Spacious new Boise restaurant opens with ‘extra-careful’ COVID protocols, 3 patios
When Javier Andrade talks about owning a business, the conversation always returns to the same topic: his customers.
He’s greeted them like friends for nearly 20 years at Andrade’s Mexican restaurant in Boise. He cherishes them.
So much, in fact, that he will ask folks to accept a fast, no-contact inconvenience when they visit his new location, which opens Tuesday, Aug. 11, at 4620 W. Overland Road.
“I’m sorry,” Andrade said Monday in a phone interview, “but I’m going to see how your temperature is.”
Like most restaurants during the coronavirus pandemic, Andrade’s will ask you to wear a mask until you are seated, too. It’s all part of a safety-oriented dining experience in the COVID era, Andrade said: “In order to protect you and to protect your family.”
“It’s no other way,” he explained. “For me, my customers are more important than any money I can make. You are safe. And I want you to be happy.”
Andrade’s has brought smiles to Boise diners since 2001, when it debuted on Broadway Avenue before moving to a bigger spot on Overland in 2007. That’s where it operated until last week, when it closed to make way for the even larger new building constructed just down the road.
Offering dine-in and takeout, Andrade’s will transition into its modern space with a full, extensive menu of Michoacan-inspired and Tex-Mex recipes: delicious enchiladas, tacos, fajitas, burritos. Steak, seafood, chicken. Almost any Mexican specialty you can imagine. Andrade’s, which has a full bar, will open with its usual business hours, too: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
Still, nothing is normal nowadays. So the menu and hours could be trimmed if demand warrants that, Andrade said.
Under normal circumstances, Andrade’s would have 70 tables inside. For social distancing purposes, that has been reduced to 19. Tables are spaced at least 10 feet apart in a room so expansive that it almost looks like a vividly colored museum. Outdoors, three separate patios beckon, also with widely spaced tables: “I have one south, one north and one east of the building,” Andrade said. Indoor dining will require reservations. Outdoor seating is first come, first served.
Andrade doesn’t know how he’s going to pay for this impressive new restaurant, he said with a resigned chuckle, but it sure is nice to have nearly 8,000 square feet to spread everyone out.
“I’m a little lucky I can do that,” he said, “because I have a big place. I wish all my competition can do the same thing. I wish everybody had a lot of tables and a big room like I do right now. It’s why I can offer that to my customers.”
‘Extra-careful’ about COVID
Whether it’s temperature checks, or chips and salsa served using disposable salsa bowls, Andrade is going the extra mile for safety. Everything circles back to feeling secure, he said — whether it’s his regulars, newcomers, employees — or even his parents. “You never know who’s coming,” Andrade said.
“I’m just extra careful,” he said. “I know there’s a market for people like me. There’s people, they want to go out, but they want to be sure that you really have given them enough space between them and other people.”
This story was originally published August 10, 2020 at 4:10 PM.