Elizabeth Dinan| edinan@seacoastonline.com
PORTSMOUTH — Three years later than planned, La Carreta Restaurante Mexicano opened for business Tuesday, with a full staff ready to pour margaritas and serve burritos, enchiladas and quesadillas.
"We worked so hard for this," said co-owner Roberto Sarmiento, who will mix cocktails behind the polished marble bar. "We want to offer good food, good service, good drinks and make everyone happy."
La Carreta opened at 11 a.m. Tuesday after a soft opening for "friends and family" Monday night.
There are 180 seats, every part of the interior has been rehabilitated, and manager Theresa Hughes said she hopes to add an outdoor patio next year. She said she's hoping La Carreta will become a place where locals dine.
It's been six years since a business operated at the 172 Hanover St. location, the last time being The Page Restaurant and Bar, which shut down after the April 5, 2013, beating death of 24-year-old Joshua Krantz of Dover. The Page was prosecuted, then closed.
Hughes is managing the Portsmouth La Carreta, after 15 years with the Manchester restaurant and wants everyone to know it's "family friendly." There will be no nightclub and no dancing, she said, while showcasing a couple of restaurant alcoves, with seating for families, or private functions.
"I want it so kids can come in here," Hughes said.
When the doors opened Tuesday, Flamenco music was playing, a telenovela aired on a TV at the bar and Sarmiento's specialty cocktail list was long. Priced from $10 to $15, the specialty drinks include peach punch, variations of the margarita and a tequila-based version of the Pina Colada called Coco Loco.
Hughes said the owners buy tequila directly at Mexican distilleries, where agave farmers are on site and they share a branded barrel among the La Carreta restaurants. Photos of the farmers, taken during their tequila-shopping trips, hang on the walls.
There are eight pages of menu items, including lunch specials every day until 2:30 p.m., with everything priced under $10.50. Children's plates are $6.99, while combination plates and vegetarian dishes are priced at $11.50. Two pages of the menu are devoted to house specials including Mexican street tacos, cazuelon, carnitas and chimichangas. A molcajete is served sizzling in a lava stone and feeds two with rib eye, chicken, shrimp, chorizo and vegetables. Guacamole can be custom-made table side, Hughes said.
The manager said 80% of the Portsmouth staff came from the Manchester restaurant, including the chef, and a couple of new employees contacted her two years ago for jobs. Others who applied for work years ago have since taken other jobs, or moved out of the area, so they are hiring, she said.
Co-owner Yolanda Munoz had planned to open in Portsmouth three years ago and in January told the Portsmouth Herald the opening was delayed by code requirements and similar hurdles. There are now six La Carreta restaurants in New Hampshire, Munoz owns three of them and family members own the others. The first La Carreta opened in Nashua in 1998, she said.
The Portsmouth La Carreta is handicapped accessible from the street and there are handicapped-accessible restrooms. It's open Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to midnight.
