Mexican restaurant opens in Albion
Mecate serving food, alcohol in former KFC location
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – A new Mexican restaurant, mecate, has opened in Albion at the former KFC location, 172 South Main St. The top shows two of the owners, Fabricio Palma, left, and Omar Garcia. Abigail Ramirez also is a co-owner.
The group also owns Mecate restaurants in Henrietta, Webster and Macedon. They opened their first Mecate in 2022.
“We feel like it will be a great addition,” Garcia said. “We are bringing something new to Albion.”
The Mecate is managed by Lucy Ramirez of Albion. She had been working out of the Mecate in Henrietta. About a dozen people work at the Albion location.
Mecate is open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. The restaurant had a soft opening on Thursday.
The owners worked about three months remodeling the restaurant. They installed a new bar, booths and kitchen equipment.
The wide-ranging menu of Mexican food also includes lunch specials and soups. The most popular items are birrias, which are slow-simmered beef.
“You’ll find a little bit of every style,” Garcia said about the menu of Mexican food.
The Mecate is at the former KFC, which was open in Albion from 2012 to 2019.
From left include Fabricio Palma, Ofelia Ramirez, Lucy Ramirez, Omar Garcia and Abigail Ramirez. Abigail, Lucy and Ofelia are sisters, and Fabricio Palma and Ofelia Ramirez are married.
Ofelia Ramirez gets ready to serve a drink made by Mekhi Rivera, the bartender. Rivera, 21, of Albion said he enjoys the fast pace in the restaurant business. He said Mecate has brought in people from other locations to help train him as a bartender.
Mekhi Rivera, left, and Mayner Rodriguez are working as bartenders today at Mecate. Rodriguez works at another Mecate and has been training Rivera.
The bar includes televisions, and Mecate has the package for showing NFL games.
The owners picked “Mecate” as a name because they said it sounded catchy. The term mecate means a rope made of hair or maguey fibre commonly used for tying horses.
