Modesto family operated Tully Road restaurant for decades. Now, it must close. ‘I tried’
“You have to (reopen) somewhere else, please,” Greg Singleton — grandson of Modesto real estate developer Lance Ellis — said to Marcella Garcia on Monday afternoon after learning her restaurant would shut down at the end of January.
And that may be the only way for the business to continue, Garcia said, as her options have run dry to keep Marcella’s Mexican Restaurant going at 3507 Tully Road.
After 54 years in business and 47 years in the Frontier Town Shopping Center — which Ellis developed — bills, food prices and the state of the economy have made it difficult for the restaurant to stay afloat.
Around 2014, the Ellis family hired a property management company that Garcia now answers to, she said, but Singleton and his mother, Renee Ellis, still visit the restaurant.
“So we’ve been struggling and (the property management company has) been working with me,” Garcia said. “Long story short, I got a little behind on my rent.”
Garcia received offers to help with payments, but a family meeting was held Jan. 7 and the decision was made to close the restaurant.
Borrowing money “isn’t gonna work anymore,” she said. “We’re just gonna follow through and close and deal with whatever needs to be done and move forward.”
Down the line, Garcia said, one option may be to get a smaller place with less overhead and reopen.
Garcia’s father, Alfredo Duran Sr., opened Marcella’s Mexican Restaurant in Hughson after working his way up from dishwasher to line cook at Carmen’s in McHenry Village over four years.
Duran left Carmen’s in 1970 and established Marcella’s the same year — when Garcia was 4.
“I remember they were deciding to call it Alfredo’s or Marcella’s,” said Garcia, whose younger brother is also named Alfredo. “But Alfredo sounded too Italian.”
The restaurant stayed in Hughson for around a year until Ellis suggested Duran Sr. move it to one of his properties on Oakdale Road — where Rivets American Grill now exists.
After 25 years, Marcella’s closed on Oakdale Road in 1996 and reopened on Tully Road the next year, after the Frontier Town Shopping Center was built.
Today, the restaurant is still decorated as Duran Sr. left it, with a few additions from Garcia’s travels.
“He was the boss until he died,” Garcia said. She and her husband took over the restaurant in 2018.
Garcia met her husband, Jorge Garcia, when he became employed at Marcella’s as a busboy. In June, they’ll celebrate their 37th wedding anniversary.
“My husband knows all (my father’s) recipes,” Garcia said. “Now he’s the cook.”
Jorge Garcia isn’t the only family member who works at the restaurant. The couple’s children — Emma, Adrian and Cristopher Garcia — as well as Marcella’s sister, Luz Hernandez, and niece, Daniela Hernandez, have their own titles.
All of the children in the family grew up in the restaurant, Garcia said. A playpen was even set up for her daughter to hang out as a baby, and again once when her grandson was born.
“It’s been really, really hard,” she said. “I’ve been doing this all my life.”
Marcella’s is open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. The last day of business will be Friday, Jan. 31.
“I just want to thank (my customers) for the love and support,” Garcia said between tears. “I tried.”
This story was originally published January 16, 2025 at 2:11 PM.
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