BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2013 Foodies in search of chimichangas, enchiladas and other Mexican specialties will soon have a new spot to frequent in Northampton County.<\/p>\n
Don Carlos Fine Mexican Food & Tequila Bar, a full-service restaurant offering authentic, made-from-scratch Mexican cuisine, is nearing completion at 1406 Center St. in Bethlehem.<\/p>\n
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Don Carlos Fine Mexican Food & Tequila Bar, a full-service restaurant offering authentic, made-from-scratch Mexican cuisine, is coming soon to 1406 Center St. in Bethlehem.<\/p>\n
Ryan Kneller<\/p>\n
The space previously housed other dining establishments, including Collins Restaurant, Star City Restaurant and, most recently, Rudy\u2019s Diner Bar & Grill.<\/p>\n
The nearly decade-old Rudy\u2019s closed in fall 2024 as husband and wife owners Olvin and Carla Buezo decided to focus their attention on their other restaurant, Frank\u2019s Italian Restaurant, on Route 248 in Lower Nazareth Township, Carla said.<\/p>\n
Don Carlos owner Carlos Morales purchased the property and has been renovating it over the past several months.<\/p>\n
Individuals traveling past the property have likely already noticed exterior updates in the form of vibrant murals.<\/p>\n
Artists have painted a variety of colorful Mexican motifs, including cacti, Frida Kahlo and Day of the Dead designs, on the building\u2019s facade.<\/p>\n
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Ryan Kneller<\/p>\n
Morales was originally hoping to open Don Carlos in 2025, but renovations have become more extensive than originally planned.<\/p>\n
He now expects to open the Mexican restaurant in early 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe decided to knock down everything and do a lot more work inside,\u201d Morales told 69 News on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, it\u2019s taking longer to finish than we originally planned, but it\u2019s coming soon \u2013 hopefully in January. We can\u2019t wait! It\u2019s going to look really beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Don Carlos will be Morales\u2019 third Mexican dining establishment, supplementing two El Patron Mexican restaurants that he operates in Glen Gardner, New Jersey and Port Jervis, New York.<\/p>\n
He also owns five pizzerias in New Jersey and New York.<\/p>\n
A resident of Middletown, New York, Morales became familiar with and was attracted to the Lehigh Valley dining scene as he has several restaurant industry friends who live in the area.<\/p>\n
He decided on the name, Don Carlos, because he didn\u2019t want any confusion with another Lehigh Valley El Patron Mexican restaurant, which operates on North Seventh Street in Allentown.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited to open this restaurant because I really love Bethlehem \u2013 the people, the energy, everything about it,\u201d Morales said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe community is really great, and even though there are other Mexican restaurants in the area, I think there is room for everyone. Also, I like to bring new dishes that other restaurants don\u2019t offer. So, it\u2019ll be a fresh and new restaurant, both with its look and its menu.\u201d<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/6909362006402.image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Don Carlos Fine Mexican Food & Tequila Bar, a full-service restaurant offering authentic, made-from-scratch Mexican cuisine, is coming soon to 1406 Center St. in Bethlehem.<\/p>\n
Ryan Kneller<\/p>\n
Don Carlos\u2019 food offerings will differ slightly than those offered at Morales\u2019 El Patron restaurants, but several popular dishes will be carried over to Don Carlos’ menu, Morales said.<\/p>\n
Individuals can expect a wide array of Mexican specialties, including burritos, tacos, fajitas, flautas, enchiladas, chimichangas and nachos, available with proteins such as chicken, steak and shrimp, Morales said.<\/p>\n
Everything will be homemade, including the salsa, guacamole and desserts such as flan, churros and tres leches cake.<\/p>\n
Lunch and dinner will be served daily.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am sometimes asked why I don\u2019t close my restaurants on Mondays, and I always say because people also eat on Mondays,\u201d Morales said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
At Don Carlos, Morales envisions more of an open-concept dining area, with bright colors and furniture imported from Mexico.<\/p>\n
He and a team of workers are adding new kitchen equipment, updating the bathrooms and constructing a new bar, with the latter featuring a large selection of tequilas along with cocktails such as margaritas and mojitos.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want this to be a fresh and fun place to gather, where people can celebrate special occasions or just enjoy great food and drinks any day of the week,\u201d Morales said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2013 Foodies in search of chimichangas, enchiladas and other Mexican specialties will soon have a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,15786,15783,9726,15782,15785,15788,15789,157,13223,434,976,15790,15787,15784],"class_list":["post-23785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-burritos","tag-carlos-morales","tag-center-street","tag-don-carlos","tag-don-carlos-fine-mexican-food-tequila-bar","tag-enchiladas","tag-fajitas","tag-lehigh-valley","tag-mexican-restaurant","tag-northampton-county","tag-restaurant","tag-rudy","tag-tacos","tag-tequila-bar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}