Honoring a Family Tradition: Brothers Reminisce on Casa Loma's 35 Years of Business

By Ruth Clarke

Brothers Ramón Eduardo and Francisco
were toddlers when their father Francisco Enrique Urrea Escobosa opened Casa Loma Restaurant on Gaviotas # 104, up the hill from the Golden Zone. “Pancho, our father, was a business man who came here from San Francisco. He had good taste for rich flavors, artistic presentation, and good service,” says Eduardo, who took over the business when he was 19 years old. Father Pancho also must have loved the era of swing music, for he named his restaurant after a band that was active from 1927 to 1963, originally called The Orange Blossoms. The band changed its name when they played at the Casa Loma Hotel, also on a hill in Toronto, Canada. The teen-age inheritors of the restaurant had been trained at Pancho’s knee, and with a dedicated staff, the brothers have maintained the high level of excellence that was their father’s trademark. They manage a staff of 16 to 20 employees. And while they may be forthcoming with the ingredients of the dishes on their menu, they don’t give away their culinary secrets, but share how these delectable items came to be. “Chef Chayito has been with us for 16 years,” says Eduardo. “She has more than 33 years’ experience working with European culinary masters. She and her disciples, Oscar and Hortensio, have learned the ‘old way’ of cooking from scratch, with rich ingredients and artful presentation.” He says if each of them