El Primo’s Is Coming To Midlothian Next Year
MIDLOTHIAN – The Midlothian City Council approved an agenda item Tuesday night allowing for an adjustment on a building elevation for the property at 211 W. Main Street. The property is zoned Planned Development-148 and at this week’s meeting the applicant spoke about upcoming plans for the old building.
It will be late 2023 to early 2024 when a second location for El Primo’s Restaurant will be realized in Midlothian according to owner Todd Tonore whose lone current location is in Mansfield.
Speaking on behalf of El Primo’s, Justin Crocker told council, “When we took on this project [we] asked if we could come back once we found the right concept for it. I think we have found the right concept, which would be great for downtown Midlothian and, it also honors the downtown master plan as far as the architecture we have come up with.”
Crocker then gave the floor over to the owner of El Primo’s. It was explained that the decision of the restaurant developers to create a façade as close to the Midlothian master plan renditions as possible was very important when the project began.
The vote passed unanimously by council after additional details of the Mexican restaurant were highlighted.
Depending on the final architecture, El Primo’s will be between 8,000 and 13,000-square-feet with the remainder of the 17,000-square-foot warehouse possibly used for four to 12 multi-unit apartments.
Honoring The Past With The Design
The applicant explained, “The downtown master plan calls for a mix of uses especially in these types of buildings, so we wanted to honor the downtown master plan in doing that.”
It was also mentioned the idea was to keep the steel beams and rafters in place to honor the history of the building.
Overall, the upcoming El Primo’s will be located in downtown on Main Street and carry a strong resemblance to the city’s master plan renderings for the historic building. The windows and doors on the building will be rollup for open air patio seating and entertainment.
It is still uncertain where the main entrance to the restaurant will be located. It was explained that decision will be made depending on the architectural design and the finalization of the site plan for parking and sidewalks.
The apartments, which are part of the master plan mixed use, if included, will be located on the north side.
Midlothian City Manager Chris Dick told council, “As long as the outside [of the building] does not change significantly they will not be back,” to discuss further development.
The lone existing El Primo’s in Mansfield is taglined “where the local’s go.” The menu has an assortment of favorites that not only include Tex-Mex, but also chicken fried steak with jalapeno gravy, chicken pasta, and burgers. They often have live music from local bands and family friendly events.
