Margaritas Celebrates 25 Years Tonight

Tonight at 4 p.m., Margaritas in Bicentennial Square will be celebrating the chain’s silver anniversary with a special party. The restaurant will be playing retro music and giving away prizes every hour, and special toasts throughout the night.

While it is the chain’s 25th anniversary, the restaurant has been around a bit longer than that. Tio Juan’s, the first Margaritas restaurant, opened in 1985 in Concord’s old police station jail off Warren Street. Its jail cells converted into small rooms for tables quickly made it a popular favorite.

Later, the company expanded, buying other restaurants around New England and naming the chain Margaritaville. That quickly changed to Margaritas. The company also recently began franchising new restaurants. The chain now has 23 restaurants around New England and New Jersey, and will soon open restaurants in Delaware and Pennsylvania.

The general manager in Concord, Charlie Taylor, has been with the company for more than 21 years. He started out at 16 working in the Portland, Maine, restaurant as the guy who sat out in the parking lot and warned people that they couldn’t park in an adjacent lot since it wasn’t their property.

“I actually got promoted to washing dishes and I was happy because I was warm,” he said.

Taylor then worked his way up in the ranks and is now the general manager.

“I’ve worked here for a long time and I still feel like I’m getting in on the ground floor of something,” he said.

Taylor said one of the reasons he had stayed with the company was the people who work at the restaurant, the company owners, and the customers. He said the owners are very good at re-investing in the company.

“They’re very smart and great people to work for,” he said. “They’re not just good businessmen, they’re good people.”

Taylor said what is so special about working in Concord is the customers, many of whom are regulars, and have been coming to the restaurant for a long time. While he has worked in other Margaritas, none have the kind of customer base the Concord restaurant has.

“They’re a big reason why we’re successful as a company,” he said.

The employees are also great to work with, he said. A lot of them, like Paul Letourneau, the kitchen manager, have been with the restaurant since day one, working in Concord.

“It’s a party to celebrate our longevity but it’s also a big ‘thank you’ to the people who made it possible,” he said. “It’s going to be a good party on Friday.”