Pelayo was the recipient of numerous service awards such as the Troy Sertoma Club’s 2005 Mankind award, the American Red Cross’ Humanitarian of the Year, and the Troy-Hayner Cultural Center’s Unity in the Community award, among others, and he served as grand marshal at Troy’s Strawberry Festival.
A Facebook posting by the restaurant about his death led to hundreds of comments from customers who said they celebrated family birthdays and other milestones at the restaurant and those praising his generosity. Pelayo was known for coming from the kitchen, where he cooked countless hours, and greeting diners, chatting and interacting with the children.
He was described as humble and private.
“He has done so much, he just cared so much about the community and the people,” said longtime friend Murphy Howe. “He found the good in everything. If there was a silver lining, he found it.”
Howe, who owned another local restaurant in the 1990s, met Pelayo when he came to town. The men would discuss business and, over time, became close friends.
“He had the biggest heart I’ve ever seen,” he said.
Credit: Jim Witmer
Credit: Jim Witmer
Dick Steineman runs Troy’s St. Patrick Soup Kitchen, which opened in 1996. Pelayo donated 120 pounds of hamburger a month to the soup kitchen for 26 years. A similar donation was made monthly to the Bethany Center meal program in Piqua.
“He was a very faithful guy. I think he put his faith in action,” Steineman said.
Pelayo and business manager Judy Rose, whom he called his “American Mom” came to Troy from Seattle and then Cleveland in 1995, opening El Sombrero at the former Days Inn at Ohio 41 and Interstate 75. Rose passed in September 2022.
“They definitely opened arms and opened hearts,” Howe said of Pelayo and Rose’s immersion in the community.
The original restaurant was destroyed by fire a little more than a year after it opened. It then operated briefly in other locations before finding its current home in the former Orchard Tavern building on County Road 25-A between Troy and Piqua in 1998.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 7, at St. Patrick Catholic Church, Troy.
Memorial contributions may be made to St. Patrick Food Pantry, 25 N. Mulberry St. Troy, 45373 or to Bethany Center, 339 South St. Piqua, 45356.
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