Concord’s Dos Amigos Burritos closing for renovations to add draft beers, double seating

By Nick Reid - Jan 24, 2017 | 0 comments

The Dos Amigos Burritos restaurant in downtown Concord is seen next to a former antique store on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2017. The restaurant is expanding into the empty store and will be closed from February 1-22 to make the renovations. (ELIZABETH FRANTZ / Monitor staff)

Dos Amigos Burritos offered special burritos for the Somewhat North of Boston film festival in November.

Dos Amigos Burritos employee Tyler Castrogiovanni makes burritos at the downtown Concord restaurant on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2017. Dos Amigos will be closed from February 1-22 during an expansion and renovation project.(ELIZABETH FRANTZ / Monitor staff)

A selection of beer is seen at Dos Amigos Burritos restaurant in downtown Concord on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2017. The restaurant is planning to add draft beer when they reopen at the end of February after renovations. (ELIZABETH FRANTZ / Monitor staff)

Dos Amigos Burritos manager Kina Gilson (left) and employee Tyler Castrogiovanni fill a catering order at the Concord restaurant last week. Dos Amigos will be closed from Feb. 1-22 during an expansion and renovation project.

Dos Amigos Burritos employee Tyler Castrogiovanni works on a customer order at the downtown Concord restaurant on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2017. Dos Amigos will be closed from February 1-22 during an expansion and renovation project.(ELIZABETH FRANTZ / Monitor staff)

Monitor staff

Like an overstuffed burrito, downtown Concord Mexican restaurant Dos Amigos has been bursting at the seams.

But it’s planning to double its capacity next month by expanding into the former antique store next door. It’ll add 50 seats, process orders more efficiently and offer draft beer for the first time, its manager said.

“It’s going to be huge,” Dos Amigos Burritos Manager Kina Gilson said. “We’ve been having issues during lunch and dinner where customers will come in, and we don’t have enough seats for everyone.”

The Concord restaurant will close for three weeks Feb. 1 to install the changes. Work is already under way next door, she said.

The New Hampshire-based burrito chain’s Concord restaurant is the last of its four locations to be renovated, Gilson said. The expansion will more than double the restaurant’s current seating from 36 to 86.

Dos Amigos wrote in a Facebook post announcing its plans Wednesday night that it will double its food production and eventually allow customers to place their orders online. Gilson said her store will add new staff, but “we’re not entirely sure of all our plans yet.”

“Our goal with this project is to enhance the customer’s experience at Dos Amigos by slashing wait times, providing a more comfortable dining room and adding the best craft beer New Hampshire has to offer,” said the Facebook post, which was shared by dozens of people.

Gilson said it was late summer when plans for the expansion began to take shape. The new design will afford space for 10 draft beer lines – featuring local craft brews – whereas the restaurant currently serves only bottles.

“We’re hoping to organize it a lot better,” she added, “so our pick-up and dine-in is a little separated. That seems to be our main issue.”

The store’s menu and hours won’t be changing, she said.

“For now, we’re going to stick to our regular hours and scope out how it goes,” Gilson said. “It’s all kind of new for all of us.”

Dos Amigos also has locations in Portsmouth, Dover, and Newburyport, Mass.

(Nick Reid can be reached at 369-3325, nreid@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @NickBReid.)