New Mexican restaurant means new jobs for local residents

By Staff | Jan 14, 2015

Salvador Garcia

A new restaurant will open by the end of January or early February inside the Microtel Inn & Suites, and the owner said it will provide about 15 full-time and part-time jobs for residents of Lehigh Acres.

Called El Tarasco, owner Salvador Garcia said it will be a Mexican restaurant geared for American tastes.

Vivian Villa, the hotel manager, said the dining area at the hotel at 1320 Business Way has been empty for some time now.

“We have been wanting him to open a restaurant here in Lehigh for some time and have been working with him to do just that,” she said. “So we are very excited and we think our residents and our hotel guests will be very happy with a top-notch restaurant.”

Garcia owns several restaurants in North Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Pine Island and LaBelle.

MEL TOADVINE Microtel Inn and Suites is the site of a new restaurant to open by Feb. 6.

“A lot of my customers in the other restaurants, in LaBelle and North Fort Myers, come to eat at those places and they have been urging me to open a restaurant in Lehigh,”?he said. “With the negotiations with the hotel’s manager, that’s what we are going to do.

“Feb. 6 is our target date, but we might open at the end of this month,” he said.

Villa said she has been urging Garcia to open a restaurant at her hotel for years, but he is so busy tending to his others businesses that it was hard to talk to him.

He spent part of a day last week looking over the restaurant, and said he would have an attractive decor and plans to open a bar at the rear of the restaurant.

“I’ll be having some good entertainment at the bar, some light music on Friday nights and karaoke on Saturday nights,” Garcia said.

In the past, the bar was one of the places local residents enjoyed themselves and many are glad it will be open again.

With its own entrance, the restaurant seats about 150 people.

Garcia, who is from Mexico, said customers have asked him to open a place in Lehigh.

“So, that is what I have done and I think the people of Lehigh will be well pleased,” he said. “The restaurant, although Mexican, will cater to the American palate as well as Mexican.”

He noted that most of his existing customers like the American touch he puts on his dishes.

Villa said nice restaurants are what people in Lehigh want.

“I hear it all the time in Lehigh, so this is going to be a welcome place to come and dine,” she said.

Garcia is leasing the space.

Maria Martinez, of Lehigh, thought it was a great idea for a new restaurant to come to the hotel.

“I’ll be there, that’s for sure,” she said.

Garcia said he is no stranger to the restaurant business.

“I started clearing tables when I was 6 years old in Mexico,” he said. “My parents were in the restaurant business so it came naturally. It’s a business I really enjoy.

“It was my priority to bring the Garcia said.

: MEL TOADVINE Microtel Inn and Suites is the site of a new restaurant to open by Feb. 6.