Tortilla Ranch Mexican Grill toasts one-year anniversary with $2.50 margaritas

Tortilla Ranch Mexican Grill isn’t waiting until May to toast its one-year anniversary.

The fast casual Mexican restaurant in Overland Park has already started celebrating with specials on top-shelf margaritas. The 16-ounce drinks come in two flavors — classic lime and pink strawberry — and are made with Sauza tequila and Patron Citronage orange liqueur. The margaritas cost $2.50 with a food purchase during happy hour (3-7 p.m. daily) and $1.99 on Saturdays and Sundays.

Tortilla Ranch also serves burritos, tacos, enchiladas, nachos and quesadillas. The restaurant is the result of a collaboration between Ed Brownell, a partner in Spin Neopolitan Pizza, and Ed Gieselman, founder of the Jose Pepper’s Border Grill & Cantina chain.

Because of its proximity to Corporate Woods, Tortilla Ranch Mexican Grill has become a popular lunchtime spot for office workers. At 12:30 p.m. on a recent Thursday, the line of customers stretched from the counter to the front door.

Tortilla Ranch is similar to Chipotle in that customers order at the counter and watch as workers prepare their meal in the open kitchen, then pay before toting their food and drinks to a table. The “ranch” part of the restaurant’s concept is visible in the rustic decor, including walls decorated with distressed wood and steel cutouts of steers.

One of the most popular entrees is the Ranch salad ($8.25), a warm housemade flour tortilla folded into a bowl and filled with romaine lettuce, cilantro-lime rice, beans, pico de gallo and dressing (choose from creamy tomatillo, citrus vinaigrette or jalapeno ranch).

The salad and other entrees come with the customer’s choice of slow-braised pulled pork, fire-roasted shredded chicken, chile-braised shredded beef, grilled chicken, fajita-style sauteed vegetables and grilled steak (the steak costs $1 extra).

Customers can also choose from four salsas (from mild pico de gallo to spicy fire tomatillo) and add-ons such as sour cream (25 cents), chile con queso (25 cents) and guacamole ($1).

Tortilla Ranch’s popular nachos ($7.95) are a platter of tortilla chips loaded with shredded cheese, sour cream, pico de gallo, beans and a choice of meat or sauteed vegetables.

Brownell says he’s very particular when it comes to nachos: “You gotta have something on every chip,” he says. Tortilla Ranch workers are instructed to build the nachos in layers — chips first, then queso, more chips and toppings — so all the ingredients are evenly distributed.

Gieselman also has a say in Tortilla Ranch’s menu. He came up with BBQ salmon tacos ($7.25), which are discounted to $5.95 on Fridays.

Tortilla Ranch has daily specials on food and drinks. On Monday, entrees are buy one, get one free. On Taco Tuesday, two crispy ground beef tacos cost $4.99, including rice and beans. And on Wednesday, enchilada-style burritos are discounted from $7.95 to $5.95.

Tortilla Ranch also serves two made-from-scratch desserts ($3.25): Key lime pie and tres leches cake, a sweet Mexican dessert made by soaking vanilla sponge cake in three kinds of milk.

This story was originally published April 21, 2015 at 9:25 PM with the headline "Tortilla Ranch Mexican Grill toasts one-year anniversary with $2.50 margaritas."