The family behind downtown Providence's Viva Mexico is expanding its footprint on Washington Street, with plans to open a second business called Ello's Cafe in early 2027. The new spot will serve pan dulce, empanadas, bunuelos and coffee by day before transforming into a cocktail bar at night, taking over the former Debbie's space at 100 Washington St.
Jose Ruiz Jr., who owns Viva Mexico, and Cindy Lopez, who manages the restaurant's day-to-day operations, are teaming up on the project, according to Rhode Island Monthly. The pair have already moved into the Washington Street space ahead of the planned opening. Lopez described the cafe as a joint idea and concept between the two of them, per the same report.
A Family Restaurant Legacy Stretching Back to a Food Truck
Viva Mexico has operated on Washington Street in downtown Providence for more than fifteen years, and its roots go back much further than that. Jose Ruiz Sr. and Elia Ruiz came to the United States from Oaxaca and started out running a food truck, the report notes. The business eventually grew into a five-table restaurant on Atwells Avenue, where Jose Ruiz Sr. told Providence Monthly, “I started out with a taco truck. We would park at the old flea market on Atwells Avenue, in Eagle Square; Our regular customers talked us into starting a restaurant, so we began with a five-table restaurant on Atwells.”
From there, the couple opened Garibaldi in Providence in 1992, on the first floor of a multi-family home, before launching Viva Mexico itself in 2011. Jose Ruiz Jr. took over Viva Mexico when his family considered closing the restaurant during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said he took the initiative to keep it operating so the family's legacy would continue, according to the rimonthly.com account.
What Ello's Cafe Will Bring to Downtown Providence
Cindy Lopez joined the business three years before the article's publication, after previously working at Nicks on Broadway and G Pub. She now manages Viva Mexico's operations and is helping shape Ello's Cafe's mission as well as its menu. Lopez said the new cafe is meant to support the Latin culinary community by giving local bakers a platform to share their baking and cooking skills.
She also wants Ello's Cafe to create work and leadership opportunities for its staff, saying the goal is to “give them an opportunity to work for something that they can potentially be the ones running the restaurant one day.” Lopez added that the cafe aims to bring industry workers together and offer them a chance to be in downtown Providence without having to pay high rent. For the nighttime cocktail bar program, Lopez plans to have her brother take the lead.
The Mole Sauce Heading to New York
Back at Viva Mexico, Elia Ruiz still makes the restaurant's mole by hand, coming in one day each week at 4 a.m. to prepare a big batch of the sauce. The Viva team recently decided to start marketing that mole sauce for distribution in New York. Jose Ruiz Sr. previously told Providence Monthly, “We sell it to stores and restaurants – we even ship some to New York.”
The Ruiz family's expansion plans echo another Providence restaurant story tied to the same extended family. Maria Meza, who is Jose Ruiz Sr.'s sister, opened El Rancho Grande with her family in Providence in 2007, a restaurant that is now closed. The Mezas closed El Rancho Grande during the pandemic after running the family business for about 14 years, according to The Boston Globe.
Meza and her family later launched a more regional Mexican restaurant, Dolores, on Providence's East Side in 2019. The Globe describes Dolores, located at 100 Hope St., as serving traditional Mexican cuisine from the Mixteca region of Puebla and Oaxaca. Between Viva Mexico's long run downtown and the Meza family's path from El Rancho Grande to Dolores, the extended Ruiz family has helped shape Providence's Mexican restaurant scene for more than three decades.
