By John Dodge Meyer and Meryl Truett
For Jim McKeever and Alfredo Garcia Lucio it’s been a fruitful, quarter century journey in San Miguel both as entrepreneurs and restaurateurs.
Their first business venture starting in the late 1990’s was designing, manufacturing and selling hummingbird feeders here and in the US. The success of this endeavor spawned the opening of the popular garden and gift store, Camino Silvestre on Zacateros in 2010. Many of us amateur gardeners in San Miguel owe whatever gardening success we’ve achieved to Jim and Alfredo’s wonderful vegetable and herb seedlings. The beauty of our gardens and homes are greatly enhanced by the gift items, also available at the Zacateros location. Their next foray into the local business scene was their store on Correo 43. Many of you may remember when they started representing other artists who work on a larger scale including the world famous photographer Maggie Taylor.
Restaurante Néctar was originally opened as a teahouse on the beautiful patio of the store at Correo. Jim and Alfredo would bring their bag lunches each day and the tearoom clients would tell their waiters, “we want what they’re having!” Their manager, Juan Carlos Cuevas encouraged them to start a simple lunch menu of plant based soups, salads and sandwiches, and from there it just took off and Néctar was born!
Fast forward to April of 2020; the world now in the midst of the fallout from the pandemic which by then had decimated tourism and even local travel, precipitating a disaster for local businesses in San Miguel.
Undaunted, Jim and Alfredo closed Néctar but used the time off to sharpen their culinary skills. They worked together on a large number of plant based dishes. Jim mainly cooked and Alfredo baked. Jim finally had time to build the vegetable garden of his dreams. In their own words, “it kept our minds fresh and our creativity flowing during a horrific time.”
So, Restaurante Néctar reopens Friday, October 18th and the hours will be Thursday to Saturday, 8:30am to 5:30pm and Sunday open until 3:00 pm. Many future events are planned at the Correo store: Shirli Marcantel (handmade books, ceramics and collage), Daniel Beltrán (new work for Day of the Dead), Meryl Truett (mixed media collages) and on November 1st, Maggie Taylor returning with a show of her new work.
Come meet your friends and enjoy the new culinary delights. Jim and Alfredo are waiting for you.
Meryl Truett is an artist and workshop instructor in SMA. You can view her work at www.meryltruett.com or check her out on Instagram @madeinsma
John Dodge Meyer is an artist and writer living in San Miguel, working on his memoir.
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