Rio Grande heads south, plans Texas restaurant

The Fort Collins-based Rio Grande restaurant, which has spawned innumerable bar bets as to what goes into its famous margaritas, plans to open restaurant out of state for the first time.

Chief Operating Officer Henry Mouton said the Rio Grande, which started in a closet-sized space on North College Ave in 1986, will open its seventh restaurant in Austin, Texas, early next year.

The Rio, as its known locally, has expanded gradually in Colorado, and now operates restaurants in Fort Collins, Greeley, Boulder, Lone Tree, Denver and Steamboat Springs.

“We’re heading back to the home front,´ said Mouton, referring to the fact that the Rio’s cuisine started from recipes that were circulating in Houston, Texas, where founders Steve and Andre Mouton and Pat Mcaughran once lived. The Mouton brothers said they also gathered recipes from their travels in the Yucatan and southern Mexico.

“This is going to be the first time we’ve ever gone out of state.”

When the Moutons and their boyhood friend McGaughran started up the first Rio in 1986, they had no restaurant experience. The Moutons and McGaughran were tradesmen – the Moutons’ background was in air conditioning and McGaughran was an electrician.

Henry Mouton said the building that the Rio leased for the restaurant in Austin is an old warehouse and construction is under way to renovate the place. “We’re trying to make it look a lot like the other buildings our restaurants are in,” he said.

McGaughran partnered with the Moutons when they first opened up the restaurant but bought the brothers out in 2000.  When the Rio opened, it started with 25 employees. The number of people on the payroll has grown 500.

Last year the chain reported same-store sales growth of 9.5 percent – the Lone Tree store opened in November 2004. The pace of growth so far this year has slackened to 2 percent.

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