Update 1/13/14: The third restaurant to open in this space, The Local Table, opened its doors on February 4, 2014.

Update 9/8/13: La Cucina di Venti closed its doors.

Update August 2011: A new restaurant, La Cucina di Venti, is slated to open in the vacated Mama Rita's spot in Fall 2011.

The owner of Mama Rita's Authentic Mexican Cantina in the Dos Vientos Ranch section of Newbury Park announced today that Mama Rita's is closing its doors next year but will remain open through 2010. This is sad news all around for Laura, the local community and Paraiso Town Center (now called The Village at Dos Vientos Ranch) but on a positive note, Laura indicates she will continue her catering business out of another local location TBA.

Mama Rita's opened 2 1/2 years ago. Prior to that, Mama Rita's had what was primarily a catering location in Westlake Village near Costco. My wife has been a big fan of Mama Rita's chile rellenos since those earlier days and we fought over them as soon as they reached our kitchen counter.

In 2011, Mama Rita's was featured in Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, Season 3. Video footage from that episode is shown below. Actually kind of fun to see Newbury Park on prime time!