After more than a decade of fresh seafood, warm ambience and lots of good friends, the Aguirre family’s Stone Island restaurant still satisfies

It’s barely 10 in the morning on a weekday and already all the lounge chairs in the sand are taken. Lety’s is in high gear, preparing for another busy day. Steps from the kitchen, the white sand beach stretches for miles, disappearing into groves of palm trees. Gentle waves lap the shore, vendors are starting to appear and at all the restaurants along the beach, chairs and umbrellas are being set up.

Two young men, carrying big branches of green cocoanuts, traipse through the restaurant; you can smell the freshness as they go by. There’s a dozen or more on each, big green globes for Cocos Frios – well-chilled, the top lopped off with a machete, served with a straw to drink the nutrition-packed cocoanut juice. Later, the shell can be split open and one of the staff will scoop out the meat, to be eaten with fresh lime juice, and, if you like, hot sauce or chili powder. The men head toward the bar where brothers Felipe and Santiago are preparing drinks, and drop the cocos with a thud.

It was in 1991 when Lety – short for Leticia – began to put together her own restaurant after working as a cook at Carmelita’s next door. Many customers helped her, she says; someone made a sign, another bought chairs. Most importantly, many people recommended her restaurant – including her good friends Wendy Osuna, the Canadian consulate, and Ginger of Ginger’s Bi-Lingual Horses (who helped Lety learn English and had the first horseback tours on Stone Island).

“We started with no money, no nothing – but we all work’” said Lety. “We work honest. That’s what we do.”

It’s still very much a family business, the most visible being Lety and hubby Felipe Senior cooking, sons Santiago and Felipe Junior and long-time family friend Claudia waiting tables. One of 13 children, Lety learned to cook from her mother and seven sisters. With four kids of her own, plus two more adopted (and now a handful of grandchildren, too), she’s definitely the matriarch of the operation.

“Here there are no lazy people,” she says, laughing. “I don’t care what time they stay out till – they’re here at 7 or 8 o’clock cleaning and getting ready to open.”

Lety’s prides itself on its fresh seafood, grilled on an open fire and served with several salsas – including their own fresh mango, pineapple or papaya salsa. (Even the lowly chips and guacamole takes on another life with Lety’s fresh fruit salsa.) All kinds of fish and shrimp dishes are available – my personal favorite is the brocheta, a big skewer of shrimp, plantains, bell pepper, onion and tomato, basted with a slightly spicy secret sauce, barbecued and served with rice and tortillas. Serving sizes are big, so be prepared for leftovers or to share, and prices are more than reasonable. The menu also includes some chicken dishes (grilled over the open fire, they’re extra-scrumptious) and classic Mexican items like quesadillas (gigantic) and shrimp or fish ceviches.

What’s Lety’s favorite?

“I like everything, I’m a very good eater,” she says. “My husband tells the doctor, ‘I cannot make her stop eating! She eats from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.!’”

The restaurants on Stone Island are a close-knit bunch and it’s not just your imagination if you feel paranoid about going to a “new” one instead of your regular spot. The owners – Lety included – know who their customers are and talk spreads like wildfire when someone “defects.” In this case, Lety worries there’s been some problem and frets till the “wayward ones” return.

“Sometimes they go (to another restaurant) but later I know they will come back,” she says. “I’m very proud and happy when they come back – that means I am the best.”

There’s an authenticity about Lety’s that makes for a warm, comfortable ambience and does keep folks coming back. The food is consistently good, service comes with a smile and then some, and chances are good you’ll run into someone you know there. Vendors stroll the beach, but there’s less of a hard sell than elsewhere, and soon enough you’ll get to know them by name, too. While all of Mazatlán is a vacation, Stone Island is a special sweet spot worth going to on a regular basis.

“I still can’t believe how everyone likes to come here!” says Lety. “All my customers are very good to me. I can see they love me.”