Hurtado Barbecue expanding this fall with new bar and taco lounge

(Dallas Morning News)  Hurtado Barbecue is known for brisket, Texas Twinkies and other low and slow smoked menu items, but this fall the restaurant’s owner will throw his hat into a new venture — a bar and taco lounge.

Owner Brandon Hurtado said the barbecue restaurant has been growing ever since it opened it’s doors in Arlington in February. Hurtado said he never had the intention to open a restaurant and definitely not a bar, but wanted to expand patio space and be able to stay open later in the day.

“The patio is a huge deal to me, and the bar makes sense because we’re able to turn the restaurant into kind of a taqueria at night and serve tacos and things like that,” he said.

Hurtado Barbecue serves barbecue tacos with salsa verde — cilantro and onions — but Hurtado wants the bar to serve more traditional taqueria style tacos such as smoked carnitas and barbacoa. Other menu items will be tostadas and nachos, he said.

Hurtado said the new restaurant’s focus will be on simple but well made food. This will be instrumental in allowing the restaurant to serve food till close, which has been an area where the current restaurant has struggled.

“We’re still selling out like within three or four hours of opening,” he said of Hurtado Barbecue.

When it came to naming the bar, Hurtado said they wanted to name it something that paid homage to Arlington and the community that has supported the restaurant. They settled on Hayters, named after Andrew Hayter an early settler of the city and considered by many as the father of Arlington, he said.

Hayters will be located in a building that’s next door to Hurtado Barbecue and shares a patio with the restaurant, Hurtado said. After the remodel to put in the bar, TV’s and more, he said Hayters will have a modern dive bar look and feel.

The remodel plans have been submitted to the city for approval and after that the work should begin, Hurtado said. The hope is to have Hayters up and running by November or December barring any governmental changes due to the pandemic, he said.

Hurtado said he’s looking forward to the new venture and growing in Arlington. The UT Arlington alumnus is also looking to hire local and give students the opportunity to work while they attend college.

“I really want to kind of keep it close especially because that’s my alma mater,” he said.
 

Story by Brayden Garcia originally published in the Dallas Morning News on August 28, 2020

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