HAMLET — If Ruben Huerta closes the deal as he intends this morning, Hamlet will say hola! to a Mexican restaurant next March.
The restaurant, near Hamlet Avenue and King Street, would be the first in town — other than fast-food operations — to offer sit-down eating at the dinner hour. It will be the third on the corner, after Dairy Queen and Hardee’s.
“It’s going to be a hacienda look,” said Huerta, who aims to convert a former redbrick school building into a stucco-clad restaurant and not tear anything down. “We’re going to adapt to what we’ve got.”
A future construction crew will add eight feet of height to the front — making the facade about the height of the Advance Auto Parts store next door — as well as an outside patio, Huerta said.
The portion of the building nearest Hamlet Avenue houses a former cafeteria, so Huerta won’t have to commission extensive wiring and plumbing for a kitchen. The former seating area probably will become the restaurant’s dining area, he said.
Huerta did not know the square footage for the current building but said it was huge, so he doesn’t know whether he’ll need to use it all.
Huerta owns the Taco Loco drive-thru and sit-down La Cabana restaurants in Rockingham. The new restaurant will share the La Cabana name, he said Wednesday.
A contractor, Huerta does “a lot of work for the city of Hamlet, and they need a place. And I’ve been looking for a building.” So, everyone’s needs converged.
The building will need to be rezoned for business. Huerta will begin that paperwork after he closes the real estate deal with Tri City, Inc. this morning.
Hamlet Mayor Bill Bayless exulted in the news of a new business in town.
“I’m just extremely excited about it,” he said. “We, as a city, are excited about any (new) business that we can get.”