El Matador to open in late March

A new Mexican restaurant plans to open in Portland by the end of the month.
El Matador, which will be in the building that was previously home to Bandidos and Margarita’s at 1604 N. Meridian St., is scheduled to open March 28.
Co-owner Hugo Sanchez said he had heard good things about Portland and decided to open a restaurant in the city after making a visit.
“I like the community and we’ll go from there and see how it goes,” he said.
Sanchez and his brothers, Francisco and Oscar, got into the restaurant business in Indiana about 10 years ago when they opened Mi Familia in Kokomo. They added a second location, El Mariachi Loco, in Bluffton in 2010.
They will start by renting the building in Portland, but have the option to buy it if everything goes well. They have been working to prepare the restaurant to open for the last two months.
El Matador will serve familiar Mexican food such as enchiladas, Sanchez said, but it will also try out some platters with which the community may not be familiar.
“It’s very much authentic food,” he added.
Plans call for the restaurant to be open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. during the week and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on the weekends. And Sanchez added that there is the possibility of adding breakfast hours in the future.
“We hope the whole community comes to us and tries our food,” said Sanchez. “I will promise we’re going to have good service. We’ll be friendly with our customers.”
Bandidos, which is based in Fort Wayne, opened its restaurant at the location on the north side of Portland in 1999 before closing in January 2011. At the time, the president of the company said the market was “not big enough to support the store.” Margarita’s opened later in 2011 and was in operation until 2013.[[In-content Ad]]