New Mexican restaurant to spice up dining options in downtown Rockford

By: Deborah Johnson Wood

A family of restaurateurs who oversee 11 restaurant operations in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Mississippi are planning to bring their expertise to downtown Rockford. The Marco Cuellar family, who operate El Burrito Loco restaurants, has begun development of a new eatery dubbed Cinco de Mayo in Rockford’s first LEED-certified structure — a 4,800-square-foot building at 123 Courtland.

The building, completed last year, replaces a building that burned down some 18 months ago.

“I think they’re starting to think that the smaller communities are a good market for them because those communities don’t have the restaurant choices of a larger city,” says Diane Karns, spokesperson for the company. Karns is a real estate broker with Prudential Callander Commercial.

“Rockford is a cute town and there’s a lot of loyalty from customers there. I looked at other locations and thought this would be good for the restaurant. It’s a cool looking building and it’s on one of the main streets where there will be pedestrian traffic.”

The restaurant is a sister development to another new Cinco de Mayo, due to open this fall in downtown Grand Rapids.

Cuellar plans dining on both floors and an outdoor dining area. Karns says the artist who paints Mexican murals for each of Cuellar’s restaurants will bring a Mexican motif to the interior.

Next Monday, the city of Rockford will vote on a proposed Class C liquor license for the enterprise. The restaurant opens this fall.

“This is a unique building,” Karns says, “and I just think the restaurant will be fun for downtown Rockford.”

Source: Diane Karns, CCIM, Prudential Callander Commercial; Suzette Garvey, Simply Genuine Communications

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Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.