El Adobe de Capistrano - San Juan Capistano, California
El Adobe de Capistrano
Mexican Cuisine at its finest, in the heart of historic San Juan Capistrano.
The restaurant site has been recognized as a California State Historical Landmark. The building was originally two separate structures. The northern section was originally the home of Miguel Yorba Adobe, built in 1797. The southern half housed the Juzgado (court and jails) and was established in 1812.
The walls forming El Adobe’s cocktail lounge were part of the original Miguel Yorba Adobe. The wine cellar is now housed in the Juzgado’s dungeon-like cell. The ground beneath the foyer served as a passageway for Seeley & Wright stagecoaches (which operated in the 1950’s), until the advent to the Santa Fe Railroad in 1888.
In 1910, Georgia Mott Vander-Leck bought and unified the properties for use as their residence and store. Thirty-six years later she sold it to a visionary farmer from the Rancho Mission Viejo, Mr. Clarence Brown. Brown built the El Adobe restaurant, which opened auspiciously on July 8, 1948 with the wedding and reception of the First Commandant of Camp Pendleton, General Fagan. Yearly, hundreds of couples continue the tradition as they marry in the garden-nestled Wedding Chapel.
During his administration, former President Richard Nixon enjoyed the Mexican dishes prepared exclusively for him by El Adobe’s chef. These dishes inspired El Adobe’s change from continental to Mexican Cuisine.
