
January 6, 2025
WAUPACA – A new, family owned, Mexican-American restaurant is open to feed patrons in the Waupaca area.
El Poblano Mexican-American Grill (N2717 County Road QQ) is co-owned by Hector Torres, his parents, Tony and Veronica, and his three brothers – Tony Jr., Caesar and Michael.
Hector said he was the driving force in opening the restaurant in Waupaca as the family already had a successful establishment in the Wautoma area – El Popo.
Hector said his dad opened El Popo with experience he gained having worked for other family restaurants after he left Mexico and moved to Wisconsin at age 15.
“He’s always worked for Albanian people before he opened up his own restaurant, and they all have just regular family restaurants, which is pretty much just American food,” Hector said. “So that’s what he knew how to make and then he just added the Mexican part.”
A family operation
When looking to expand his family’s restaurant portfolio, Hector said they settled on the building in Waupaca because of its proximity to their hometown of Wautoma.
“We were looking for buildings, and it was the only one that we could find that was relatively close to home,” he said. “There were a couple that we looked at in other smaller towns, but (they were) just bad buildings.”
Hector said he was inspired to branch off from El Popo because there wasn’t a lot of work left to do to ensure its success.
“I mean, I was helping, but I didn’t have to help a lot because everybody already knew their positions and what they had to do,” he said. “So I went from not doing anything to now doing everything.”
Managing the day-to-day operations of El Poblano is the new challenge Hector said he was looking for while still utilizing his experience in the restaurant industry.

“I just wanted to do something,” he said.
Though still receiving help from their father for a few hours a day, Hector said the Waupaca restaurant is mostly maintained by him and his brothers.
“It’s just me and my brothers, and we take turns taking breaks,” he said. “One of us is always here just to make sure everything’s running smoothly – and if anybody has questions we can guide them in the right direction, because we’ve only been open for a little bit. So our employees are still learning.”
Quality, multicultural cuisine
Utilizing the groundwork laid by their father, Hector said El Poblano’s menu nearly mirrors that of El Popo with a few notable additions.
“We have the fajitas on the sizzling plate,” he said. “That’s not a thing at the other restaurant, but it’s pretty popular around here. So now (Tony’s) thinking about doing that at the other restaurant.”
Hector said another difference between El Popo and El Poblano is that the Waupaca establishment has a full bar to serve its patrons various drinks, including their specially made margarita.
“Our margarita recipe probably took us two years to make – just to find the perfect recipe,” he said.
The building El Poblano is currently housed in has seen several restaurants come and go over the last five years, Hector said – so some of his current patrons will reminisce on good times previously spent there.
“They’re nostalgic about it, like it reminds them of the good old days,” he said. “People are just happy that the building is up and running with a good menu and good prices.”
Hector said because of the high establishment turnover in that building, he thinks people may be a bit hesitant to eat at El Poblano.
“Even people to this day, they come up to us and they’re like, ‘I didn’t believe that it was actually new ownership.’” he said. “We’re trying to get that reputation back… so we’re successful.”
Hector said Tony is the mastermind behind the menu at El Poblano.
“Mexican food is (something) that my dad spent years trying to make (taste) good,” he said. “Our salsas are all homemade. Those took years of trial and error – of (finding) the perfect recipe. Everything’s made in-house here.”
To encourage customers return to El Poblano, Hector said he and his cooks will quality-test every dish sent out of their kitchen.
“I told my cooks… whenever we do get an order, you better make sure that it goes out right so that they do come back,” he said. “Just (to) make sure that everything goes out right and tastes good, we’ll taste everything.”
Hector said though El Poblano’s kitchen closes at 9 p.m., they are open later to accommodate those looking for drinks and a few rounds of pool.
“I have two (Diamond) pool tables right now, but we’re gonna get two more… I would say they’re the best tables in the market,” he said. “We’re the only people in Waupaca with that kind of table – so we have pool tournaments, and sometimes we’ll stay open till 11 (p.m.) or 12 (a.m.). Right now we have no food to offer because our kitchen closes at nine. But once we get our pizza menus done, we’ll be able to offer (that).”

The pizzas on El Poblano’s menu, Hector said, will also be made in-house.
“They’re not frozen like what you serve at other bars,” he said. “We’re gonna have a Mexican pizza with onions, jalapenos and tomato and your choice of meat. You could put any meat you want on it: steak, pastor (marinated pork), chicken or you can put beef tongue – we’re really thinking about this.”
Paying homage to heritage
Hector said both the names El Poblano and El Popo are nods to his family’s heritage.
“They’re both paying respects to the state where we’re from – Puebla,” he said. “El Popo is the volcano that’s right where we live. If you search up the volcano on Google Maps, our little village is probably 10-20 miles from the base of the volcano.”
The second name, Hector said, has roots in the name people from Puebla are called and a crop the state is known for.
“We’re Poblanos,” he said. “And people from Puebla are called that because we (grow) a lot of poblano peppers – just like how Wisconsin is known for making cheese, our state is known for (growing) poblano peppers.”
Combining their heritage with the American cuisine of their current home, Hector said, felt like an obvious choice when establishing El Popo and when expanding into El Poblano.
“We have the chile relleno, which is a poblano pepper stuffed with cheese… (and) we have mole, which is another staple from Puebla,” he said. “(But) we (also) have chicken-fried steak. That’s not from Mexico – that’s where the American part comes in.”
Though Hector said they are currently leasing the building where El Poblano is located, he wants to assure the community they’re not going anywhere.
“Even if we don’t come to an agreement after the lease is done, we have other buildings in Waupaca that we can move into already,” he said.
To learn more, visit elpoblanogrill.com or find the restaurant on social media.