Dec. 17, 2024

A Mexican restaurant featuring seafood is taking over the former east-side Keg location.

La Playita, or “The Little Beach,” will feature the cooking of Yvonne Alvarez, who with her husband, Javier Solis Sr., operated a similar restaurant in Playa Azul, Mexico, that their daughter now runs for them.

Mango habanero aguachiles

“It’s something new, and I know it’s just amazing food all around,” said their son Javier Solis Jr., who will work alongside them and brother Emiliano in the restaurant at 5216 E. Arrowhead Parkway.

Yvonne Alvarez when she was cooking in Mexico

The family moved here recently from Minneapolis to open the restaurant after discovering Sioux Falls through friends and family.

While visiting, “whenever we went out, we were missing something, missing what we liked. … We felt like this was an opportunity,” Solis said.

The menu will have about 40 entrees. The restaurant will prepare fish several ways, many with sauces. A unique dish features slow-cooked fish in a sauce that “makes it very tender, and it soaks in all the flavor,” he said.

Shrimp will be prepared several ways, including one of Solis’ favorites that’s deep fried with bacon. Other dishes will feature shrimp grilled with garlic or shrimp simmered in sauce.

There will be seafood boils, steak or chicken fajitas, and other steak and chicken options.

La Playita won’t be a typical taco-and-burrito Mexican restaurant, although there might be shrimp tacos, Solis said.

It will have a beer and wine license, so there will be wine-based pina coladas, mojitos and margaritas, he said.

The restaurant will seat just over 100 customers and will have a rustic yet modern beach vibe, he said. Solis, his father and brother all surf, so the decor likely will include a few surfboards.

Javier Solis Sr., Emiliano Solis and Javier Solis Jr. in 2011 in Mexico

Hours to start will be 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday.

The family hopes to be ready to open La Playita with the new year.