ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Those looking for a new restaurant with a great atmosphere now have that option with Chilakilez and Cheers located at 7-8 Village Plaza.
As owners Isabel Trejo and Hugo Rosales tell it, the idea for the restaurant had been cooking for quite a while.
“In April of last year, we started doing the planning. We wanted to take our time and make sure everything was right, and we slowly started building everything up,” Rosales said. “We had the vision and just started slowly putting everything together, and it was the beginning of this year when we started putting in all the decorations and furniture and everything else.”
“We'd always wanted to open a place like this – we did know when or where or what exactly, but we knew we wanted to have our own place,” Trejo added. “Once we decided we wanted to go for it, and when we heard a space in The Plaza was open, we knew it was the opportune moment. We did the renovations and opened up the kitchen space and worked everything up to more of a restaurant.”
Ultimately, the couple said, it was time to just go for it.
“We've always talked about it, and we're definitely go-getters, and we share a lot of dreams. We've always talked about it, and since I'm a creative person and he's a hard worker, we decided to go for it,” Trejo said. “We started created everything slowly, from the menu and concept and everything else, and now here we are.”
“And we go out to eat a lot at different places in Liberal, and we felt there was a bit of a void when it comes to a place like this that's colorful and has good music and hospitality, etc.,” Rosales added. “We have a lot of different food and drink options, and we really wanted to give the community something different from other places in town.”
After all the time and hard work, Trejo and Rosales said it feels great having the restaurant now officially open.
“It still feels somewhat unreal having this place open and having our dream come true,” Rosales said. “It just makes us really excited to have this for the community, the community's been extremely supportive.”
“I would absolutely agree with that because up until now, we've been more word of mouth. It's been amazing having the support we've gotten, and we've had friends referring their friends and colleagues and other people they know to come and try us out,” Trejo added. “It's been amazing, and we have people who have come and told us 'Our friend X told us to come and try you guys!' and that's been absolutely amazing. We've had a lot of people come in and celebrate their birthdays with us, and we want to make everything as special as possible for those people who come in to celebrate. If you want to go somewhere where you know you'll have a good time and be served in an excellent manner, come and visit, we're open Tuesday through Sunday. Just come and try us out, you won't be disappointed.”
And the menu is also something to be excited about, the couple agreed.
“We have many varieties of tacos, all of which use high-quality meats and other ingredients, chilaquiles, benedicts, and much more,” Trejo said. “Our chilaquiles are amazing because we serve them on a hot skillet, so they come to the table still piping hot and delicious. We also have many varieties of drinks for people to choose from, including at our bar.”
“And we pride ourselves on being a scratch kitchen, we make everything by hand, whether it's the tacos or chilaquiles or salsas,” Rosales added. “It's a lot of work, but our kitchen staff does an amazing job making everything.”
The restaurant has been open only a couple months, and Trejo and Rosales said it has been a great start so far. With the start so far, they hope to see even more patrons as time goes on.
“Everything has started out amazing so far. We haven't done a lot of traditional advertising yet, but we have had a lot of people spread the word of mouth and we've had a lot of people expecting our opening,” Trejo said. “We've been so blessed so far, and our customers have been amazing. We've definitely gotten a lot of community support, and we couldn't be more grateful.”
“And I can't say enough about all the people we saw at the ribbon-cutting, we were not expecting that big of a crowd to come out because we'd only told our staff we were doing the ribbon-cutting,” Rosales said. “We were kind of nervous, but we knew it was time – everything's running smoothly, our staff is really well trained, and we're definitely ready to serve more and more people. It's been amazing seeing so many people supporting local businesses. We'd just love to see everyone come in and try us out. We've only been open a couple months, but we've already had so much support. We've got a lot of great food and drink options, so no one will go away from here hungry. Just come in and try us out, you won't be disappointed.”
