FAYETTEVILLE, WV (WOAY)- Don Rizo’s Mexican Kitchen and Cantina held its first ever Dia De Los Muertos event on November 1st. Dia De Los Muertos, English translation being Day of the Dead, is a Mexican celebration of those who have passed on and the memories we share with them. Don Rizo’s general manager Kayla Alred explains why bringing this celebration to Fayetteville was so important.
“So, we decided to have an event today for Dia De Los Muertos, just to kind of get the community involved. And show them what it really is, so many people like and they know what sugar skulls are and see that and they know that kind of thing, but they don’t actually know what Day of the Dead is,” said Alred. “So, we just wanted to invite the community to come celebrate with us and spend time and just have a good time.”
Many people came out to listen to some nice music, some good food. The food people got to enjoy was a mix of traditional Mexican appetizers and new menu items Don Rizo’s will be putting out.
“So, some of the items we have on our buffet are really traditional to the Dia De Los Muertos. We have our house made bread, which is, this time we did Pan de Muerto which is like bread of the dead. It’s very traditional to see on a Ofenda,” explain Alred. “And then we also did some chocolate skulls which is again it’s going to be something that you see on every Ofrenda in Mexico. And then we also wanted to highlight our wings we are getting ready to roll out. It’s something new that’s coming to our menu, we have a bunch of different house made sauces and stuff, we really just thought it was a great time for people to get to try them and let us know what they think of them.”
On top of the food they had specialty drinks that are themed to different details of Dia De Los Muertos. They even gave out shirts to guests to spread the spirit among everyone!
But many people, both employees and guests, got into the sprit a different way and dressed up and put on sugar skull makeup. Local sponsors even joined in the fun.
Cassidy Bay, an event sponsor, said “They came to us immediately and asked if we wanted to be sponsors with them and told us that they’re host this event early on and that before they posted any of the fliers or anything like that. So, we’ve been looking forward to it since day one of planning and have planned our outfits and knew we were going to come here and have delicious margaritas. So, we have been excited for a while about it.”
Overall, many people had a great time and hope to see this event again as well as future events at Don Rizo’s.
