January 2, 2025

Popular LaSalle Mexican restaurant to find second home in Pierce

Construction of the Don Juan Mexican Restaurant is ongoing in Pierce. It is expected to open this spring. Courtesy Maria Orozco
By

PIERCE — If you loved Don Juan Mexican Restaurant so much you were willing to travel a few miles to La Salle to dine there, come this spring, you may not have to travel so much.

The Orozco family, which has owned and operated Don Juan Mexican Restaurant in LaSalle since 2005, is building a second restaurant at 500 First St., right off U.S. Highway 85 and Main Street in Pierce. This one will be a duplicate of the popular LaSalle restaurant, but it will have a larger breakfast menu and open earlier to accommodate early morning truck traffic and business from agriculture and oil and gas workers.

“We are hoping to reach a variety of different customers,” Don Juan owner Juan Orozco said in an email response to questions translated from Spanish into English by his daughter, Maria Orozco. “We want to be able to provide quality service and food for both the trucking/business communities, Pierce and the neighboring areas.”

Pierce is just a little more than eight miles north of Eaton, which has many of the amenities this small town lacks. It is 16 miles north of Greeley on U.S. 85, and 21 miles north of LaSalle.

Don Juan’s will be Pierce’s only restaurant once it opens; the town’s last restaurant closed a few months ago, according to a town employee who answered a phone call from BizWest. Just down the street, a new Dollar Store also is under construction, which will also be the town’s only general store besides a combination grocery/liquor store in town.

Orozco said he had always wanted to build a restaurant from the ground up. The La Salle restaurant at 106 2nd Ave. had been a bar, and several different restaurant concepts before he purchased it. Orozco and his family are building the 5,000 square-foot Pierce restaurant themselves. It will be able to accommodate about 150 diners.

“I’ve owned the land for some time now,” Orozco said in an email. “Pierce is a growing community with a bright future. I see a lot of potential in the location just like I did when I opened in LaSalle.”

Orozco said the new Don Juan’s will help create a legacy for his family.

“I would love to continue to grow the business for my family,” he said. “Having the business to pass on to my family and being able to support them with its success is very important to me. If the opportunity to continue to grow the business presents itself it is something I would very much consider.”

The Orozco family, which has owned and operated Don Juan Mexican Restaurant in LaSalle since 2005, is building a second restaurant right off U.S. Highway 85 and Main Street in Pierce.

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Sharon Dunn is an award-winning journalist covering business, banking, real estate, energy, local government and crime in Northern Colorado since 1994. She began her journalism career in Alaska after graduating Metropolitan State College in Denver in 1992. She found her way back to Colorado, where she worked at the Greeley Tribune for 25 years. She has a master's degree in communications management from the University of Denver. She is married and has one grown daughter — and a beloved English pointer at her side while she writes. When not writing, you may find her enjoying embroidery and crochet projects, watching football, or kayaking and birdwatching on a high-mountain lake.
Categories: La Salle Pierce Restaurants Today's News Weld County Don Juan Mexican Restaurant Juan Orozco
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