Matta’s. It all Started when Manuel and Mary Lou Matta came into Town

Matta’s. It All Started When Manuel Matta and Mary Lou Came Into Town (pictured, Los Angeles, California, (1940s)

Arrived in Mesa 1950 from Los Angeles, Calif, and then moved back to Texas and learned the restaurant business from his brother Ben Matta. Moved back to Mesa, and opened Matta’s Spanish Inn Mexican Food. He continued to work as a welder part time in the mornings, and worked at the restaurant in the afternoon and evenings. The quarters of the Matta’s first restaurant were small, just enough to hold six booths and four tables, and the kitchen. Manuel cooked and washed dishes and so did Mary Lou. At the start, there were just the two of them. 

Later some high school girls were brought in to help part time. When the daily take rose from $25 to $60 to $100 a day, the Matta’s again hired a part-time cook’s helper and a dishwasher. after four years they erected a modern restaurant in a 50 x 60 foot building. The amount of people they could serve at one time rose to 160, and the daily take rose to $600 a day. This restaurant, too grew, and the Matta’s again saw the need for expansion. So in 1969, they began the planning and building of a new, larger restaurant, and in April of 1970 they opened with a seating capacity of 250 people, and converted the old part of the restaurant into a banquet hall that can seat 120 people.  In the past year they have had sales reach $750,000.00.

The Matta’s have six children and all of the family except their daughter, Gloria; work in the restaurant. the civic contributions of both Manuel and Mary Lou have been very large indeed and they have both received outstanding recognition for their work in behalf of others. Gov. Jack Williams appointed Manuel to the Arizona Civil Rights Commission in 1968. On May 27, 1966, he received a personal letter from then Vice President Hubert Humphrey commending him for his support of the president’s Youth Opportunity Campaign.

He has also given much of his time to the March of Dimes, and served as area Chairman. In 1967, he was chairman of the 38th National Convention of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), which was held in Phoenix in June of that year. 

In 1966, the then Arizona Gov. Sam Goddard cited Manuel for “outstanding service to the interest of the aging,” and he was also appointed to the Mesa Southside Hospital Board, and is now serving on the advisory board for Desert Samaritan Hospital. He has received an appreciation Award from the Mesa Optimist Club, of which he is a life member, for his service as chairman of the Sunshine Acres benefit dinner. He was Grand Knight of Mesa Council 3419 of the Knight of Columbus in 1968-1969. 

In 1971-72 he served as Vice Chairman for the Arizona Civil Rights Division Advisory Board; 1973 served as President of the Board of the Mesa Catholic Social Service; also in 1973 served on the Board of the Mesa YMCA, and is a member of the YMCA Century Club. In 1973-74 Manuel served as President of Mesa Noon Optimist Club, and has attended two national Conventions for the organization. 

Manuel is also very proud of his wife Mary Lou, who received the 1973 “Woman of the Year” Award as one of Mesa’s outstanding citizen for her community service.