Pilar de Posadas and Mauricio Miguel are the new owners of Aunt Alice’s, one of Longmont’s favorite restaurants located at 1805 Main St. The couple lived for several decades in Los Angeles before deciding to explore a more family-friendly place to live. After searching several places, the couple decided to move to Longmont and begin the next chapter of their lives.
Miguel visited Longmont on a solo trip after the couple decided Longmont was the perfect home to raise their small children. He was looking for a new job and to explore potential opportunities for his family. He stopped into Aunt Alice’s and had their liver and onions — a boyhood favorite dish. While eating, he noticed how everyone knew each other and how that made the place feel like anyone could belong.
While he had found a job in Denver, he wasn’t sold that it would be the life for him. His dream was to own a ranch and raise animals. After eating at the diner, he learned that the former owners were looking to sell. He had to make a choice, a job he wasn’t excited about, a dream that would take years to establish and support his family or a business opportunity that offered an instant community. He chose the latter.
Aunt Alice’s has been part of the Longmont community for over 50 years and the de Posadas/Miguel family will be the third owners of the diner.
The couple fell in love with the people who frequented the restaurant. They have enjoyed learning about the customers and the staff, some of whom have worked there since high school and now are married and have families.
“I value the customer who comes every day … It is about those people,” Miguel said.
Miguel and de Posadas do not plan to change much about the restaurant. They plan to keep the menu the same and have kept all its staff. The changes the couple plans to make is streamlining the internal ordering system and restoring and expanding the outdoor patio.
The patio area will accommodate pets, complete with special water bowls. Since it violates the health code to allow pets to eat from the same plate as people, the couple plan to make a pet-friendly menu.
They were inspired to tackle this project because one customer mentioned how her pet is her only company and Miguel didn’t want to separate her from her only company during a meal, he said.
The couple are happy to be part of the Longmont community and want everyone to know they are open to the community’s ideas, said de Posadas.
