Latest news with #ElAmigo
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Hungry customers fill Erie Mexican restaurants for Cinco de Mayo
Some local restaurants saw a boom in business Monday night as the Erie community celebrated Cinco de Mayo. Cinco de Mayo is a time for people to sit back with a taco and a margarita, but the holiday is also a huge day for Mexican restaurants. Reporter Tyler Gallagher live at El Amigo in celebration of Cinco de Mayo The fifth of May is known as Cinco de Mayo in the U.S. and Mexico, and Monday evening, people lined up outside of El Amigo on State Street to celebrate the holiday with an authentic Mexican meal. 'We celebrate every Cinco de Mayo, and it's a popular fiesta; we call it a fiesta like a party. People come and drink at the restaurant, have some nice food, have some nice drinks, and everything. So, I think this is the bigger, like, busy day in the year,' said Alex Villatoro, a manager at El Amigo. Villatoro said the staff at El Amigo has been preparing for Cinco de Mayo for three weeks, stocking up on food and drinks before the holiday rush. And sure enough, the holiday rush did come, with customers filling every seat in the restaurant at dinner time and even forming a line outside waiting to get their share of the Mexican holiday. Former NASCAR Kyle Petty's Charity Ride caravan stops in Erie You could just hear the chatter around me, this place is packed right now, almost every single table is occupied, but El Amigo isn't the only place to celebrate Cinco de Mayo around the Erie community.' 'We're so busy, so I'm very grateful right now. If you can see, there's a lot of cars and we've had a full house since like 11 a.m. I thought it was going to be slow because it's monday. I thought everybody would be at work or something, but it's been so busy, I don't know what happened today,' said Leonardo Leal, a manager at El Canelo. Customers also lined up for a table at El Canelo on West 12th Street, waiting for a chance to cheers a margarita with some friends. And Leal said they don't take busy days like this for granted. State police in Erie pay tribute to fallen troopers across PA 'Like five months ago, I thought it was going to be the end of El Canelo because we were slow and no clients, probably like 10 tables in the whole day, but yeah, we're getting better,' he went on to say. Leal said El Canelo has different promotions every day of the week for customers looking to celebrate Cinco de Mayo anytime. Both restaurant managers said the holiday was an overall success for their businesses. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
City of Erie announces latest round of Flagship grants
The City of Erie is investing more than $84,000 into small businesses to help them grow and thrive. The administration announced their 2025 Flagship Grant awardees Thursday morning. Erie tax expert offers tips of to navigate tax season The atmosphere inside Erie City Hall Thursday morning was full of excitement as small business owners gathered for a special announcement. Nineteen recipients were selected for the City of Erie's Flagship Fund Micro-grant Program out of the more than 120 that applied. Their objective with these grants is to enhance the city's reputation in multiple areas including innovation, quality of life and environmental sustainability. 'Typically we roll this out twice a year,' said Chris Groner, director of the City of Erie Office of Development Services. 'It lets small businesses know that we appreciate what they do. Almost all of the economic development programs out there are really tailored to very large businesses, large projects.' Kayla's Sweet Treats opens up shop in Urbaniak's Groner said that small businesses invest and add to the well-being of our communities and deserve to quality for economic development assistance programs like large businesses. And that's why Mayor Joe Schember and his administration created this program. Since 2018, they have continued to assist small business owners by using some of the interest that is being earned from their revolving loan fund. 'We're just really happy to be able to directly support small business in a simple straight forward way,' Groner said. Wattsburg church nearing re-opening after 2024 fire Funding awards are granted up to five thousand dollars…matching money that businesses themselves come up with. Some businesses that were selected were Lakeshore Towing Services for a specialized crane, Popluck for a new popcorn cooker, and Copy King for a backup generator. After 10 years of being downtown, El Amigo plans to use their funding to begin a renovation project including new flooring and bar upgrades. 'The building itself is old fashioned and it looks really nice but there's some things that need to be changed,' said David Saldana, owner of El Amigo. 'Thanks to the mayor this grant is going to help us reach our goal.' Saldana hopes to start construction next month to be ready by May for Cinco de Mayo at his Mexican grill. 'We are thinking and hoping to have the biggest fiesta of the year and all time for Cinco de Mayo so we're just going to get ready for that,' Saldana went on to say. In addition to Cinco de Mayo, Saldana said they cannot wait for this summer season. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
