Pancho Loco offers a specific style: Owner of Vernon restaurant dubs his menu 'peasant' Mexican

Jul. 28—VERNON — For half his life, Bill Goff and his staff have cooked up Mexican food at Pancho Loco on Talcottville Road, now celebrating its 25th anniversary.

"It's a lifestyle," Goff said. "Originally when I opened it up, I never imagined I would grow old here too."

While working on a business management degree, Goff said, he sat down with his mentor and began to devise a plan to open a restaurant.

"We were thinking of stuff to do in the restaurant world," he said. "We put names on a piece of paper and we crossed them out until two words were left and that's how we came up with the name of the place."

PANCHO LOCO

Address: 218 Talcottville Road, Vernon.

Hours: Monday-Wednesday and Friday, 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.; Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Menu: Green Eggs 'n' Ham; crab quesadilla; more Mexican options.

Miscellaneous: Delivery and takeout available.

Contact: 860-871-1819; www.pancholoco.mobi

Though he had a name, Goff said he didn't have experience running a restaurant, so he went on a search for cooks who would create authentic flavors. He found a cook originally from Mexico to develop the menu and now has two chefs from Ecuador.

"In the '90s, no one had Mexican restaurants," he said. "It wasn't a thing. No one did tacos. Tequila wasn't a thing. What today is a $75 bottle of tequila was $5."

Opening the restaurant on Talcottville Road, Goff created a casual, relaxed dining atmosphere.

"It was fun," he said. "You could play whatever music you wanted. Everyone had Hawaiian shirts. It wasn't stuffy. It's a place to go to get away from life and stress."

Goff said they still use the original recipes, if slightly adapted over time.

"You've got to adapt and go with it," he said, "modernizing the food and flavors."

Bret Thompson, a bartender and staff member at Pancho Loco who has been working there about half his life, said that they've adapted their flavors to meet the needs of the customer.

"For awhile, people wanted everything spicy," he said. "Now they want less."

Over the years, Goff said, there are customers who have been with Pancho Loco from the beginning and he has seen their families grow up and have had children and now their children, visiting Pancho Loco on dates.

The customers have provided much of the decorations that festoon the restaurant, he said, including a ticket stub from David Cone's perfect game with the New York Yankees in 1999.

A hot sauce poster made from a puzzle was donated by Goff's grandmother 25 years ago, he said. A ceramic Aztec calendar his mother made when she was 20 years old is hung on the wall in the entry dining room.

"People will go on vacation and come back and say, 'Hey, I picked this up. Put this on the wall,'" Thompson said.

"We have received many of our decorations that way," Goff said.

He described the style of Mexican food on the menu as more of a "peasant Mexican style," not the Tex-Mex style that many people may be familiar with.

"It's from where these guys grew up," he said of the chefs. "Our salsa is made the same way for 25 years. It's made fresh every day."

The most popular dish, which Goff and Thompson both say is their personal favorite, is their fajitas, available as chicken, shrimp, steak, or a combination.

Goff said it was the first thing he ate at Pancho Loco when the restaurant reopened after the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown in 2020.

"It's a presentation thing," Goff said. "This guy is sitting over here and he's just sit down and he sees a fajita come out, you're looking at it, and you got to try it. We cut our own meat, we soak it in our marinade, we cut our own veggies, we grill it up right on the spot."

Thompson said he has the fajita at least once a week.

"Something's off in my life if I don't have one a week," he said.

Other top selling dishes, he said, are the tacos, which are available with chicken, beef, pork, sauteed vegetables or black beans, and the chimichanga.

He said the place is small enough that they can make adjustments to a dish as the customer needs, including a regular who always requests an all-zucchini fajita.

The most popular appetizer, Goff said, is their chicken wings, offered in seven flavors. The most popular wings he said are the signature Dave's wings.

"It's a sweet and spicy honey mustard base," he said. "It has always been the most popular. Our jerk wings are number two. It's a dry rub."

A couple menu items have been named after Thompson. There's the Bret quesadilla, with pulled pork, barbecue sauce, bacon, and cheese, and the Bretarita, one of 30 margarita flavors.

"We'd make something and give it to the customers to see what they think," Thompson said.

The most popular of the 30 margaritas is the Ultimate Margarita, he said.

"It has Grand Marnier in it and 1800 Reposado in it," he said.

Goff said he didn't expect to be running a small Mexican place for 25 years, but he doesn't imagine leaving now.

"I've got a family, a mortgage, and this place," he said. "These are the things I love."

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