A gas explosion shut it down. A pandemic won’t stop Durham’s Torero’s from reopening.
A few seconds after a firefighter walked into Torero’s Mexican Restaurant on the morning of April 10 last year, the building next door blew up.
Torero’s co-owner Emmanuel Martinez was in the kitchen writing checks. When the boom shattered the morning stillness, he and six workers ran out and didn’t look back until they were dozens of feet away.
“It sounded like the bombs you hear on TV,” Martinez said. “I was shocked to hear that kind of noise. It’s just nothing you ever experience.”
Owned by Jose Arias, Francisco Equihua and Martinez, Torero’s is now putting the final touches on its rebuild as it prepares to reopen after the natural gas explosion.
The restaurant will reopen for takeout at 11 a.m. Wednesday, April 29.
The blast damaged wood paneling and blew out windows, but the two-story building in downtown Durham’s Brightleaf District was declared structurally sound. After investigations wrapped up, repairs began months ago.
But in recent weeks, Torero’s return has been complicated by the coronavirus pandemic, a crisis that has closed every restaurant in North Carolina to dine-in guests, with many operating as takeout-only.
Spring has been defined more by hibernation than renewal, but Martinez said Torero’s returning as takeout still feels like a blessing.
He has worked for Torero’s since 2007, starting as a server before becoming a partner five years ago after buying some ownership shares from Arias.
The restaurant’s insurance policy covered repairs and offered a year’s-worth of income, allowing the 33-year-old husband and father of two to spend more time with the family’s newborn, now 17 months old. But that safety net ends April 10, and after a year of navigating investigations and repairs, Martinez is eager to reopen Torero’s.
“Our goal was to reopen the whole restaurant, but we’ll just do takeout; we’re excited anyway,” he said. “We’re doing what we love to do.”
Torero’s opened in 1994, serving a style of Mexican food popular in the South, with a menu including enchiladas and burritos, always with rice and beans.
It’s one of the oldest restaurants in downtown, Martinez said, and the location at the busy corner of West Main and North Duke streets was the first in a number of Torero’s restaurants to open in the area. Durham’s downtown and its restaurant scene have grown up around it.
“This is where it it all began,” Martinez said.
‘We were very lucky’
The Durham gas explosion took the lives of Kaffeinate coffee shop owner Kong Lee and utility worker Jay Rambeaut and injured 25 others.
“The first few weeks you think, how could you survive something like that?” Martinez said. “We were very lucky, and it’s a blessing everyone is OK and we have a second opportunity.”
Martinez said he loves to see people happy after a meal. He sees restaurants as essential, a word that has taken on new meaning during a time of stay-at-home orders and social distancing.
“Restaurants are very necessary,” he said. “Without them it’s very hard to see that everyone gets fed. ... It’s very bad that we’re in this situation, not just for restaurants, but everyone (who) is in the middle of this situation.”
He doesn’t dwell on the timing of the pandemic, though. The restaurant is installing new soda machines and appliances, ordering supplies and pending a health inspection, expects to reopen at the end of April or in early May.
“It’s kind of sad we can’t open the whole restaurant yet, but right now we have this pandemic,” Martinez said. “But we’re close, and we want to let our customers know we can’t wait to be back.”
The restaurant will be open Tuesdays to Sundays, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Go to torerosmexicanrestaurantsnc.com or call 919-682-4197.
This story was originally published April 10, 2020 at 3:06 PM with the headline "A gas explosion shut it down. A pandemic won’t stop Durham’s Torero’s from reopening.."
