After 70 years at one spot on Cerrillos Road, The Pantry Restaurant is spawning a second location in Oshara Village called The Pantry Dos.
Construction started in early March on the 3,000-square-foot restaurant just off Richards Avenue near Santa Fe Community College. Co-owner Michael Singley expects to be serving the legendary breakfast burrito at Pantry Dos “around September.”
Pantry Dos will be a bit larger than the 2,349 square feet at the original, but the kitchen layout will be pretty much the same except for a larger food preparation area.
“We want to keep the magic of this work line,” said Singley, who acquired The Pantry in 2001 with his father, Stan, who remains co-owner but lives in another state.
The Singleys chose south of Interstate 25 rather than any of the commercial corridors because of the college and numerous housing developments with little commercial activity in the area.
“I grew up on that side of town,” Michael Singley said. “We didn’t go downtown much. We always thought a restaurant would be great out here. There are five or six subdivisions less than a mile away.”
While the original location is popular with tourists and locals alike, Pantry Dos will be off any obvious tourist path.
The Singleys have pondered a restaurant at Oshara Village for a decade, with Stan Singley’s first idea a 1950s diner. They bought the property about five years ago.
The 470-acre Oshara subdivision was envisioned as a self-contained “village” with housing and commercial possibilities when it was approved by Santa Fe County commissioners in 2004, but the original developer filed for bankruptcy protection in 2012. Pantry Dos is the first commercial development off Richards for the project, which has scaled-back commercial ambitions.
Homewise, a nonprofit that offers homeownership assistance and credit counseling, now is an Oshara Village developer, with 30 homes in a first phase and 10 more homes expected to start later this year.
“It’s great to see a local business expanding, and this new location will add another terrific amenity,” said Rachel Silva, marketing director at Homewise.
The Pantry Dos will have “90 percent of the same menu” as the original Pantry, but Michael Singley said he was working on a few new dishes specifically for Oshara Village. The new eatery also will add espresso, lattes and draft beer, and there will be a larger bakery, he said.
“The chile’s going to be the same,” Singley said. “The breakfast burrito will be the same.”
The Pantry Dos also will offer outdoor dining on a patio.
Singley said he and his staff have embraced the idea of a second location.
“We have a lot of staff here that are veteran staff,” he said. “We’ll be promoting a couple guys that have been here 15-20 years [to work at Oshara Village].”
Pantry Dos may have nearly the same menu but will have a completely different design. Singley expects to have 80 to 90 seats at the new restaurant, just a few more than the 75 at the Cerrillos Road location.
“I didn’t want to create some 300-seat restaurant,” he said.
