Los Girasoles' Tex-Mex style food brightens Grinnell community

By Oliver Palmer

Los Girasoles, a family-owned Mexican restaurant located on West Street south of downtown Grinnell, opened six years ago in 2017. Since then, it has become known for its quality food, friendly service and as a great place to celebrate your birthday.

Los Girasoles offers indoor and outdoor dining, and it serves Tex-Mex style food along with a few traditional Mexican dishes. They offer a variety of drinks, including margaritas, cocktails and beer. They also offer catering options for businesses and sporting events.

“We try to focus a lot on good service and friendly service,” said Jairo Rosas, front-of-house manager.

Rosas said that while he used to be intimidated by large groups of customers, he has since grown to be more comfortable with bigger groups.

“We enjoy it when you guys are here, you know, the big ’ol groups of students. We enjoy making the margarita towers and stuff for you guys,” Rosas said.

brought in a lot more people in the summertime [after the remodeling was completed].”

Rosas said that Grinnell College graduations always provide a boost in customers.

“The community here is very nice to us, you know, so we like that,” Rosas said.

Rosas, who has a family of his own, said that he likes serving other families and making sure everyone has a good time.

“I enjoy just making sure everybody leaves happy, because when I go out to eat, I like a good time,” Rosas said.

Los Girasoles was opened by Rosas’ mother and her friend in April 2017, Rosas explained. “It took the restaurant a while for it to get the staff established,” Rosas said.

“My mom says that she enjoys working here in Grinnell. She loves the community here. We’ve gotten to know customers over time, and we’ve kind of built friendships with them,” he said.

Grinnell can only store approximately 23% of its daily chemically treated water production.

Altenhofen said that while residents might think that the water softener is the biggest issue tied to water in Grinnell, it is not.

The pipe gallery, which is the pipe that connects the water plant with the water distribution system, is also corroded, irreparable and irreplaceable, said Altenhofen. “This current facility is very vulnerable. Even with the softener offline, there could be a catastrophic failure here and then the town will not have water,” he said.

The pipe cannot be replaced because that would require the water plant to be offline for weeks and Grinnell does not have enough water storage capabilities to allow for the water plant to be shut off for so long, said Altenhofen.

The Department of Natural Resources has a general rule of thumb saying that a city’s treated water storage should have a capacity able to provide water to the community if the water plant needed to shut down for a day, said

Altenhofen. Grinnell does not have the capacity to do this. According to Altenhofen, the water plant generated 1.3 million gallons of potable water on Feb. 22, and Grinnell’s water tower can store just 300,000 gallons of water.

The town of Grinnell is partnering with Nuclear Engineering to build a new water plant located east of the current plant that is expected to be ready by fall 2026.

Altenhofen said the plant is estimated to cost $25 million, which the town plans to finance by taking out a State Revolving Fund (SRF) loan. SRF loans are meant to help with the cost of designing and constructing water and wastewater infrastructure. Altenhofen said the town is planning to submit the application for the loan on March 1.

“My concern is making sure that we keep water in our system, potable water for our community to keep using, and there's no way around that outside of a new treatment facility,” said Altenhofen.

He also said that the city of Grinnell's government will look at ways to change other aspects of the current system, including water sources, and will create a failsafe for the faltering pipe gallery until the construction of the new water plant is completed.

The failsafe would include a substation located west of the water tower, meant to disinfect the water, and it would be connected to the distribution system, said Altenhofen. He said that the failsafe is estimated to be ready by early 2024.

There is no contingency plan if the pipe gallery were to break down before the substation is ready, he said.

“Now, if that pipe gallery blew apart today, ultimately there would be a water outage and we would do everything it would take to get the facility back online and running. But at the end of the day, we can’t forecast what the extent of that damage would be,” said Altenhofen.

Altenhofen said he welcomes any questions about Grinnell's water to contact him by calling his office at (621) 236 - 2635 or by email at jaltenhofen@grinnelliowa.gov.

“And we know that we are in a college town, so we try to focus a lot on giving everybody what they need when they are here, and stuff like that. We make sure everybody leaves happy,” Rosas said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the restaurant saw a decrease in orders, but it has since rebounded. Rosas attributed the surge in customers partly to people wanting to get out of their houses and in part because of the outdoor patio dining area that was remodeled.

“It [the patio] was there before, but it kind of wasn’t looking so great,” Rosas said. “So that definitely

His mother also owns and manages La Casa de Pancho in Maquoketa, Iowa. Rosas and his sister manage Los Girasoles. Rosas explained that his mother wanted to pick a different theme for this restaurant from her previous restaurant, which was more rustic in style.

“Another thing of the name was just so it was easier for people to pronounce,” said Rosas, “But now people have a hard time with the ‘g’ because it makes an ‘h’ sound. I don't think that [the name] worked out too well.”

Thinking about having a meal at Los Girasoles? Rosas recommends the tacos asada and a blended strawberry margarita.

By Oliver Wolfe wolfeoli@grinnell.edu

You might not know their name, especially given that it is prone to changing nearly every time they perform, but if you have attended any Grinnell College student music event, you probably recognize their faces. This southern rock, folk and blues-influenced band, made up of lead singer/writer and guitarist Nick Parker `23, bass player Will Sweek `23, lead guitarist Henry Gold `25, guitarist Dylan Laurianti `23 and drummer Kenny Atlas `23, is a prolific presence in the Grinnell music scene, having developed and performed a wide array of sets for many different shows.

In the past, the band has gone by Soi Disantra, The KGBeeGees and Feral Kenny, and they said that they are looking to continue experimenting with their stage name. “One we were kicking around yesterday was Catastrophysicist,” Parker said. “One other name we came up with was The Rolling Stones,” he continued with a wry smirk.

The name that has stuck the most, probably due to how apt and unique it is, is Soi Disantra. This made-up word is a modification of the French phrase “soi-disant,” which in English is used to mean that something is “self-proclaimed” or “so-called.” The band borrowed the adjusted phrase from one of their biggest influences, underground country-rock band Silver Jews, who coined the phrase in their 1998 track “Send in the Clouds.”

The name Soi Disantra reveals a lot about the band’s ethos. It gives a nod to the group’s stylistic influences while simultaneously reflecting their attitude — they are first and foremost friends who enjoy making music together. As Atlas said, “I kind of just enjoy hanging out in Freesound.” In this way, they