Restaurateur betting Bypass will bypass new business

Expected design changes to the Highway 50 East interchange of the Carson City bypass apparently will spare a long-time restaurant building at Lompa Lane.

Dan Hague is betting it turns out that way - he's just signed a six-month lease on the building and put $20,000 into remodeling it.

Hague, owner of Tequila Dan's Tex-Mex restaurant on South Carson Street, said he will open Joaquin Murrieta's Tex-Mex restaurant at Lompa and Highway 50 by May 15.

The building previously housed the Happy Steak, Garden Grill and El Aguila Real restaurants. It was included in the property obtained by the Nevada Department of Transportation in 1996 as right of way for the bypass.

"This newest design, the single point urban interchange, does not need as much real estate and may miss that building," NDOT spokesman Scott Magruder said Wednesday. "In one of our first designs, the right-of-way would have taken it. But we don't want to take a piece of property unnecessarily."

Magruder said the fate of the building will be determined around mid-summer, when the final design for Phase 1B of the bypass is set. Work has begun on the first portion of the project, Phase 1A, installation of bridge structures over Emerson Drive, Northgate Lane, Arrowhead Drive and College Parkway.

"We do own the building. They are leasing from us, with the understanding it may be a real short-term lease," Magruder said of Hague's restaurant.

Hague said he has attended all the meetings about the bypass and its design and feels fairly certain his new venture will be around for the long run.

"Otherwise, I wouldn't have sunk my money into the remodeling," he said. "I've been looking at that location for four years, but didn't go for it because of the bypass plans. Then I got a phone call from one of the highway guys saying, 'Dan, I think it's going to work.'"

Hague said the new restaurant, named after an historical figure described as the Mexican Robin Hood, will feature a menu similar to Tequila Dan's but with more mesquite-flavored dishes. He said it will be open for breakfast as well as lunch and dinner.

Hague opened Tequila Dan's in Carson City 10 years ago and owned a second Tequila Dan's in Gardnerville from 1995 to 1997.

Magruder said the state will eventually sell the building and the parcel beneath if it is not needed for the bypass.