There was used to be an authentic mexican resturant downtown. It closed down because this town wouldn't know good food if it smacked them in the face.
"Oh yar donchya know that paridiso resturant is so gee golly good. You betchya."
Paulo's closed for a combination of reasons. I have a friend who knows the owners so I found out why it closed. But, take what I'm going to say with a grain of salt (it's gossip).
Food flavor:
For one, North Dakotans were not open to the "different" taste of authentic Mexican food - they're used to Paradiso's. So, after a few months of "failure" to meet North Dakotans' expectations, Paulo's had to find ways to make their food more like Paradiso's (it's Paraíso in Spanish btw...they spelled it wrong...even in their own restaurant name!!!). At the beginning, the restaurant maintained their food's authenticity pretty well. Their beans and rice tasted exactly like my mother's, their enchiladas were very good, and their enchilada sauce was homemade. About 6 months later they changed their food around completely and turned bland and gross.
Service issues:
Service was great in the beginning. But, one day I took about 8 friends for lunch. Our server seemed to be very fed up with his job. Silverware and napkins were missing from the table. After ordering our food, we asked the server for silverware and napkins. He pointed to the table next to us telling us "get them ourselves".
La Migra:
Yes, La Migra. All the cooks were illegal. Due to some sort of outside affair involved with the owners, the victim in the affair called INS and had all the cooks deported. Where the heck are you going to find any white person in Grand Forks who knows how to cook authentic Mexican food? Not going to happen.
So, it was a combination of lowering food quality, lowering service quality, and La Migra that ended it.