Owners of decades-old restaurant in Rockland County explain reasons for closure
Their other restaurant in Middletown, NY is still open.
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El Bandido in Spring Valley has closed for good after almost 50 years in business.
"It's been tough, but we're here,” said Tonatiuh Tello. “We're not giving up."
Brothers, Tonatiuh and Angel Tello, say in fighting to keep the El Bandido restaurant legacy alive meant they had to close to their Rockland location. Their other restaurant in Middletown, NY is still open, which is where they spoke with News 12 from virtually.
"In the end, it kind of just got too much. We were pretty short staffed, had very few people in the building, and it got to the point that I didn't want to reduce the quality of food we're putting out,” said Angel. “It just made more sense to close down."
After the pandemic, they say financial problems like tax increases and inflated food prices also led to the closure. Their father first opened the Spring Valley location 48 years ago. He passed in 2018. As News 12 reported last year, both restaurants temporarily closed because of tax reasons.
“We love our father's legacy and memory. We don't want to see them both fail because we're trying to keep one open," said Tonatiuh.
He says he feels they may take their restaurant business elsewhere out of the state.
"It's too hard for us to do business in New York, we may end up going to Florida like a lot of other business owners are going," he says.
There is no word on what will happen with the Spring Valley restaurant now because the property is owned by someone else.
