Mexican food chain wants two locations in Arlington Heights

A Seattle-based Mexican restaurant chain is looking to open its first Midwestern eateries in Arlington Heights.

Hiren Patel wants to open Del Mar's Baja Mexican Restaurant at the northwest corner of Northwest Highway and Dryden Place. He also has plans for a second location on the village's west side.

Patel talked about his Northwest Highway location at an informal plan commission meeting on Wednesday.

"This spot will be the headquarters for the Midwest, since we have bought the rights for Illinois and Indiana," he said. "We're similar to Chipotle and going offer healthy Mexican food."

Like Chipotle, customers custom their order in an assembly line-type line, Patel said.

Commissioners didn't vote on the plan at Wednesday's meeting and it will still need approval from the full plan commission and village board.

Assuming Patel gets those approvals, he wants to open Del Mar in February. It would be open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week. The Northwest Highway location is near Walgreens and a dry cleaner in a small strip mall, according to a village memo.

The restaurant would have 44 seats, according to the memo

While that plan goes through the approval process, Patel will also submit plans to open a second restaurant in a strip mall at Algonquin and New Wilke roads in Arlington Heights, he said after Wednesday's meeting.

Del Mar's parent company, Taco Del Mar, opened in 1992 on Pier 57 in Seattle's waterfront district. The founders, brothers James and John Schmidt, created a name and logo that reflected their signature menu items - fish tacos and mission-style burritos.

Currently there are 275 Del Mar locations in the United States and Canada. The closest ones to Arlington Heights are in Michigan and Ohio, according to the company's Web site.