MISSOULA — A Missoula mainstay, El Cazador will be opening its second location in the old Viva Mexico building on South Avenue West in Missoula's Midtown area.
El Cazador has been owned and operated by the Hernandez family for 25 years and as much as they love their current location, they look at their new Midtown location as opening themselves up to a new clientele.
"There's a lot of potential down there," El Cazador owner Alfredo Hernandez said.
It’s a mix of excitement and a little worry for Hernandez but the opportunity to offer more parking than El Cazador's downtown location was just too enticing to pass up on.
"Our restaurant, you know we have a lot of comments that they don’t come because they can never find parking," Hernandez said. "So there we have our own parking spot that we can provide to our customer."
The menu will be roughly the same with more takeout street taco type options.
Hernandez said there is no real timeline on the new opening but the old building does need to be essentially gutted to be fully renovated.
In the meantime, the El Caz truck is in the parking lot of the future location and available from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
"We've been here since '95 and we're very happy with Missoula," Hernandez said. We have a lot of customers they are very excited. They call and ask us when we are going to open."
Customers that worked near the location were already taking advantage of the food truck's location and told MTN News they can't wait for the brick and mortar to open.
Hernandez can't wait either, adding, "See you there Missoula."
