This story has been updated.
Decatur, GA — Chando’s Tacos is expecting to open in mid-September in downtown Decatur.
In February 2022, Chando’s Tacos announced the opening of its food truck in Decatur. The restaurant received its business license in March 2023, but it has taken some time for it to open. Owner Lisandro “Chando” Madrigal said that the building and planning review took a while, but “we are good now.”
“Once we got that handled, things got complicated for us in California, and we decided to stabilize things out here before overextending ourselves,” Madrigal said.
Chando’s Tacos has a few locations in California and recently decided to permanently close a location in the Sacramento, California, area, according to The Sacramento Bee.
After about three years of business, the restaurant in Citrus Heights, a city near Sacramento, will serve its final customers on Monday. The closure is attributed to “sales not being as peach as they once were” and an expired lease. He wanted to make clear: It wasn’t a sinking ship, The Sacramento Bee reported on Aug. 31.
Decatur Business Development Manager Shirley Baylis said she checked with the city’s permitting department weekly on the application’s status.
“They had issues applying with the county watershed management and I assisted them in getting to the right person for that permit,” Baylis said. “Our building and fire inspectors and I met with Chando and his contractor to provide them a list of items that needed to be corrected in order to do finals. Once everything was done correctly, and they got final inspection they were free to move forward with getting their business license.”
Some concerns had been raised during Decatur Downtown Development Authority meetings about staffing for Chando’s Tacos, but Madrigal said staffing hadn’t been much of an issue in Decatur compared to his Buckhead location.
“There seems to be more accessible workforce in Decatur,” he said.
Madrigal added that he feels Decatur is a great community and sees a lot of potential in the city.
“We are super excited to be a part of the community and are very sorry this has taken so long to open, but good food is a coming,” he said. “It’s worth the wait. We will see you soon.”
Once Chando’s Tacos opens for business, customers will be able to enjoy Tijuana-style street tacos, burritos, quesadillas, nachos and Chando’s own mulitas made with traditional Mexican proteins from all regions of Mexico, Madrigal said.
Chando’s Tacos is located at 254 W. Ponce de Leon Avenue in Decatur.
The Buckhead location also recently open at 2900 Peachtree Road NW in Atlanta. The restaurant is open Monday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
For more information about Chando’s Tacos, click here.
In other news, Kirkyard Public House in downtown Kirkwood is abruptly closing on Friday, Sept. 1, according to an Instagram post from the restaurant.
“We are sad to announce that Kirkyard Public House will be closing for good today,” the post states. “Thank you Kirkwood, East Lake and Edgewood neighbors for the years of support and memories. Please join us for our last day today. 10 p.m. we close forever.”
Kirkyard Public House gained new ownership in May 2022.
Shahrokh Fard was a regular customer at the restaurant, and he took over ownership in May. Fard and his family live within walking distance to Kirkyard Public House, and he became friends with the former owner, Dano Kirk.
Kirk owned the restaurant for about eight years. He owns two businesses and was looking to focus on one, Fard said. He and Kirk started talking about new ownership earlier this year, and negotiations took a couple of months. Fard and Kirk closed their deal on May 23.
Fard has a background in real estate. He owned a real estate appraisal firm from 1999 to 2013. He has flipped houses and is a realtor.
“I know people. I know customer service,” Fard said. “I brought [in] two good buddies that I’ve known over 20 years. They own successful restaurants/bars outside the perimeter.”
Kirkyard Public House is a sports bar located at 1963 Hosea Williams Drive SE.
“It’s the only sports bar in Kirkwood. The beauty about Kirkwood and what I love about Kirkwood [is] there’s not many neighborhoods with a downtown district, and Kirkwood’s one of them,” Fard said. “We specialize in bar food.”
Menu items include chicken wings, burgers, chicken tenders, appetizers and salads. Fard said the wings are a top seller at the restaurant.
“It’s bar food but kicked up a few notches,” Fard said. “We fortunately have a great executive chef, Juan, he’s been here since day one.”
When Fard took over ownership, he and the staff were focused on sourcing better ingredients and figuring out what was working and what wasn’t.
“Some items just don’t sell,” he said. “We’re going to remove those. We’re going to add better menu items. We just changed up our burgers by sourcing better buns, brioche buns, and better ground beef.”
One thing that he didn’t plan to change was the restaurant’s sauce selection. He said the sauces were the second top seller for the restaurant. The sauces were all homemade and are recipes from the chef.
Decaturish has reached out to Fard and will update the story as we get more information.
Shahrokh Fard became the new owner of Kirkyard Public House in Kirkwood in May 2022. Photo by Zoe Seiler.
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