Santo Remedio Mexican Restaurant Closed by City...for Now

The door to Santo Remedio, the Mexican restaurant at 3900 Tennyson Street, has two small signs taped to the glass. One says, "Due to unforeseen circumstances, our patio deck will remain closed until further notice. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause." The second sign, half-covered by the "No Soliciting" sticker on the outside of the door, says simply, "Sorry, we are CLOSED due to technical issues."

Fans of the restaurant, which opened almost a year and a half ago, are upset that one of their favorite dining rooms is shut. The space isn't empty, though. Inside, a small crew is working, organizing boxes and cleaning up as if preparing for business. Luis Enrique Rios, who introduces himself as the general manager of the restaurant, comes over to explain why Santo Remedio isn't open.

In the process of Santo Remedio getting a permanent liquor license, the city inspected the premises, a normal part of the process. "Once the fire department came in," Rios recalls, "they're like, things are here on the blueprints that you don't have in the restaurant right now. It was a structural thing because of the fire sprinkler system."

The restaurant's owners are communicating with the landlord on how to respond to the requirements, he says, but in the meantime, he and the staff are preparing to move to a new space if necessary. "Yes, that's a high possibility," he says. They're seriously considering a change in location, and it might not be in the Berkeley neighborhood, "but in the Denver area."

That's a broad geographic target, but Santo Remedio has built a strong and loyal base. "We were doing very good," he says.
And they don't want to lose that momentum, so the team is prepared to get the eatery open — whether in the same spot or a new one. "We kept all our team together," he says. "The same servers, same crew, same everything. So that makes it easier. We have the same menu already. We're ready to roll, you know, clean, restock, get our social media marketing and come right back."

Whether the sprinkler issues are fixed or the restaurant has to move, Rios is confident that Santo Remedios won't be gone for long. "Within the month," he says. "We're pushing it within a month either way."