ABOVE: El Agave in Fairmont is in the middle of a remodeling project. The Mexican restaurant will debut a new look in January.

FAIRMONT– The new year will bring a new look for El Agave. The popular Mexican restaurant, located at 62 Downtown Plaza in Fairmont, is currently being remodeled.

The Restaurant has had a presence in Fairmont for 21 years and was formerly known as El Mariachi. The restaurant’s owner, Noe Juarez, said over the 18 years since he took over, they’ve done a number of upgrades to it, including new paint colors and updating the bathrooms.

The current remodel project is one Juarez said they’ve been thinking about since before Covid hit in 2020. Once the pandemic prompted them to close and things were uncertain for awhile, the project was put on the back burner.

“Last year we looked into. What slowed down things was we couldn’t find someone to do it,” Juarez said.

With so many supplies and projects in demand Juarez said they couldn’t find a company to take on the project. Eventually, they found a company in Mankato to take it on.

“We finally agreed to do it over the summer. We thought timing for us would be best this time of year because that’s when it’s slower,” Juarez explained.

He also noted that the construction company was more available at this time because it’s an indoor project.

As for what’s being done, Juarez said they wanted a whole new look. He’s met with an interior designer to come up with a vision on what he’d like the restaurant to look like.

“I’m glad I did because it’s saved a lot of stress and headaches on what to put where and what colors,” Juarez said.

They’re getting new floor tiles and light fixtures. The trellis over the booths will be gone on both sides of the restaurant which will open the space up. There will be some new paint colors, but not on all walls.

“We’re going to have exposed brick from the original building,” said Juarez.

They’re also redoing the whole bar area. Juarez said they’re going to open up that space more as well.

The remodel is being done in three stages. Two weeks ago they closed the side of the restaurant that the main entrance is on, but kept the bar side of the restaurant open and

have still been able to seat a good amount of people in that room.

After this weekend, they’ll be closed for a week while the other side of the restaurant is worked on. They will reopen on Jan. 2 and while the project won’t be complete until the end of January, people will notice the new look.

Juarez said a new trend with Mexican restaurants is cleaner and simpler. While there may be fewer colors, there will still be some decor.

“We’ve been here for so long that when we decided to remodel, I wanted to do something different,” he said.

No new drinks or food items will be added as a result of the remodel and the current number of 18 employees will stay.

During the remodel El Agave has been encouraging people to order take-out since there’s been less seating.

“That’s something (good) that Covid left us. There’s a lot more take-out,” Juarez said.

People can order food to-go from El Agave by calling the restaurant or online through doordash.

However when the project is done, Juarez hopes people will be excited to come in and check it out.

“We’re trying to get it what we want it to be. It took us awhile to do this because we wanted to do it right. I think when everything is done, people will like it. At the end of the day we do the things we do to make our clients more comfortable,” Juarez said.