Miguel’s Cocina is celebrating its 40th anniversary in Point Loma this year along with its patrons.

The cornerstone two-level Mexican eatery with a bar and dining rooms upstairs at 2912 Shelter Island Drive opened in October 1984. The first Miguel’s had opened two years earlier in 1982. There are now six Miguel’s in 4S Ranch, Carlsbad, Coronado, Old Town, Point Loma, and Portside Pier.

“For four decades we’ve had the privilege of being the local’s favorite Mexican restaurant,” said Miguel’s Point Loma’s longtime general manager Claudia Mejia. “We are incredibly grateful for the support from our guests throughout the years.”

Miguel’s Cocina is among the Morton family’s Brigantine group of restaurants, which includes Brigantine Seafood & Oyster Bar, Ketch Brewing, Ketch Grill & Taps, Portside Coffee & Gelato, and Topsail Portside Pier.

Mejia noted all of the Miguel’s, including Point Loma’s, are unique in their way. “What makes this one unique is that this building was the Brigantine, where all the magic started in 1969,” she said. “In 1984 the Brigantine got moved down the street, and this became the second Miguel’s.”

The restaurant GM noted Miguel’s has always offered California-inspired Baja-style cuisine. “What makes us very unique is our white jalapeno sauce,” Meija said. “That’s what puts us on the map here in San Diego County and all over the world, as I’ve had people come from as far away as Japan and Africa.”

Of her clientele, Mejia said, “My guests are local people. The bread and butter of this location is my local community. It’s the force that drives us.”

Miguel’s Point Loma does private events for small groups as well as offers indoor and outdoor dining, takeout, and catering.

Meija said Miguel’s is truly grateful for the support of the local community, which helped them get through COVID. “We are here because of all of you (patrons),” she said. “It changed our lives. It makes me emotional the amount of love this community showed us.

“I had lines of people trying to support us with takeout. People would wait an hour, 1 ½ hours to do takeout. That was just to show us how much they cared, how much they loved us, and how they wanted us to stay open for business.”

An immigrant from Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, Meija talked of how she broke into the restaurant trade. She had been looking for a second job to supplement her family’s income when she was hired by the Morton family in 1991.

“I didn’t speak a word in English and I begged them to give me a job,” she said about starting, adding she initially applied to work in the back of the house where she didn’t have to engage patrons. Ultimately she was hired as a hostess. To compensate for her speaking Spanish only at the time, the restaurant had an English-speaking hostess on the phone to handle incoming calls.

“I was very quiet and very shy,” pointed out Mejia adding, “All I had to learn was to say ‘Hi, enjoy and thank you.’ Those were my three words – and a smile that you can use to win people’s hearts. I would pretty much bring the guests to the table and say ‘Enjoy.’ And when they left I’d say ‘thank you.’ That’s how everything started.”

Meija, who is working on getting a bachelor’s degree in business, acknowledged managing a restaurant is tough. But she added it is well worth the effort.

“It’s challenging,” she concluded. “But when you love humanity it makes it easy. This job brought me to find out what I’m capable of doing. With my smile, if you’re having a bad day, I can change your life. Somehow we can touch people’s hearts in this job. That’s what makes it worth it to me.”