lias Sifuentes left his home in Monterrey, Mexico forty years ago, making his home first in Los Angeles where he worked in a couple of restaurants. By the end of 1966, he was ready to go elsewhere and took a job with Houston’s Mexican Patio Restaurant. It was at that point that he began thinking seriously about the food business, maybe having a restaurant of his own. “I started working there and visualizing what I would do if it were mine, but I wasn’t ever dreaming this,” Sifuentes admits, looking around his office on Bossier City’s Airline Drive filled with memorabilia gathered over the past two decades. It was a job with Pancho’s (which is based in Houston) that transferred him to Bossier City in the late Sixties. This summer Elias Sifuentes will be celebrating twenty-five years as proprietor of the seven Nicky’s Mexican Restaurants in Shreveport, Bossier,
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Minden, and Springhill. The years at Pancho's were somewhat rocky, definitely disenchanting, so much so that Elias had to look for other work to support himself and his family. He took a job with the City of Bossier, starting at the bottom as a garbage man. His only regret today is that he never got to drive the truck. During that time he applied for and landed a job at General Electric, where he worked on the line. In 1979 he left GE and not long afterwards became reacquainted with Nicky Ponce. The two men began a Mexican eatery called La Margarita, “Suddenly though it closed, and I was unemployed; Nicky
and I both were unemployed,” In August of 1979 both men started Nicky's Mexican Restaurant along with co-founder Thomas Eason. Three years later, Elias bought out Nicky. With speaking very little english at the time that he left Nicky; Elias and Thomas Eason met the challenges of the restaurant business. Later on Thomas Eason retired and Elias Sifuentes became the sole owner of Nickys Mexican Restaurant. Elias has managed to bring us seven Nicky's Mexican Restaurants with great quality and service. Today Elias is joined by his son Johnny Sifuentes to continue the legacy of great food and service. ❖
Nicky’s Mexican Restaurant, a Legacy of Great Food, Quality and Service!
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