More than a month after the storied Las Cuatro Milpas closed its doors in Barrio Logan, the owners are making plans to relocate their lines-out-the-door restaurant.
In a surprise announcement Thursday on Instagram, the family-owned restaurant said it is “working diligently behind the scenes to relocate and reopen our doors so we can continue doing what we love most: feeding our community with the food and care you know and trust.”
In a phone interview Friday morning, restaurant co-owner Margarita Hernandez confirmed that the family ownership had found a location in Barrio Logan that they hope to fix up soon so they can reopen in about a month. She said she wasn’t certain if the lease papers had been signed yet.
“I hope we can open in one more month,” she said. “I want to be working. I don’t want to stay at home. You feel better when you’re busy. It’s better than sitting at the house.”
The restaurant, beloved for its rolled tacos, burritos, tamales and handmade flour tortillas, would likely stay open for a few more years, she estimated.
News of the possible reopening, greeted with swoons of joy on the Instagram post, comes more than two months after the restaurant’s Logan Avenue property was sold for $2.21 million to Iglesia del Dios Vivo Columna Inc. The new owner is identified in county records as the owner of the Light of the World Church property, which is next door to Las Cuatro Milpas.
Hernandez, in a phone conversation with the Union-Tribune a few weeks ago, said the family had been talking to the new owner about the possibility of continuing to operate in the same location, but now as a tenant.
“They don’t want us no more,” Hernandez said. “We’d like to stay, but they changed their mind.”
Efforts to reach principals with the church ownership were unsuccessful, and queries made to its media representative were not answered.
When the restaurant property was sold last year, it did not come as a huge surprise. Long before the Las Cuatro Milpas real estate was put up for sale, both the business and the property had incurred significant tax debt. As of last July, it owed $60,000 in county property taxes and $130,000 in other tax liens, including $103,000 in unpaid sales tax owed to the state of California for the past several years.
Since the sale, however, the property taxes have been fully paid off, the county Treasurer-Tax Collector’s office said Friday.
Longtime restaurant broker Nate Benedetto said it makes perfect sense for the family to reopen the business, given its extremely loyal fan base and continued popularity for nearly a century.
“I was surprised to see the Instagram post but it did make sense to me,” he said. “How many businesses have a consistent line out the door in San Diego County. It’s rare after all these years you still have that kind of fan base. There’s money to be made and fans who still want it there.”
The restaurant has served the community since 1933, when Petra and Natividad Estudillo opened Las Cuatro Milpas. Two of the older sisters have worked in the restaurant for decades, making the tortillas by hand day in and day out and ringing up orders for customers patiently waiting in line.