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Tex-Mex and the city: the knock-down, drag-out battle to save Las Manitas has really been a battle to save Austin's soul--assuming, of course, a city's soul can be saved.

Article Excerpt
It reached full-bore Austin angst in one blinding flash. The date was July 19, 2006, and Richard Suttle Jr., a lawyer who represents some of the city's most powerful developers, had slipped in among the luncheon crowd at Las Manitas, Austin's favorite little downtown Mexican restaurant. Las Manitas is on Congress Avenue, across from Suttle's high-rise office, and he frequently lunches there, as do many power brokers, politicians, musicians, writers, cops, and construction workers. Except on this particular day Suttle's mission was more delicate than simply devouring a platter of enchiladas zacatecanas. He had come to inform Cynthia and Lidia Perez, the sisters who own Las Manitas, that his client, a mega-developer named White Lodging Services Corporation, planned to demolish their restaurant and their school and day care center next door, Escuelita del Alma, and replace them with a huge hotel complex run by Marriott International. [paragraph] Suttle's message didn't come as a complete surprise: The sisters had known for at least eight years that their landlord, Tim Finley, would eventually develop this block between Second and Third streets. Presented with an opportunity for ambush, however, Cynthia couldn't resist. In a voice that rattled the pots and pans and could be heard at least as far away as city hall, she announced to the diners: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the lawyer who represents the white guys who plan to bulldoze Las Manitas!" The juxtaposition of the words "lawyer" and "white guys" produced a silence so deafening that hardly anyone heard Suttle mumble that he was also hoping to get a taco.

The battle lines quickly formed. After White Lodging acquired a long-term lease on the property from Finley's company, Cynthia and Lidia and Dina Flores, who runs the school, met with Suttle and told him that they would need their leases, which were due to expire in December, extended at least through August 2007, when the school year would end. Though the sisters had little legal-leverage against the powerful developers, they did hold one significant card: They own the historic...

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