Diners crowd Mi Pueblo Mexican Restaurant on Banta Street in Franklin on Feb. 5, 2005.
Daily Journal Archives
News from around Johnson County as reported on Feb. 8 in the pages of the Daily Journal and the Franklin Evening Star from the last 112 years.
On this day in 2005, the main story on the front page of the Daily Journal was about how Johnson County was home to nearly a dozen independently-owned Mexican restaurants.
“Wendy Shuler of Franklin eats at the same restaurant so often that the waiters know her drink order without asking,” began the story, which was headlined “The whole enchilada.”
Shuler and two of her Franklin College coworkers, Melanie Norton and Kristy Brown, ate at Mi Pueblo Mexican restaurant next to what Franklin Community High School at least twice a week, they said.
“Sometimes I come four times a week,” Shuler said.
The authentic food, fast service and friendly staff kept the local woman coming back for more, they said.
Small independently-owned Mexican restaurants had become popular among many county residents, with the eateries continuing to pop up throughout the area. Must customers seemed drawn to the authentic cuisines, large portions and reasonable prices.
Restaurant owner Armando Ortiz couldn’t find a single business like Mi Pueblo when he visited Franklin in 1998, he said. In early 2005, Johnson County had nearly 10 similar restaurants.
Originally from Guadlajara, Mexico, Ortiz moved to the U.S. in 1995 to help his father, Rafael, run a restaurant in Tennessee. He climbed the career ladder quickly, eventually becoming a business owner with his brother, Ortiz, when they opened their own restaurant in Kentucky in 1996.
The restaurant was so popular, the brothers decided to move to Indiana and expand their business, opening Mi Pueblo restaurants in several cities, Ortiz said. Mi Pueblo even had two locations in Franklin in 2005.
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Other memorable Johnson County stories from this day
2003
Police broke up a methamphetamine lab in Whiteland a few days earlier, removing jars of the drug and a child who had been carrying a meth pipe.
1964
Unofficially, and off the record, the muffler for U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson’s limousine was built in Franklin.
1930
Franklin Mayor Otis Wooley sued the city in order to claim his pay for services as city court judge.
