When Chris Sommers announced earlier this year that he’d reopen Gringo, fans of the popular Mexican restaurant rejoiced. And so did Sommers.
“We always loved the brand and had developed it into something we were proud of, but at the time we sold the space to the Mission Taco guys, we were slammed with new restaurants out of town and it was the only one that wasn’t a pizzeria,” Sommers said. “When this space opened back up, I just had to jump on it.”
In 2016, Sommers sold Gringo, then at 398 N. Euclid Ave. in the Central West End, to Adam and Jason Tilford, owners of Mission Taco Joint. The brothers opened a location of Mission Taco in the space just a few months later.
Gringo reopened Monday in the space at 635 Washington Ave. downtown previously occupied by a Robust Wine Bar, owned and operated by Stanley and Arlene Browne. The Brownes cited a “serious decline in convention and tourism business” as reasons for the restaurant location's closure in April. (The Robust in Webster Groves remains open.)
