Sept. 5, 2018

Rudy Navarrete is in the final full-tilt days of getting ready to open his restaurant in south Sioux Falls.

He’s planning to open Rudy M. Navarrete’s Tex-Mexican Restaurant on Sept. 12, with test runs for invited guests Sunday through Tuesday and proceeds on two of those nights going to local charities.

Navarrete bought the former Starz building on 57th Street west of Western Avenue earlier this summer.

He opened up the space and got rid of the high-top tables and most of the booths so that it doesn’t look like a bar anymore.

The restaurant will be a place for families, he said, with enough room to pull together tables so 20 to 40 people can gather to celebrate a birthday. There’s seating for about 100 customers inside and 30 on the patio, which includes a small waterfall.

“I’ll have a beer and wine license, but it’s not going to be a bar with drink specials where you go to watch the game.” He plans to have 10 beers on tap.

The menu will be similar to the Sioux City restaurant he owned with his father. Navarrete sold his share in Rudy Navarrete’s Mexican Food to his father so he could start his own business here. Diners will be able to choose from entrees such as enchiladas, burritos and the family’s signature entomatadas, which are corn or flour tortillas filled with a choice of meat and cheese and then topped with tomato sauce, onions and cheese.

Navarrete’s grandmother started in the restaurant business in Sioux City in 1970 after her husband died and she had eight children to raise. After her retirement in 1980, Navarrete’s father and aunts have continued to operate restaurants with the family name.

“I’ve wanted my own restaurant since I was 16,” Navarrete said. “It took 22 years.”

Rudy M. Navarrete’s Tex-Mexican will start with hours of 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

It will offer five lunch specials for $8.50, including a soda. There also will be an all-you-can-eat taco bar over the lunch hour on weekdays for $12, including a drink.