Sunny’s Cantina will open in Dogtown in March

The owners of Dogtown favorite Felix’s Pizza Pub will open Sunny’s Cantina, a restaurant featuring Mexican classics with a twist. The new restaurant will open the first week of March at 6655 Manchester Ave., in the former Manchester Public House spot.

Co-owner Steve VanderKolb said the location for the new restaurant, which is one mile away from their pizza joint, came at the perfect time. This is the second restaurant VanderKolb has opened with co-owner Tom Galbraith and chef Andy Roesch.

“We’re big fans of Dogtown. We’ve been here for 15 years,” VanderKolb said. “We found this beautiful building, and we’ve been working on some renovations to get it ready.”

The menu will be full of classic Mexican fares like quesadillas, nachos and burritos, and the tequila-based cocktails will feature fresh-squeezed fruit juice. VanderKolb said he was excited for the unique dishes they plan to offer, like Mexican lasagna, fajita fried rice and a chorizo burger topped with avocado and grilled pineapple.

“Our chef Andy is a great cook and had great success with pizza,” VanderKolb said. “We all love Mexican food, and we wanted to give it a try.”

VanderKolb said Sunny’s Cantina said the 2,400-square-foot space will have a large community table, a long bar and seating for about 90. A patio outside will offer another 20 seats when the weather warms. “Our [goal] is to do what we can do to please as many people as we can,” VanderKolb said.

Erin Killion is an editorial intern at Sauce Magazine.