“I’m inspired to be better every single day,” El Rincon bartender Miguel “Mikey” Reyes Cruz said through translator Roxana Cardiel de Niz. “Because for me, every single day is a new chance to learn and I think that as long as I can continue to do this, then I should do it as if it were my first day … because for me tomorrow maybe won’t exist.”
Rincon del Tlaquepaque, or El Rincon, first opened its doors in April 1976, and has a claim to being the “oldest family-owned and operated restaurant in Sedona.”
“Over the years, turnover with their 25 employees has been small,” Discover Tlaquepaque magazine wrote of the restaurant.
Among these, 63-year old Cruz has been mixing drinks at El Rincon almost daily for the last 25 years.
“[Cruz] does everything from scratch,” shift manager Ivan Benitez said. “He’s also doing an outstanding job making all the mixes, making all the drinks, and making sure that it’s all house made. He does his personal touch on almost everything.” Agave syrup, for example. “He hates the stuff [and] he doesn’t use it,” Benitez said.
“I have known him for more than five years, he’s friendly, he loves to help,” line cook Armando Juan said. “He’s a really nice guy, we like to have fun working. [When] we have our Christmas party [for El Rincon staff] we have music and drinks and [Cruz is] the one making drinks too for us.”
Continual self-improvement is a lesson that Cruz said he took to heart following the COVID-19 pandemic, and what he said has kept him coming back to work at El Rincon for a quarter of a century.
“After the pandemic, I’ve learned that you should only live for the day that you’re in,” Cruz said. “Because of the pandemic, everything shut down one day to the next without knowing that it was going to happen.”
Cruz spent his first year at the restaurant bussing tables before moving over to bartending, which he is now doing six days a week.
“Miguel is a very responsible person,” El Rincon manager Maria “Chaly” Ortiz Mendedhall said. “[He’s] never missed a day of work. He worked seven days a week for years. We practically forced him to start taking a day off, because he needed a break and after the second week, he realized it was beneficial, he liked it and he wants to keep having a day off.”
“He’s only not here, like, half a shift,” Benitez said. “Today they gave him the whole day off, which is amazing for him, he rarely gets that. But he’s happy to be here. They don’t have another bartender because he’s more than happy to be here, because they’re so tight-knit. Usually on his time off, you’ll see him hanging around with his whole family, which is really cute. It will be like six or seven of them and they are just chilling here.”
While Cruz said he enjoys all of Sedona, he would rather be running through the red rocks than walking. Since he jogs as many days as he works, Cruz’s favorite routes are State Route 179 and the three miles from Tlaquepaque to the Chapel of the Holy Cross every Wednesday.
“Miguel is very healthy and we want to see him at El Rincon for many years to come,” Mendedhall said.
Photo courtesy Miguel Cruz
“I participate in the [Sedona] Marathon,” Cruz said. “I like sports a lot. I like to run because it’s my favorite hobby. I run in the morning at 6:30 a.m. I have been lucky in the way that people come into the restaurant and say, ‘Hey, I saw you run.’ I know that I am old and I don’t want to get hurt. But I do also like soccer.”
A typical day off for him involved running seven miles, followed by chores and meal preparations. Cruz is gluten-free and eschews soda and anything with sugar.
“[My] favorite meals to prepare are Mexican food, like Mexican beef steak I can make at home because I like to cook, too,” Cruz said, adding that barbecuing with his family for his birthday along the river holds a special place in his heart.
“I love my work [and] the job, I like to do what I do and I do it with pleasure and this restaurant is like my second home,” Cruz said. “Being a bartender is my job and I love to do it, I like to serve the customers. We have a lot of local customers that have known me for years. We also have customers that are multi-generational. First came the parents that are now deceased, and now the children come.”
Cruz said one of the things that most excites him is seeing returning customers and getting to experience a part of their lives as snapshots over time.
“I’m excited because I know they come here for our specialties and the food is good,” Cruz said. “This restaurant has been around for such a long time, so it’s almost like we feel like family. I’ve learned from their stories … they tell me how their year went … and when they come here they’re happy to see me: ‘Oh, Miguel is here.’”
Cruz noted that customers often ask if he is still running, which motivates him to keep up his regimen.
“All the locals love him, he’s awesome,” Benitez said. “He makes their drinks and takes half their order before they even sit down. He’s super attentive, a very hard worker.”
That drive was what first led him from his birthplace in Puebla and his hometown of Mexico City to Los Angeles in 1986.
“I was seeking an opportunity to be able to advance in life so I could work for my family. That was my inspiration to be in this country,” Cruz said.
In Los Angeles, Cruz sold shrimp cocktails. He would eventually relocate to Sedona to join his two brothers.
“I divorced in 2003,” Cruz explained. ”With my first wife I have my five children [Sandra, Martha, Hector, Francisco and Jose], and with my current wife [Feben Cruz] we had my daughter [Marilyn] and my grandson [Michael] that I view as one of my sons. That’s why I have so many children. I met [Feben] because we’re from the same town. I met her when we were young but nothing happened. After I was divorced, I saw her again in Mexico City because we were family friends … [eventually] we decided to live together.”
Feben Cruz would also go on to work at El Rincon for almost a decade.
“Everyone just works super comfortably together,” Benitez said. “We’ve had the same team for years, mainly with Miguel and the workforce we have around him. So it’s really hard for people to butt heads … When we do get someone [new], it’s someone that you can expect to leave sooner or later, like they replaced a high school kid that was working a host or busser position. But for the most part the people who work here … they’re here for good.”
“I want to thank God and my bosses have giving me the confidence [and] the trust to work in this restaurant,” Cruz said. “When I came to this restaurant, I never imagined that I would be here for 25 years. When I started here my only intention was to start working. But thank God I’ve been working in this restaurant for 25 years.”
