Patty’s Kitchen will be open year round for the first time in three yeers. Indoor seating with be provided by the newly renovated Patty Dome.
A popular local eatery, Patty’s Kitchen, gets revamped for winter
Hailey Stewart | Crumbs
For the past 14 years, Patty’s Kitchen has been dishing out Mexican food to the people of Moscow.
Although this long-standing restaurant, nestled just outside of the campus, has evolved with the community, lovers of Patty’s Kitchen have had to endure the long cold winters without her food for the past three years.
However, Gerardo Alvarez, owener of Patty’s, said this year the establishment will be open all through the winter season.
“The last three years are the years that we closed for the winter, because we never got to see our children,” Alvarez said. “We wanted to be parents for at least four months out of the year.”
Alvarez said the biggest change now is that he and his wife’s children are in school and they are going to have a lot more time on their hands.
“With all of this new time, [we] really wanted to recapture our business back,” Alvarez said.
Among many new and improved additions to the restaurant, food goers can now enjoy Patty’s while sitting inside the Patty Dome.
Alvarez said that the Patty Dome is the largest and newest renovation to the restaurant so far.
Alvarez said they have installed new flooring along with french doors, and added new tables and chairs inside the dome.
The restaurant’s busiest times are usually spring and summer, but Alvarez said with the new indoor seating they hope to bring in just as many diners during the colder months.
“Patty’s is so close to campus, and in years past I was a student here at the university as well, so I can connect with the students that come in,” Alvarez said. “My son is our new general manager, and he really has that connection with UI students, so hopefully Patty’s will become the new winter hangout.”
Alvarez said that the best part of Patty’s being so close to campus is seeing students, old and new, walk by everyday.
“At Patty’s we are more about the relationship with those that come in and eat here than anything else,” Alvarez said.
Alvarez said Patty’s Kitchen has been creating these relationships with the Moscow community even before it was an established restaurant, too.
“What makes Patty’s unique to Moscow is that we started right here at the Moscow Farmer’s Market when I was a student,” Alvarez said.
Alvarez said they began selling tamales and salsa at the local farmers market and Patty’s blossomed from there.
Due to how it began, Alvarez said Patty takes pride in remaining local and involved with the Moscow area.
“We aren’t big into commercialized food, everything comes from her passion, her food, her love of cooking,” Alvarez Said.
Alvarez said that they try to source as much local food as they can for the restaurant and they also have their own farm, where they supply some of their own meat products.
Although they have already made many renovations, Alvarez said Patty’s Kitchen is still looking to the future.
“We have some new and exciting ideas that we are working toward for the year 2016, and right now we are in the planning stages of it,” Alvarez said.
These new ideas are going to be something that many people have not seen from Patty’s Kitchen before and Alvarez said that Patty’s Kitchen plans on becoming more family focused.
“We are going to be switching things up, and it is going to be something unique to Moscow and more personal to us,” Alvarez said.
Hailey Stewart can be reached at [email protected]