TORRINGTON – Walking into San Pedro Mexican Restaurant on Main Street in Torrington, the first thing that you notice is there are plenty of places to sit. 

Eduardo Montelongo is the manager of San Pedro, his first-time in this position of managing a restaurant. His father-in-law Carlos Manriquez is the owner of the San Pedro restaurant in Scottsbluff, Neb., as well as the eatery here. This type of style is new to the area, but not to most of the nation, comparing it to restaurants in the bigger cities. 

The food at San Pedro is considered authentic Mexican food unlike some Mexican food which is American Mexican or “TexMex” food. At most traditional Mexican restaurant’s, the food is ordered off the menu then is served after being prepared in the kitchen. Here you can choose what you want, adding toppings to your food, which makes it different than most Mexican restaurants. Ordering is done walking through the line, choosing each ingredient making your own Mexican dish, this is different. The type of restaurant is different, the style is different, how the food is served is different. 

“The recipes we use are from the family,” Montelongo said. “This food can be found in any Hispanic home and tastes authentic.” 

The most popular menu items are tacos. Burritos are also at the top of the list.

“The tacos and burritos are the number one food that is sold, but Taco salad is popular also,” Juan Carlos Manriquez Jr. said. “People think the food at San Pedro in Scottsbluff is fresher but it is made the same way in Torrington every day as it is in Scottsbluff, homemade. Everything is made fresh every morning.” 

The restaurant “was Carlos Sr. idea,” Manriquez said. “He had a brother that had success with this style of serving and my father wanted to try it.” 

“The business at Torrington is good it has been constant,” Montelongo said, “There have not been any problems since opening the Torrington restaurant. Everything has been going smoothly business keeps coming in, we do see a lot of new people and we see people coming back becoming
regulars.” 

Manriquez agreed: “Since everything is traditional in every way, we wanted to see how this would work out and so far, is working pretty well. We have been getting good feedback and that is what we wanted, it is working out and it is something different.”

The San Pedro in Scottsbluff will stay the same. If the restaurant in Torrington is successful, the family plans to open more like it.

In the future they plan on getting a liquor license for cold beer and wine with chips and salsa.