Where can you find traditional Mexican food and a commitment to CPS Energy’s Windtricity program? The answer: Nicha’s Comida Mexicana.

Restaurant owners Arthur and Rick Garcia have carried on a family tradition for the last six years by serving quality Mexican food at Nicha’s Comida Mexicana.

The Garcia brothers have strived to carry on a legacy that started in 1977 when their parents, Eugene and Dionisia (Nicha) Garcia, opened the original restaurant, Minit Taco.

Located on Roosevelt Avenue across from the San Jose Mission and the iconic Mission Drive-In, Minit Taco attracted many tourists and movie-goers.

The Garcia’s unique style of Mexican food set Minit Taco apart from other restaurants in the area.

Fedelia Pierce, Nicha’s sister-in-law, used unique recipes that she learned while working at several Mexican food restaurants around the city.

“Back then, most of the Mexican food restaurants in San Antonio didn’t have puffy tacos,” Nicha said. “When we opened the restaurant, we made flour tortillas by hand and my sister-in-law introduced the puffy tacos.”

Pierce originally came up with the idea to open Minit Taco next to the Garcia’s other family business -- a car wash.

When Minit Taco started attracting more customers than expected, the Garcia’s decided to knock down the car wash and expand their restaurant.

In 2003, the brothers purchased the restaurant from their parents and renamed it Nicha’s Comida Mexicana in honor of their mother.  

Since then, the Garcia brothers have tripled their business.

“This place is always busy,” Arthur Garcia said. “We have a great staff of 62 employees working two different shifts. We are currently outgrowing the restaurant. We’ve grown so much that we’re running out of parking spaces.”

While the brothers have successfully carried out an old family tradition, the Garcia brothers decided to start a new one by joining CPS Energy’s Windtricity program.

“We decided to sign up with CPS Energy as a Windtricity Business partner because we want to set an example in the community and do what we can to save the environment,” Garcia said. “Along with growth comes responsibility.”

The Garcia’s elected to offset 10 percent of their restaurant’s energy use with renewable wind power that comes from wind farms in West Texas and South Texas.

Garcia, who is a member of the board of directors for San Antonio Restaurant Association, heard about the program from Ramon Gonzales, a CPS Energy business account manager.

Gonzales recruited Nicha’s and several other SARA members to sign up for Windtricity in an effort to reach a goal to collectively offset 10 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) from traditional sources of energy with wind power.

Restaurants that join Windtricity will be recognized in CPS Energy advertising as Windtricity partners, including recognition at Windtricity-sponsored events and on Windtricity publications and materials. Learn how you can become a Windtricity Business Partner 

About a year ago Nicha’s won a 2008 Express-News Critics’ Choice award for South Side restaurants. 

While Nicha’s is recognized for its excellent Mexican cuisine, CPS Energy is recognized as number 1 in wind energy capacity among municipally owned utilities in the country.

In fact, The American Wind Energy Association’s (AWEA), which is the largest national trade association of America’s wind industry, has bestowed the honor upon CPS Energy for the second year in a row.

This recognition comes at the same time that CPS Energy is actively working to reach an ambitious goal of having the equivalent of 20 percent of peak energy demand powered by renewable energy by the year 2020.

Currently, CPS Energy receives approximately 578 MW of wind power from sources in west Texas and the Texas coast.

The wind energy leader also has additional wind energy sources under contract, including 115 MW from Papalote Creek Wind Farm and 150 MW from Cedro Hill Wind Farm. Both wind farms are scheduled to open in 2010.