Someone passed a tip to us that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton could potentially be enjoying a private meal at Hector's On Broadway, in Downtown Santa Ana, Calif., on Friday. Hector's on Broadway is only steps away from the Foodbeast offices, so naturally, we walked over to investigate.
There are a few reasons we're familiar with Hector's On Broadway — not only do we love eating there for lunch, we think it should be officially recognized as the Mexican HOOTERS.
Just check out their Instagram page. Es en fuego. Mucho fuego.
We got there around 2 p.m., as fellow Foodbeast staff writer Isai Rocha and I witnessed what looked like a few Santa Ana Police officers, and other men who were described to us as Secret Service officers, standing in front of Hector's, pointing down the street, and up toward the rooftops of the buildings lining 4th Street in Santa Ana.
We were able to speak with Oscar Olivares, the general manager of Hector's on Broadway and he confirmed a tentative plan to have Hillary Clinton in for a private meal at some point Friday, June 3.
The private meal would have happened after Clinton made an appearance at the Old Courthouse Museum in Santa Ana, and Olivares added that the event would not be announced publicly.
The Mariscos Hector franchise is fairly well-known throughout Southern California and while the Santa Ana location has only been open for a few weeks, they were a prime lunch candidate for potentially the first female President of the United States.
At 5 p.m., Thursday I received a phone call from Olivares that Clinton's camp gave word that Hector's On Broadway was no longer the selected location. Instead, the Clinton camp chose Crave — the hipster salad place down the street.
Bad choice, Hillary. In a city where US Census data estimated the population to be more than 78 percent latino or hispanic — Hector's on Broadway would have been a great spot.
We assume Clinton's staff might have stumbled onto one of Mariscos Hector's titillating social media pages and decided it probably wasn't the best scene for the 68-year-old former first lady of the United States.
Although we'd be willing to bet that her hubby Bill would have had a good time here.
"We do what we think is fun," Olivares said. "The Mayor of Santa Ana has been in. It's been great."
Hillary will "DAB" on TV, ride Brooklyn's dirty-ass subways and eat Chipotle's E. coli special, but a Mexican restaurant with beautiful servers is where she drew the line? If not Hector's, they could have thrown a rock over their heads and found a dope taco truck in Santa Ana.
Hey, at least she'll have a great view of the Ronald Regan Federal Building.
So, unfortunately, Hector's was out, but the Clinton camp stayed in the Santa Ana area, finding the much safer, vegan-friendly Crave, so we walked over to the restaurant to see what we'd find.
Not only did we find the burly men described to us as Secret Service agents, but hanging on Crave's front door was a sign that read, "Crave Restaurant will be CLOSED on Friday, 6/3/16, for a private event."
In fear of getting tasered by Hillary's goons, we slowly walked up to the men and introduced ourselves, hoping for some inside info, but we were greeted with an abrupt, "There's no comment at this point," as one of the members of the group said.
He declined to give his name, position or business card, which is pretty hardcore secretive.
About an hour later, we returned to try and speak to someone at Crave, but the most they could give us was that they'd be closed, and that apparently the whole street would be closed off Friday.
One cool thing to come out of this, was learning that our very own Foodbeast chef Linh Nguyen will likely be the one cooking up the dishes for Mrs. Clinton.
Still, even though the presidential elections aren't for a few months, if Hillary's camp would have selected Hector's on Broadway, I would have gladly said, "I'm with her."
Contributing reporting and photography by Isai Rocha
