The Inter-Mountain photo by Edgar Kelley A new Las Trancas Mexican Restaurant will open in the former Vintage Restaurant building on Randolph Avenue across from the James F. Cain Courthouse Annex in Elkins.

ELKINS — Randolph County residents who frequent the Las Trancas Mexican Restaurant locations in Buckhannon and Clarksburg will soon have a place closer to home to enjoy the establishment’s tasty dishes.  

The owner of Las Trancas, which features authentic Mexican cuisine, purchased the former Vintage Restaurant building on Randolph Avenue in Elkins late last year, and plans to open a new restaurant at that location within the next two months.

Uriel Perez, who will be managing the new restaurant, told The Inter-Mountain Wednesday that Las Trancas is hoping to open its new location sometime in the month of March. He said Elkins was chosen for a variety of reasons.

“Once we finish all the work inside we will know for sure when we will open, but as of right now I would say it will be sometime in March. That’s kind of our goal right now,” Perez said. “We’ve had a restaurant in Buckhannon for around 10 years, and during that time we’ve have had a lot of customers from Elkins come to visit us. Plus the owner (Martin Arellano) loves the town. He has been coming to Elkins for a long time and thinks the town is beautiful.”

Being situated in close proximity to downtown and right on the main road makes it an ideal location for the restaurant, Perez said.

“The new restaurant’s location is going to be in a good spot,” said Perez. “It’s downtown and everything is really close to it, including the courthouse, the hospital, and the college. I feel like it’s a really, really good location for us.”

Perez said even though the building housed a restaurant just last year, there were still many things that had to be worked on to accommodate what is done at a Las Trancas.

“The dining room is perfect, we didn’t have to do too much except some painting and decorating,” he said. “But we definitely had to change the kitchen around a good bit. We had to make some updates in there to make it suitable for a Mexican restaurant, like with the stoves and the grill.”

Having a large bar already in place at the restaurant is something that has worked into Perez’s plans for the new Las Trancas.

“The location in Elkins already has a big bar, so we are definitely going to try and have a bigger cocktail menu,” Perez said. “Of course margaritas and tequila are the main things for a Mexican restaurant and we will have all of  those. But we are going to try and have different types of drinks in the bar area — it’s going to be fun.”

Perez said customers can expect the same great food and service that is offered at any other Las Trancas restaurant in West Virginia.  

“What we do best is get the food out to people as quickly as we can so that the customers are happy,” Perez said. “We want to continue to do that for people when we open the location in Elkins. And we are going to offer all the main dishes we have at our other locations, plus we are planning to add a couple more items to the menu as well.”