Sweet amigas: Two friends open Mexican restaurant together

(Sentinel photo by Magdalene Landegent) Josefina Silva and Lidia Esquival, friends for 12 years, are taking their friendship to a new level by opening the doors to Los Rosales Mexican Restaurant in downtown Le Mars. [Click to enlarge]

They finish each other's sentences.

And now two women who've been friends for 12 years are running a new Mexican restaurant, Los Rosales, in downtown Le Mars.

Lidia Esquivel and Josefina Silva opened the restaurant just off Central Avenue on First Street Northeast complete with signs featuring roses -- the restaurant's namesake.

"I lived in the town Los Rosales and I like roses," Esquivel said. "In the town Los Rosales, roses are everywhere, every color."

The idea for the restaurant came from Silva, who has had family in California in the restaurant business for years.

She sprang it on Esquivel, who works nights with her at Wells' Dairy.

"I cook a lot," Esquivel said. "But I've never worked in a restaurant."

Silva talked her into it.

It wasn't difficult to start, they said. The restaurant was pretty ready to use, thanks to the previous tenants, who had also run a Mexican restaurant.

Esquivel is the restaurant's main chef.

"I like to cook here, but not at home," she said with a laugh.

The recipes are hers, too.

"My favorite? Tacos with steak," she said.

Silva likes the chimichangas, fried burritos.

"We serve all Mexican food. Burritos, tamales, tacos, chiles rellenos and steaks," she said.

For dessert, Los Rosales offers cinnamon-sugar sopapillas and, soon, flan.

Silva prefers to wait tables.

"I like to talk to people when they come in," she smiled. "I like to talk to everybody."

That's how she and Esquivel met. They struck up a conversation at a family's party in Sioux City 12 years ago.

The rest is history.

"She's a very good friend," Esquivel said, smiling at Silva.