I want to create my own dishes. I want my own place.”

In 1994, Mary and Antonio opened their own restaurant, starting with ten tables at 180 Common Street, which would be the home of Café Azteca for 27 years. At first, only Mary and Antonio worked at the restaurant, opening only for lunch. Mary also worked as an English teacher for the Oliver School. At the end of the school day, Mary would walk across the North Common to clean the restaurant. They had no dishwasher. They served food on paper plates with plastic cutlery. The Guerrero's sons, Eric and Patrick, went to Café Azteca every day with Antonio. Some days when they had no business, they would play on The Common, and run in when they saw someone entering the restaurant. Little by little, business picked up. Café Azteca extended the hours and started to offer dinner. Over the years, Café Azteca expanded their space. They developed a faithful customer base who loved Antonio’s cooking.

In 2010, over on Essex Street, a new spot called Café Verde opened. Mary enjoyed going to Café Verde, loving the food and the ambiance. The owners of Café Verde often ate at Café Azteca and talked with Mary about how hard it was to keep a restaurant open. Eventually, they told Mary they were going to close. Mary said: “I got it in my head that we should do this. I want a Café Verde. I don’t want another bar. I want a place to go through books and have a cup of coffee. Maybe we need our own El Taller. A place where people go to meet.” The whole Guerrero family got on board with a vision and a big re-do of the space.

After college, Eric returned to Lawrence to support the new business. He remembered people questioning him, “Why would you open up a whole other restaurant less than a block away?” Over the years, the Guerreros had considered opening a second location for Cafe Azteca. Eric explained, “When we talked about opening another restaurant we thought about going to another city. We could be in a more convenient location with people who might have a little more money. Antonio could make even more specialized, expensive dishes. But we realized we wanted to stay in our community and fill a need we didn’t see in another city. We had to think about what would make it different. We didn’t start with what food we were going to serve, but the feeling that we wanted to provide and the energy around that. Then build the food around that. We started building around literacy. We decided that’s what was going to make it different.”

Of course they had to serve food. The original menu was a build-your-own torta, inspired by the Meatball Shop in New York City. The menu had to be simple so that Eric could manage it. Despite growing up literally inside of a restaurant, he had never learned to prepare dishes. Eventually, Eric learned how to tweak the sauces and dishes that were well known at Café Azteca, but gave them their own flavor at El Taller.

The bookstore part of El Taller was Mary’s dream. She said, “I grew up with books. I had a passion for books. Bookstores are my favorite thing in the world.” Mary’s passion for books is connected to her father. After running a bookstore for several years, Mary’s father became a traveling salesman, going from bookstore to bookstore, selling new and unpublished books across the northeast.

El Taller Café and Bookstore opened in 2012. Financially, it has been a challenge to keep it alive. The family keeps pushing and asking: “How do we keep it going?” Mary explained that she saw it like a Narnia, “I had a vision. I wanted this place to be a magical place that allows you to see another part of the world. Not by going far away, just by being in the space. I wanted a community space funded through good food and good books. I saw it as a place, like Antonio’s family, for people in the city to gather.”

Mary envisioned what the best space for writing would look like. El Taller gave the teachers and writers in the community a place to gather and call home. The Andover Bread Loaf Network, a collective of educators, youth, young adult writing leaders, teachers, and community organizers dedicated to liberatory writing and reading practices gathered to organize their events at El Taller. Many educators in the city were already connected to youth through public schools and youth organizations. Through them, El Taller recruited participants for their third Thursday open mics. Lou Bernieri, founder of the ABL Teacher Network told Mary, “If the kids/youth buy into this, then you’ll be fine. They’ll bring the power and the energy.” Writing and reading groups started blooming in the space. A volunteer book board organizes regular topical salons and events focused on the themes of the radical, revolutionary book selection on El Taller bookshelves.

El Taller started offering open mics. At first it was difficult. The first open mic was very poorly attended. Mary recalled that within the first couple of months, she had a conversation that helped her to know they were doing the right thing. “Elisa Salas came over to me after an open mic. I remember her with her big, beautiful hair. She said something like, “Who did this? I like it because you are not trying to concentrate on what we can’t do, you are concentrating on what we can do.” I thought, “Maybe this wasn’t a mistake. During open mic, they felt so much power. We were showing them what we can do together.” Eric has a strong memory of that same open mic. He said, “I remember the crowd after the open mic and Elissa chanting my mom’s name. We knew we were doing something the community wanted and needed.”

El Taller also curates art galleries, exclusively highlighting local visual artists on the walls of the cafe. “I remember the first Art Gallery we ever did – the Lawtown show.” Eric recalled “We promoted it all through Instagram with the hashtag #LawTownShow. We asked young people to upload photos of Lawrence that showed how they wanted to represent their hometown. We filled the whole space with all these photos. All these kids came in and saw all these photos that they took. It is one of our coolest galleries to date.” Since that first gallery El Taller has hosted more than three dozen local artist galleries. For many of the artists it is their first opportunity to share their art with the public. They learn about the process of curating a gallery with El Taller’s Gallery and Events Directors. It’s more than just hanging a piece of art on the wall. It’s about empowerment and personal, artistic expression.

In 2021, Café Azteca received news that their landlord would be raising the rent for the space by an astronomical monthly amount, which was impossible for the restaurant to absorb. Within months, it became clear that Café Azteca would have to close its long-time home on Common Street. Finding an entirely new location for the restaurant was unbearably costly, so the Guerreros decided to merge the two businesses in the El Taller location at 275 Essex Street.

Every week, Mary and Antonio see more and more Café Azteca customers coming over to the space at 275 Essex Street. Antonio said, “We had to cut the menu back a little. But if you call ahead, or ask if I can make one of your favorite dishes from the old menu, I’ll do it.” He is still making special signature dishes on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Leaving Café Azteca at the Common Street location was a big adjustment for the Guerreros and their customers. Eric shared, “It has been amazing to hear the feedback from Café Azteca fans. They really like the café style and flow of El Taller. We are still fine tuning things to get the most and the best out of the food and the community feel of the place.” Because Eric and Antonio are co-chefs, Eric is learning more about the beautiful dishes and sauces that Antonio creates and adds his adjustments to it. Antonio said, “I think the merger is working out great. We are bringing the best food from both restaurants. People have such good choices for so many good meals. And they can buy some good books, too!”