Balboa Island restaurant owner dies

The owner of Picante Martin’s Mexican Restaurant, a popular dining spot for years on Balboa Island, has died, the Orange County Coroner’s Office confirmed this morning.

Martin Diaz-Puente, a Mexican immigrant who founded the restaurant in 1998, died Thursday at his Costa Mesa home. According to Supervising Deputy Coroner Dan Aikin, the 44-year-old Diaz-Puente went to lie down shortly after noon when he did not feel well, and a family member discovered him not breathing several minutes later.

An autopsy has been performed on Diaz-Puente, but Aikin said the results were inconclusive and officials were awaiting toxicology results in a few weeks.

“We’re presuming the death to be natural,” he said.

Carolyn Carr, a business owner on Balboa Island and editor of the Island Breeze newsletter, said residents had left flowers and candles in front of the restaurant in the days following Diaz-Puente’s death. She described him as a friendly and enterprising businessman who often donated food to community events and had a photographic memory of customers.

“If you walked in there once and introduced yourself and told him your name, he’d recognize you from then on,” Carr said. “He’d recognize your voice on the phone.”

A rosary for Diaz-Puente is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday at Heritage Memorial Services, 17712 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach. The funeral will be held afterward in Mexico.

MICHAEL MILLER may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at michael.miller@latimes.com.