Reprinted from the Village Soup
NORTHPORT — An eye-catching former Mexican Restaurant on Route 1 has sold to a young entrepreneur with plans to open a café and restaurant this summer. Anna Wagner of Northport bought the shuttered Dos Amigos restaurant at 144 Bayside Road in December and has begun renovations to the dilapidated building, which is known locally for its lime green walls, every-other-colored trim and playful Mexican-themed murals. On Jan. 10, Wagner and her father were working in subzero temperatures to replace the roof. She hopes to open the business by June or July.
Inquiries from curious passersby have been steady, enough so that Wagner joked about not being able to get any work done. During one five-minute break from cutting asphalt shingles, two drivers pulled over to ask questions. Yes, she planned to serve breakfast and lunch, she said. Both gave her the thumbs up.
"I don't have a theme yet," she said, "Everyone keeps asking me that."
Last summer, Wagner ran a food truck, Wag's Wagon, from the Washington Street parking lot in Belfast. The new business will be in the same spirit, she said: breakfast burritos, huevos rancheros, soups and sandwiches. "Hearty and healthy," she said.
At the restaurant, she is hoping to attract the seasonal crowd that once flocked to Dos Amigos. While growing up, she recalled seeing a "train" of foot traffic between the Mexican restaurant and the summer cottages at Bayside Village.
As of January, the first order of business was to repair the building, she said, including new shingles covering the manic paint job that outlived the last business. Whatever the eventual theme, she guessed the interior would be similarly low-key, at least by comparison. "It won't be the Mexican place everyone knows," she said.