The elevator carried Richard and Celia Acosta from the bottom flooring of the Thompson San Antonio Riverwalk Lodge to a rooftop lounge and bar. It lifted them above banks and companies and 15-story buildings, above the grandest goals they held as newlyweds in 1968.
When the elevator door opened, they stepped into The Moon’s Daughters, a stunning twentieth flooring restaurant with flooring to ceiling home windows, indoor and outside seating and a wide ranging view of downtown.
Earlier than them have been a number of dozen friends awaiting their arrival, bartenders pouring drinks, tables holding a buffet of scorching Tex-Mex and a duo enjoying gentle, 70s music.
Gripping his walker, Richard labored his manner by the gang, accepting congratulations on his 57th marriage ceremony anniversary and the fiftieth anniversary of the primary McDonald’s franchise that he and Celia opened in October 1975.
He took a microphone and the rooftop lounge fell silent. Heads bowed and eyes closed as Richard, 81, thanked God for a miracle. He as soon as ran with gangs on the West Facet. A highschool counselor instructed him he was not school materials. He left a job at Kelly Air Drive Base to begin a enterprise however seven banks refused to present him a mortgage.
Now right here he stood on Sunday together with his spouse and 5 kids, humbled by success.
The Acosta household owns 62 McDonald’s franchises throughout South Texas. They’ve 5,000 workers and a $155 million payroll. They’ve put workers by school, served their parishes, supported quite a few charities and raised tens of hundreds of {dollars} for scholarships and nonprofits.
“Lord, I thanks for all the things you’ve accomplished for us,” Richard prayed. Over the following three hours, it was time for friends to thank Richard and Celia for what they’ve accomplished.
The San Antonio Unbiased Faculty District took its activate Wednesday. The SAISD Basis honored Richard (Brackenridge Excessive Faculty, Class of ‘63) and three different faculty district alumni with Encourage Awards.
The climb to the highest started in a crowded house within the barrio. Richard is the youngest of eight kids. His dad and mom separated when he was 1. Raised by a single mom, he discovered hassle on the streets. A seventh-grade math trainer pulled him apart in a hallway at Irving Center Faculty.
The trainer warned him about gangs, inspired him to play soccer and instructed him to use himself in class. For the primary time, Richard heard a person communicate to him like a father to a son.
A life turned.
Ten years later, he met a hanging brunette who’d been Homecoming Queen and Senior Class President at South San Excessive Faculty. After courting for 2 weeks, he proposed.
Richard and Celia Chavez married and had their first little one, a daughter, a yr later. At Celia’s urging, Richard enrolled at Our Girl of the Lake College, studied enterprise throughout the day and labored at Kelly Air Drive Base within the evenings. He graduated summa cum laude.
Impressed by a professor, Richard inquired about shopping for a McDonald’s franchise. Unable to afford the acquisition value, Richard determined to lease with an possibility to purchase. They bought their home, moved in with Celia’s dad and mom and emptied their financial savings however remained greater than $30,000 in need of the $50,000 required.
Rebuffed by a number of lending establishments, the Acostas’ secured the distinction by the Small Enterprise Administration and Frost Financial institution.
The primary restaurant at Cypress and San Pedro did so effectively, Richard was named “Rookie of the Yr” for the very best franchise in Texas. On the firm conference in 1976, McDonald’s chairman Ray Kroc instructed Richard, “I’m going to make you a millionaire.”
Laborious instances quickly adopted. The Acostas’ struggled, fell into debt and almost went bankrupt. “They couldn’t purchase meals or make payroll and town was about to close the water off,” stated son Carlos Acosta.
The couple went to church and requested God for assist. The subsequent day, a businessman gave Richard a mortgage for $300,000. “That’s how highly effective prayer is,” Richard as soon as instructed his alma mater, Our Girl of the Lake College. “You pray on a Sunday and also you get a solution on Monday.”
Noemi Chávez Wallace, Celia’s youthful sister, watched the Acostas’ overcome problem after problem. She witnessed religion and fervor throughout conferences within the workplace basement.
“I keep in mind them praying earlier than conferences, praying earlier than making selections and praying for blessings,” stated Wallace, director of enterprise insights who has labored for McDonald’s for 43 years. “Our household refers to a few of their prayers as a by no means ending prayer.”
Richard and Celia exercised their possibility to purchase after 5 years. They accomplished the acquisition two years later. In 1986, the Acostas bought their second franchise on Basic McMullen.
Then they purchased a 3rd and fourth franchise.
“We not solely checked out the competitors,” Wallace stated. “We’d drive to the competitors, sit of their parking zone, rely their vehicles and rely our vehicles. We’d see what they’d on particular and see what we had on particular. We’d time their drive-thru and never let our drive-thru instances be longer than theirs.”
When a Burger King opened close to a franchise at Loop 410 and Previous Pearsall Highway, the Acosta’s went to battle and lowered their costs, providing 99 cent Completely happy Meals, 99 cent Massive Macs and 99 cent breakfast gadgets. “Let’s simply say,” Wallace stated, “that the Burger King didn’t final a yr.”
To stay forward of the native competitors, Richard launched new menu gadgets. The Texas Burger, with lettuce, tomato, mustard and mayonnaise, was designed to compete with Whataburger. Richard additionally added hash browns, 50-piece hen nuggets and a deluxe breakfast, a platter of hotcakes, eggs, sausage, hash browns and a biscuit.
The Texas Burger, renamed the Homestyle Burger, appeared on menus in Houston and Dallas and went nationwide. The deluxe breakfast appeared on menus in Canada. Ultimately, that model of the Homestyle Burger was discontinued however the hash browns, 50-piece nuggets and deluxe breakfast stay fixtures.
An progressive spirit enabled Richard and Celia to open extra franchises. 4 of their 5 kids joined the enterprise full time – however solely after they accomplished their school levels.
“He was adamant that we wouldn’t get caught behind a counter and work on the register,” stated daughter Maria Acosta. “He instructed us, ‘You want an training.’”
Siblings Maria, Carlos, Celia and Luis all personal McDonald’s franchises. The fifth sibling, Richard Acosta, Jr., is an funding banker.
The Acosta household shares its wealth. When COVID-19 pressured the closure of eating places, the Acostas determined to feed all their workers and the households of their workers at each franchise they owned.
Day-after-day, every worker was given a free meal earlier than their shifts. When their shifts have been accomplished, they got two meals to take house to their households.
The kicker: The Acostas promised to not lay off a single worker.
“It was a household choice,” Maria stated. “We knew it was God’s will to try this.”
As friends mingled within the rooftop lounge, story after story was shared. There was the time Richard stopped on his manner house to assist put out a fireplace at a neighbor’s home. There was the time, simply earlier than closing, that the Acostas realized Hurricane Katrina victims have been arriving hungry. So the employees stayed open and supplied 300 meals.
That is what 50 years of marriage and 57 years of enterprise has produced: a rooftop celebration, 20 tales up, of a pair whose influence could be felt so far as the attention can see.
