Restaurants extend Cinco de Mayo promotions

Cinco de Mayo, a celebration ideal for offering items with low food cost, such as nachos and high-margin drinks like Margaritas, falls on a Sunday this year — not usually an ideal day for merrymaking. Celebrations are further complicated by the Kentucky Derby, which is run the day before, on May 4.

However, restaurants are stretching their Cinco de Mayo promotions over several days and tapping the overlap of events to maximize profits.

Stateside Pie & Beer in Mesquite, Texas, will host a Cinco de Derby weekend. From May 3–4, guests will be treated to items like a chocolate-pecan Derby Pie or Hot Brown Pie — a three-cheese pizza with onion, turkey, tomatoes and bacon strips — and Mint Julep specials. On May 5, the restaurant will switch to $3 tequila shooters and margaritas, Mariachi music, $2.50 Mexican beers and $5 Mexican pizza.

Porter’s Pub in Elgin, Ill., will combine both holidays on Saturday with $5 Mint Juleps, $4 Corona beers and margaritas, and a free taco bar from 3–6 p.m.

McGillin’s Olde Ale House, Philadelphia’s oldest continuously operating tavern, will start celebrations especially early. Beginning on Wednesday, May 1, the pub will serve Mexican-Irish food, such as an Irish Chimichanga — grilled lamb, caramelized onions and Chihuahua cheese rolled in a flour tortilla and deep-fried — Corona beer-battered fish and chips, and fajita salad, each for $7.99, along with $4.50 margaritas. After a brunch of egg enchiladas and breakfast burritos, the celebration will culminate with Mexican-inspired karaoke, featuring songs such as Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville, James Taylor’s Mexico and Kenny Chesney’s When the Sun Goes Down.

in Sausalito, Calif., will serve food specials starting on May 2. It has also hired local artist Karen Slovak to create a chalk mural on the sidewalk that day.

Sueños in New York City will mark the occasion by introducing a new brunch service on Saturday, May 4. Offerings include $12 huevos rancheros with poached eggs, $12 eggs Benedict with cornbread and chipotle hollandaise, $17 coconut-habanero shrimp tacos with grilled corn on the cob, and $16 tacos al pastor with pickled vegetables.

Mercadito in Chicago will serve brunch on Saturday, May 4, featuring favorites such as huevos rancheros and chilaquiles, plus Pambazo — a white Mexican bread dipped in guajillo salsa and stuffed with potatoes, chorizo, lettuce, crema and queso fresco. The restaurant will also offer $35 “brunch bottles” — bottle service of vodka for Bloody Marys or tequila for margaritas, with appropriate mixers and garnishes.

Casual-dining chain Margaritas, based in Portsmouth, N.H., will sponsor an extended celebration at its 23 units called “Cinco de Mayo, the Bash with the ’Stache: Five Days of Tequila, Moustaches and Awesome.” Cinco de Familia, on Wednesday, May 1, is a dining room promotion featuring games and giveaways for kids, including fake moustaches, which will be given out each night.

The Noche Mexicana Fundraiser, on Thursday, May 2, will donate 15 percent of each check that night to a charity selected by each location. Margaritas After Work — Cinco Style, on Friday, May 3, will offer early evening $5 Margaritas and food specials.

Cinco Eve, on Saturday, May 4, will feature giveaways for grown-ups and a New Year’s Eve-style midnight toast. Finally, on the big day itself, all restaurants will open at 11:30 a.m. for the chain’s 26th annual Cinco de Mayo celebration, its biggest day of the year.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected].
Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary