KC restaurant closed 18 months for a redo. It’s back with new name, menu, rooftop bar

Eighteen months ago, Sol Cantina closed to revamp into Barrio Taqueria.

Owners Chris Ridler and Luke Pickett planned to open the new restaurant and rooftop bar last October.

“There were multiple revisions made, construction delays that caused the project to run very long,” Ridler said Friday morning. “It feels fantastic to get it open. I’m so happy with the metamorphosis from Sol Cantina, which opened 17 years ago, to Barrio. It means a lot.”

Barrio Taqueria will open to the public Tuesday at 408 E. 31st St., on Union Hill’s Martini Corner.

The taco-centric menu includes sister restaurant Barrio Mexican Kitchen + Bar’s popular fish taco, along with new sandwiches, grilled wraps and bowls such as the Lucha Libre (chicken or pork, jack cheese, avocado-tomatillo salsa, black bean-corn relish, sour cream and pico de gallo), queso-jalapeno burger, burnt end tortas, and Tijuana hot chicken sandwiches. Chef Amos Hurst created the items to make it distinct from the other Barrio restaurants.

It will have happy hour specials daily with such items as street tacos for $2.50, along with barbecue burnt end quesadillas, ceviche, seafood quesadillas or Valentina wings for $9 — with a drink purchase. Drinks will include margaritas (including a Skinny with agave nectar), tequila, cocktails, sangria, wine and beer.

It will offer brunch from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays with bottomless mimosas. The dinner menu will start after brunch.

It seats 108 on the main floor, which has a large bar and nine TVs. The rooftop seats 62.

Ridler and Pickett own the Barrio Mexican Kitchen + Bar restaurants in Brookside, the Red Bridge Shopping Center and The Village at Briarcliff.