Word had reached me that there was a very good pizza and coffee shop – plus small hotel – in the little town of Oconahua, located 75 kilometers west of Guadalajara between Etzatlán and San Marcos.
“Just what I need,” I thought, as I wanted to bring a group of homeschooled kids to Oconahua to visit the archeological ruins there. Kids, of course, are always hungry.
The only problem was that the pizza place only opened at 6 p.m. So I contacted one of the owners, an American named Michelle Kelley, who immediately said, “Bring the kids by. We’ll open for them no matter what time.”
So, around 1 p.m. on a Friday, I drove into Oconahua with a load of kids and their parents and found Michelle Kelley and Ana Torres Nieves waiting for us with the pizza oven fired up and ready for use.
The kids were delighted to find that the drink menu included – in addition to coffee, wine and beer – irresistible-looking sugary frapuccinos in a great variety of flavors. As for the pizzas, the choices were pepperoni, Hawaiian and Mexican. In addition, they always have a special, which at the moment is spaghetti.
After placing our orders, I asked Michelle how it was that tiny Oconahua came to have a café that is attracting customers from all around the area, and even as far away as Guadalajara.
“Three years ago Ana and I asked ourselves what we wanted to do with our time after we retired and move to Oconahua. We decided to open a small business, something that would raise money to help local kids go to college. So our business is nonprofit and neither of us get a salary. Now we have two hotel rooms upstairs and we weren’t exactly sure what we wanted downstairs, but we finally decided on a coffee shop. So we opened, ready to sell coffee every morning ... and nobody came! We quickly figured out that people don’t drink coffee in the morning here but at night.
“Then we also got an idea of what people wanted to eat with their coffee. It was holiday time and there were some folks here from Los Angeles visiting family. One of the women was desperate because her boy wouldn’t eat any Mexican food. So she asked if we could make pizza and we said, ‘OK, we’ll try!’
“The boy liked the pizza so much, the mother ordered three. And then the word got out and everybody started ordering pizzas. So we bought a pizza oven, experimented and learned how to make good pizza. We make the dough ourselves and the cheese we use is real mozarella, which is more like the style popular in the United States, and people seem to love it. So now we serve coffee and pizza Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings, opening at 6 p.m.”
The 13 adults and children with me unanimously agreed that the pizza and drinks at this place were the best of the best. While we were eating, Michelle shared a story with us about one of their first customers, a little boy about ten years old living in a nearby pueblito called San Rafael. “Ana got a telephone call from this child who said he wanted a pizza, but who wasn’t sure exactly when he would arrive here because he had to catch his donkey first.”
The women figured this was a joke and didn’t prepare the pizza, but to their surprise the boy appeared later on, riding his donkey.
“So,” added Michelle, “we gave him a free drink while he waited for his pizza to be made, and now he’s a regular customer and always shows up on his donkey.”
After our visit to the pizza and coffee shop, we drove 550 meters to the ruins of the
Tecpan of Ocomo, which 1,000 years ago was probably the capital of all of western Mexico. Today archeologists are hard at work excavating the huge, rectangular
building complex which measures about 130 meters by 130 meters. Archaeologist Michelle Hernández took us on a tour of this impressive site, which is described in detail in my book “A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area.”
If you come to Oconahua to eat the pizza and visit the ruins, you can stay overnight in one of the rooms above the coffee shop, which is located on the main street atHidalgo 58-1. One room can sleep up to four people, has a kitchen and a great view of the mountains and costs 400 pesos per night. The other room is smaller, for two people and goes for 300 pesos per night. The coffee and pizza place is open 6-11 p.m., Friday to Sunday and also open mornings by arrangement for hotel guests, and the phone number is 386-105-0137.
How to get there
From Guadalajara, take Mexican Highway 15 west (toward Nogales) for 25 kilometers and turn left onto Highway 70 heading southwest towards Ameca. After 17 kilometers you’ll come to the turn for Tala. Keep going straight for 1.5 kilometers and then turn right onto a road signposted Ahualulco. Go 47 kilometers until you see the sign for Oconahua (6.4 kilometers past Etzatlán). Turn left and drive four kilometers to the town. Entering the town on Calle Matamoros, turn right onto Hidalgo and drive 400 meters to the coffee shop. If you’re heading for the ruins, continue a block and a half on Hidalgo to Calle Independencia, turn right and go 400 meters north to the digs (N20.74553 W104.16425). If in doubt, ask anyone in Oconahua for El Palacio de Ocomo. Driving time from Guadalajara is about an hour and a half.