After months of anticipation, the wait will soon be over for Lucharitos lovers waiting for the popular Greenport eatery to reopen.
Lucharitos, located on Main Street, has been under expansion for 64 days. Although the hope was to reopen today for Cinco de Mayo, owner Marc LaMaina posted a message on Facebook that read, “Lucharitos will be changing the global holiday of Cinco de Mayo to Ocho de Mayo. Lucharitos wants their customers, fans and friends to walk in and say ‘Wow, they nailed it.” Too much love went into this project to have it any other way. It is with great honor and respect that Lucharitos wishes you a Happy Cinco de Mayo. But the real party starts Friday, 11 a.m. @ Lucharitos!”
LaMaina said delaying the opening a few days was unavoidable. “We tried so very hard. The crew involved in this project could not have worked harder or been more diligent. We just ran out of time. Our projected finish date was last week. But setbacks happen.”
He added, “We put every dollar since we opened back into Lucharitos.”
The improvements include tripling the size of the kitchen, adding 40 feet of bar space, adding 15 seats at the bar, and 26 at tables. In addition to expanding next door, LaMaina updated the original Lucharitos, added a bathroom, “and that’s all after taking that space down to the floor joists and replacing half of them. This was a major project. And we won’t open until we are 100 percent. That’s something that I expect most people to understand. This is our passion. It is really what we love to do.”
To his loyal customers, he said, “I think when you come in on Friday or when you can make it in, you will see why we are so excited and why we didn’t want to rush to open for Cinco.”
