The Stowells Move Beyond Italian With a Mexican Restaurant

Ethan Stowell Restaurants is branching out beyond its Italian-leaning portfolio of restaurants (including upcoming Cortina downtown) with a new two-in-one project in Fremont, the group’s first establishment focused on Mexican food: Cafe Bueno, serving coffee and breakfast burritos in a family-friendly space with a kids’ play area, and Super Bueno, catering to the dinner crowd with margaritas, boozy slushies, grilled corn, and ceviche. Both are predicted to open in late spring at 3627 Stone Way N, on the edge of Wallingford.

Ethan and Angela Stowell want to attract an all-ages crowd to Cafe Bueno, open daily from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. with seating for 46, a menu of coffee, pastries, salads, tortas, breakfast burritos, and grab-and-go items, a patio, and even a kids’ play area. “Much like the kid’s play area at Frelard Pizza Co., we wanted to give parents a place to enjoy time with friends over guacamole and a margarita while keeping the kids entertained,” Angela said in a release.

From 4 to 10 p.m. Super Bueno will take over, using Cafe Bueno’s upstairs seating area as a lounge to complement a downstairs dining room, counter, bar, patio, and private event space, seating about 138 total. A daily happy hour will run from 4 to 6 p.m., and lunch is planned for Saturdays and Sundays starting at 11 a.m. Atelier Drome, responsible for many of the city’s most attractive restaurants, is designing the space with rusticity and relaxation in mind, including high ceilings with exposed fir timbers, whitewashed wood walls, and light wood counter tops.

Ethan Stowell Restaurants [Official photo]

Super Bueno is billing its food as “family-friendly Mexican,” which sounds like a pretty straightforward cross-section of Mexican fare: tacos, nachos, tamales, salads, queso fundido, grilled corn, refried bean dip, escabeche, tostados, quesadillas, and shrimp ceviche. Tequila and mezcal will stock the bar, and there will be 10 beers on tap, margarita pitchers, and a slushy machine for warmer months.