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RESTAURANTS: Name's changed; rest is the same
Owners are the same, staff's still friendly, food's still good.
About the only thing that's changed at the Orange-based restaurant chain is the name- and in a sense, that's also untouched.
The one name for a dozen family-focused Mexican restaurants under Rod Fraser Enterprises Inc.-tucked into a 42-year-old industrial building off Katella Avenue that'd never assume a thing-is Rodrigo's Mexican Grill.
That was already on the sign at three of the 12. Eight others were Don José locations. And one in Orange was Ricardo's-some patrons called that one both-Ricardo's Don José- in a cast-iron skillet full of peppers-andonions-and-pick-your-protein that had begun to confound and leave the future in flux.
"We wanted our own brand," says Roderick Anthony Fraser II, son of the late company founder, Rod Fraser, and chief executive. He goes by Rick.
His son Rod Fraser III is chief operating officer and favors Rod. Vice president of Marketing Suzanne Fish is Rick's sister. The...