This Riverside-based, family-owned eatery at Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach will delight you

Whether you like the classics, such as tacos and nachos, or contemporary combinations, including birria ramen and asada fries, this family-owned business dishes it out — and it’s delightful.

And for the first time, it’s serving fans at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach this weekend.

Mexican Delights, a small business based out of Riverside, is owned by Maria Gonzalez, who said her eatery is driven by gratitude and positive energy.

She is certain that customers will take one bite of her high-quality Mexican food — and delight.

“The quality is what makes everything taste good,” Gonzalez said. “I don’t sell anything I won’t eat.”

Mexican Delights’s premiere at the Grand Prix has added to the growing culinary diversity of the event, which draws at least 180,000 people to downtown Long Beach during its three-day run.

On the second day of race weekend, Saturday, April 15, business was steady — though Mexican Delights was ready for the crowds to gain an appetite.

Gonzalez and her husband, Juan, started Mexican Delights in 2019. Soon after, the coronavirus pandemic hit. But rather than collapsing the business, it motivated them to grow the eatery.

And now, it partners with different vendors that help offer their food to various large events — such as the Grand Prix.

“I’m a very blessed person so the pandemic was just a push for me to start this,” Gonzalez said on Saturday, “because that’s when I lost my job and then I had to find something to do.”

Fans can find Mexican Delights running two stands at the Grand Prix.

One is near the entrance of Hospitality Village, where Mexican Delights offers ramen birria, cream corn cups, fresh fruit trays, aguas frescas, and tostilocos.  Tostilocos is a popular Mexican street food that consists of Tostitos tortilla chips topped with pickled pork rinds, cucumber, jicama, lime juice, Valentina hot sauce, chamoy, Tajin chili powder, salt and cracker nuts.

This location was where 19-year-old Vanitee Mata, Gonzalez’s daughter, was stopping people on their way to the circuit with small, free samples of the aguas frescas.

She grabbded their attention with a smile and warm greeting, and then gave them a taste — a taste, she said, of what they will surely want more of.

The other stand is by the grandstands near the starting line across Shoreline Drive, where Mexican Delights offers their more traditional plates, which include shrimp, birria, chicken and asada tacos. That spot also serves up asada fries, nachos and aguas frescas.

Despite the myriad food vendors at the Grand Prix, Mata said, Mexican Delights are getting their fair share of customers.

“I think it’s good competition,” she said. “I think this event has more options than they need but the sun shines for everyone.”

Although this is the family’s first time at the Grand Prix, Mexican Delights is no stranger to big crowds.

The vendor recently served music fans at the Rolling Loud and Beyond Wonderland music festivals. In only its second year serving big events, Mexican Delights has now added the Grand Prix to the list of events that draw in thousands of fans — which means thousands of hungry customers.

“Really anything you put your mind to and envision yourself doing, it’ll come,” said Gonzalez. “You just have to put in the work.”

Gonzalez added that she’s proud of what Mexican Delights has accomplished in such a short amount of time.

But she and her family do have to put in the work.

Preparing for large events, including the Grand Prix, is such a labor that they only get a few hours of sleep the night before, Gonzalez said.

“Yesterday, at one point, I couldn’t keep my eyes open and I was laying on the ground,” she said, “and my husband was laying on the ground at the other location because we were both so tired.”

Still, she said, Mexican Delights is looking forward to coming back and being a regular vendor at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

“We definitely want to do this event every year; this is just the beginning,” Gonzalez said. “This is our step in the door and by next year, people will already know our food and come back.”