(Publisher’s Note: This article, published in December 2019, recalls a time when Mexican food was available on the corner of 12th and Markets streets in downtown Wheeling. The margaritas and the burritos were a couple of the positives of the place, but the reasons why it was shut down in 2016 were not.)
“Ah Nogales, let me count the ways in which I miss your burritos.
“If you’re going to look for a healthy mission-style wrap, Nogales is not for you. Their burritos are filled with a finely ground, wonderfully spiced meat and vegetables that are amazingly tasty.
“I have not found a Mexican restaurant yet to compare. Truly one-of-a-kind flavor.
“Plus the guys who work there are the best!”
That’s a review left by “Amiee T” from Boston on the Yelp information page for Nogales Mexican Restaurant, one with a phone number that now rings to a generic answering machine and indicates the eatery is now closed, too.
“The food was really good Mexican food, so that’s why we went there for a lot of dinners, and I’d go in for lunch meetings probably once a month,” said former Wheeling mayor Andy McKenzie. “Sometimes we would have to park near the top of 12th Street to find a spot. It was a busy place.”
McKenzie was running for mayor of Wheeling when it happened, but he never really knew why Nogale’s Mexican Restaurant was raided and closed on April 16, 2008.
The ethnic eatery was located at the corner of 12th and Market streets in the same space that serves as home to the Vagabond Kitchen today. Before Nogales, it was the first sit-down restaurant in the Domino’s Pizza company, and after Nogales, the Tiki Hut did business for a little more than a year.
Aggressive Approach?
“Nogales was always crowded when I was there for lunch or dinner with my family,” he said. “When it was shut down because of illegal immigration, I thought it was a part of the aggressive approach taken by the Ohio County sheriff at the time, Tom Burgoyne.
“Tom’s deputies were pulling over a lot of vans and trucks with a lot of illegal immigrants, and that’s what we all heard about the closing. And the raid was quick, and the officers took a lot of people out of there, and out of some houses and apartments, too,” he recalled. “That place was one of the most popular restaurants in the city at the time because the food was really good.”
Even though McKenzie was correct when characterizing Burgoyne’s stance on the flow of illegal immigrants traveling through Ohio County, the former sheriff and former FBI agent actually was left in the dark.
“That’s how the feds operate, so it didn’t surprise me to I learned the extent of the raid,” he said. “I’m guessing we busted more than 100 illegal immigrants traveling through Ohio County during my eight years as sheriff, and I know that’s why so many people tell me that I’m the guy who closed down the Mexican restaurant.
“But I really had nothing to do with that raid,” Burgoyne said. “I don’t even think we loaned a single deputy to the federal authorities who conducted the raid. I believe I knew something was coming, maybe, but that operation was really on the hush-hush.”
Nogales One of Seven Raided
Nogales actually was one of seven restaurants in five states to be raided on the that same day nearly 12 years ago in an operation that included more than 100 FBI agents, according to reports published by the Buffalo News. Arrested by agents of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau in the early morning that day was Simon Banda, who, along with 11 restaurant managers, was charged with felonies, and 45 illegal Mexican aliens were held for deportation.
At the time, Nogales had a reputation for big portions, reasonable prices, and great margaritas just as did the majority of Banda’s establishments, and that included the El Caporal in a Buffalo suburb. According to federal reports cited by the Buffalo News, all of Banda’s restaurants employed illegal immigrants he smuggled across the border for fees ranging from $1,500 to $2,700.
According to federal records, Banda would schedule those workers for at least 70 hours per week, pay them $600 every two weeks, and hold back half that amount for their smuggling fee payment.
“People went there because it was cheap, and now we know why,” McKenzie said. “And people went there because the food was very good, and now we know it was authentic Mexican food because of who prepared it. When it closed, not a lot of people knew exactly why other than a raid took place and there were areas in the basement where it looked like people were sleeping.
Smuggling Illegal Immigrants
“I had no idea it was a part of a smuggling ring, but we all heard rumors. When you don’t know if they are true or not, you just ignore them,” he added. “But this time, I guess what we heard back then was true, but I don’t know how many people cared because of how good the food was there.”
Near five of the seven restaurant locations were apartment buildings where employees resided while working at the restaurants, and, in Wheeling, federal agents raided homes at three addresses, including apartments at 811 Market St. and 16 Eighth Street in North Wheeling, and at 1201 Eoff St., according to a report in the Wetzel Chronicle.
“As the sheriff, I did go to the Eoff Street location for support, and those folks were living much differently than what most of us are used to,” Burgoyne said. “It was obvious, at least to me, that there were a lot of people living there at the time, but the people there didn’t act as if it was anything different for them.”
Arrested in New Martinsville were Alterto and Miguel Antimo, and Alejandro Garcia of Wheeling, the Buffalo News reported. In 2012, Banda was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for harboring illegal and undocumented restaurant employees and paying them substandard wages to gain commercial advantage.
“They got a lot of other people in New Martinsville, too, and that’s because the people in charge of those kinds of operations choose towns like Wheeling and New Martinsville because they are quiet, people enjoy having a good time, and we don’t pay attention to things like that,” Burgoyne said. “Once that raid took place (at Nogales), there was no hope of that place opening again because everything who knew anything was in jail or deported.
People Didn’t Understand
“I don’t think the people here in the Wheeling understand what had happened. I think they thought it would just be closed for a day or two,” he said. “But that corner was pretty silent for more than a few years, and that was pretty odd for the downtown because that area was always one of the busiest through the years.”
Chef Matt Welsch is the owner of the Vagabond Kitchen, and since establishing his eatery at the location, he’s been told only a few stories about Nogales food and the operation of the restaurant.
“Not many people have brought up Nogales to me since we’ve opened here, but I think that’s because we completely gutted the place before the restaurant opened here,” he said. “I’m sure the people who had the Tiki Hut here before us heard a lot more because they didn’t really change a whole lot, but I didn’t want people to remember Nogales when they came into my restaurant.
“When we moved in, though, we could tell where some of the employees slept, and we found some clues about how they lived here,” Welsch said. “When it was closed after the raid took place, you heard a lot of stories, but I ate here dozens of times, and the food was great. The margaritas? Well, alcohol is the way to many people’s hearts, right?”
