Lee — If all goes according to plan, El Patron restaurant will welcome hungry diners in the food court at Lee Premium Outlets in a couple of months.
“We expect to have them open for business early to mid-May,” said Carolyn Edwards, area general manager at Lee Premium Outlets, 17 Premium Outlets Boulevard.
According to Edwards, the eatery will offer street tacos, burritos, quesadillas, tortas, and nachos. This new venture joins other local restaurants serving Mexican fare: Avocado Café, Jalisco Cantina, and Agaves Mexican Grill, with the latter two establishments having opened last year.
The Lee Select Board approved the restaurant’s victualler’s license on March 18, with that document listing its operating hours as 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The proprietor, Mr. Francisco, told the dais that his years of experience include working at various restaurants in Great Barrington as well as managing his own establishment that was closed because of the pandemic.
El Patron will not be serving alcohol.
Shared town services
The group also approved a three-year inter-municipal agreement for Lee to share administrative assistant services with the towns of Great Barrington, Lenox, and New Marlborough, with an option for Stockbridge to join in the future. Chair Gordon Bailey explained that the municipalities currently share a building department, with the inspectors coming under one agreement and the administrative assistants under a separate agreement. Those administrative assistants would be considered Lee employees, he said, with the towns party to the contract providing reimbursement.
A second inter-municipal agreement was approved that adds the town of West Stockbridge to a shared-services contract between Great Barrington, Lee, Lenox, and Stockbridge for building officials and zoning enforcement services. Those officials will be considered Stockbridge employees with partnering towns responsible for their own share of the costs involved.
“It’s been really successful, and other towns are interested in joining because it has worked out really well,” Town Administrator Christopher Brittain said of the shared services programs. “It does actually help the budget a little.”
