'Story of contribution': Longtime Mexican restaurant operator honored with key to Ogden

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Javier Chavez Sr., a long-time Mexican restaurant operator, received a key to the city Ogden for his contributions and accomplishments.
Chavez, originally from Mexico, operates six Javier's Authentic Mexican Food locations in Weber and Davis counties.
Mayor Ben Nadolski praised Chavez's perseverance and service to the city.

OGDEN — After 35 years in business, the operators of a small chain of Mexican restaurants in Ogden have a key to the city.

Mayor Ben Nadolski and friends and family of Javier Chavez Sr. gathered Thursday at one of his six restaurants to pay tribute to the longtime business operator and bestow him with a symbolic key to the city to honor his accomplishments. Originally from Mexico, Chavez came to Utah to attend Weber State University and stayed, eventually opening Javier's Authentic Mexican Food.

"The only thing that I want to do is make good food and hire good people who make the food," Chavez said, flanked by his wife Amada, his four kids and others. His restaurant operates at six locations, four in Weber County and two in Davis County.

Javier Chavez Sr., operator of a small chain of Mexican restaurants, received a key to Ogden on Thursday for his business efforts and contributions to the city. He's pictured with wife Amada at one of his Ogden restaurants at a ceremony marking the moment. (Photo: Tim Vandenack, KSL.com)

He lauded the United States as "the country of opportunities," while wife Amada, also originally from Mexico, said her family has been blessed by opportunity here. Apart from the key to the city, Nadolski declared Aug. 6 Javier Chavez Sr. Day.

"I always say we're giving back, we're giving back everything we've gotten from all of you," she said.

Nadolski said city leaders rarely give out keys to the city, but that Chavez deserved it due to his efforts to build his business and his contributions to the community. Chavez is originally from the Mexican state of Zacatecas and came to Utah in 1977, recruited to run for Weber State's track team.

"His story of contribution is incredible," Nadolski said, noting Chavez's perseverance and "selfless service" to others. "His story and the story of their family and the story of this business and everything he's become is everything Ogden stands for. It is everything we have to celebrate."

The proclamation noted his work with charitable, civic, educational and youth organizations, among other things.

It's not the first time Chavez has received accolades for his community and business involvement. He received an honorary doctorate from Weber State in 2023 and served as grand marshal of the Ogden Pioneer Days Grand Parade in 2017, among other things.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.