Fitting Right In at Americanos

Raise your hand if Mark Cuban and WALL-E (yes, *that* WALL-E from the Disney movie about a robot) combined to inspire your career choice. 

Odds are, unless you’re AJ Castillo, your hands are down right now. 

The short version of the story: during his junior year as a Political Science major at the University of Illinois, AJ was watching WALL-E in his fraternity house. Suddenly, he felt a sudden urge to do something more fulfilling in his life, which led him to read How to Win at the Sport of Business by businessman and TV personality Mark Cuban. AJ was officially on the path to hospitality. 

Similar to the short version, the longer version of the story revolves around AJ trying to find the right fit for himself. 

AJ was born and raised in a predominantly white neighborhood of Chicago. His grandfather Alfonso immigrated to America from Tampico, Mexico, and both of AJ’s parents are Mexican-Americans. AJ gets his entrepreneurial spirit and hustle from his dad, a proud former Chicago Police officer and United States Marine who was always looking for a way to improve his family’s life. He gets his culinary interest from his mom, who was constantly cooking as AJ was growing up.

What he didn’t get from either of them was Spanish as a first language. 

“All that was spoken at family parties was Spanish, but growing up I didn’t speak much Spanish,” AJ says. “There was a language barrier, so it was almost like I didn’t fit in.

“But then I’d be with my buddies from the neighborhood and their families and I didn’t feel like I fully fit in there either. I was like this in-between.”

Over time, AJ learned to embrace his Mexican-American heritage. Not being fluent in Spanish bothered him less. Mariachi music entertained him more. And when he decided to open his own restaurant after working as a line cook, he named that restaurant Americanos. 

“Dinner at the dinner table has always connected our family, no matter what else was going on,” AJ says. “To this day our family still gathers around food and drinks and we celebrate the good and the bad in life in this beautiful country of ours. We created Americanos to represent our upbringing as Mexican-American people through food and drinks.”

AJ and family opened the first location on Chicago’s South Side in 2018 and expanded to a second location near O’Hare International Airport on the city’s North Side in 2024. SpotOn is proud to be AJ’s trusted restaurant point-of-sale partner at both locations, helping AJ right-size his food and labor costs through insights from SpotOn Reporting. 

“I decided to double down on who I am,” AJ says. “I wanted to open a modern, Mexican joint that’s called Americanos because although we’re Mexican, we are born in the U.S. and we are our own thing. Americanos is our identity.”

A big part of that identity adorns the back wall of each Americanos location. Plastered to the wall is a massive poster of AJ’s grandfather Alfonso, who moved his family to the United States two generations ago. Alfonso was a proud mariachi singer, as depicted in the photo. 

Alfonso passed away over a decade ago while AJ was in high school, and AJ credits learning more about his grandfather’s life shortly after his passing with helping him embrace who he is and where he came from. 

So it’s only fitting for AJ to have his grandfather Alfonso watching over him at Americanos, right where he belongs.