RAYMOND — Eighteen months after a kitchen fire destroyed the popular A La Mexicana, the restaurant will celebrate its grand re-opening Friday, Oct. 19, in its new, renovated diner.

Owner Jose Chavez said he is happy to be up and running again in a permanent place after the April 2017 fire.

“I lost pretty much all that I had,” Chavez said. “That was bad. But something bad for something good, and this is the good thing right now,” he said.

The new restaurant is located on the same property at 1227 Roosevelt Trail. The fire-gutted building was demolished, and the diner has taken its place.

After the fire, property owner Laurie Mason and her husband, Bob, debated how to rebuild. One day while they were eating at the Miss Portland Diner in Portland, Mason said, Bob looked at her and said “Why don’t we put in a diner?”

They found a diner for sale in Ohio and flew out to look at it in September 2017. After the Raymond Planning Board approved the project, the Masons purchased the diner and shipped it in pieces to Raymond on five trucks, Mason said.

Unfortunately, it arrived at Christmastime during a spell of bad weather.

“Putting it together and getting it ready to be occupied took longer than anticipated because of weather,” Mason said.

From the summer of 2017 through the summer of 2018, Chavez worked out of a food truck he set up at the Route 302 site.

It was “super cold” working from the truck in the winter, he said. “Even with the heaters in there. Sometimes I’d get home with my feet so swollen because of cold.”

Mason said she and her husband wanted to help Chavez. “He’s great. We made the decision we would rebuild something there to get him back in business,” she said.

The Masons are not alone in their support for Chavez and his business. After the fire, the community raised more than $10,000 for Chavez and his employees at a Cinco de Mayo party held in Windham.

“The community turned out in droves, It was pouring rain,” Mason said. “And the community has continued to come out in droves. They’re just so excited about this new place, and they can’t wait for it to be open.”

Chavez agreed. “They want to be here, they want this place back, they want me to be right here,” he said.

The new restaurant features the same menu but will have some new dinner specials on the weekends.

In addition, working out of the food truck has affected how the new business operates, particularly in terms of how Chavez prepares tacos.

In the truck, he explained, “We had to cook a different way because we can’t have a full menu in there. Now, they like it that way, too!”

A La Mexicana has also expanded with a new restaurant in Bridgton, which opened this summer. That restaurant is run by Chavez’s brother, who is also named Jose.

Chavez started cooking when he was 6 or 7 years old and, when he moved to the United States at 15, he began washing dishes before becoming a chef.

Now, after an arduous year, his restaurant is back in full swing.

“We’re ecstatic that we’ve come full circle on this journey and that he’s back in business. It’s been a long, long road,” Mason said.

Chavez added, “I miss the old building, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to love this one. And I’m going to see how we can do better in this one, too.”

Jane Vaughan can be reached at 780-9103 or at jvaughan@keepmecurrent.com.

Jose Chavez’s A La Mexicana restaurant is back in business in Raymond.

A La Mexicana is now housed in a diner that was shipped to Maine on trucks.

The new A La Mexicana has a large outdoor seating area, and owner Jose Chavez says he is still thinking about ways to use the space.

A two-alarm fire at the Raymond restaurant A La Mexicana on Route 302.

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