Dos Mexican Eats moving; will reopen on Main Street Dover as HiFi Burritos

DOVER — A vacant Main Street storefront has been given a facelift with an eye-catching mural that welcomes customers into an established Dover Mexican eatery’s new downtown digs.

The owners of Dos Mexican Eats, an offshoot of the city’s former Dos Amigos Burritos location, will shut down this month and move immediately into a nearby building to open HiFi Burritos.

The message the owners - Joel Harris, Stephen Ordway and Brett Wintersteen - have is simple: It’s the same food created by the same faces, just served from a different place.

Dos Mexican Eats has been a mainly takeout operation since opening days before the national coronavirus pandemic shutdown in March 2020. The move to Main Street just up around the bend from the mills will provide their customers with interior seating, which they lacked on Washington Street, and the same great flavors they’ve come to love.

“I’m excited to turn the page,” Harris said. “Getting back to normalcy, people gathering again together and people wanting to go out to eat and people wanting to have the opportunity to commune again and come interact with our staff. Having the energy of customers makes for a better working experience.”

The newly named business is shuttering its Washington Street mill building location in the coming days to officially open the doors to its revamped unit at 11A Main Street, most recently home of Loxsmith Bagel Co.

HiFi Burritos is the newest chapter in a burrito business that began with Harris opening Dos Amigos Burritos in Portsmouth in 2003. The business later expanded to Dover on Central Avenue, though that location closed in 2019, followed by the closure of the Port City flagship location in summer 2021.

Dos Amigos Burritos had as many as five locations at its peak.

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Fast, casual food at a good price point

After the Dover Dos Amigos closed, then-store employees Wintersteen, Ordway and Mitch Purrington approached Harris to state their belief that closing the Garrison City spot was a mistake.

Putting their trust in the brand and the success of their food, the four decided to open Dos Mexican Eats in Dover, a business separate from the Dos Amigos ownership umbrella but offering similar cuisine.

“We really stand behind our product,” said Ordway. “What we put out - especially in this sector of the restaurant industry, fast casual at a good price point - is really hard to beat.”

Chinburg Properties owns the Washington Street mills and the Main Street unit. Upon Loxsmith’s closure, the company approached Dos Mexican Eats, their tenant, to see if they’d be willing to move up the road.

With growth in mind, Dos Mexican Eats’ owners agreed to the deal. As Dos Mexican Eats’ final days wind down now and the birth of HiFi Burritos takes shape, Harris, Ordway and Wintersteen, whose cousin painted the mural on the front of the building, remain the owners and operators behind the new burrito shop.

“It seemed like a natural fit, one of those happy circumstances because we were hoping to expand and the right space came along,” Wintersteen said.

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New name, new spot, same menu

HiFi Burritos will retain the same menu as Dos Mexican Eats, known for its burritos and burrito bowls, tacos, nachos and salads. A change is coming to the business model’s beverage menu, though, as the owners are in the process of obtaining a liquor license to serve house-made margaritas and a small locally crafted beer selection.

“We’ll mix it up in that direction and probably have the opportunity to run weekly or monthly specials, but the overall menu is going to be congruent with what we currently do because all of it is just so damn good,” said Wintersteen.

The name of the restaurant came after many brainstorm sessions between Wintersteen and Ordway. The idea came to Wintersteen in the night, with the name “HiFi” a shortened version of “high fidelity,” a nod to a higher-quality reproduction of sound deployed in some speakers, as well as the restaurant’s commitment to serving high-quality dishes.

As his co-owners showed off their new space, Ordway put on two records: “Then Play On” by Fleetwood Mac and “Sticky Fingers” by the Rolling Stones.

“The common thread for the culture of the restaurant has always been music,” he stated. “It’s like our main bonding agent between staff, ownership, management, customers and community.”

Speakers are hanging in the corners of the dining room above tables decorated with cartoon, splatter paint depictions of herbs, tacos, chips and guacamole, vegetables, cheese and tacos.

Dos Mexican Eats will remain open until just before HiFi Burritos is ready to begin serving patrons, though a date for the Washington Street restaurant’s closing has not been determined.

“Originally, we thought it’d be nice to keep some aspects of Dos Amigos so people would recognize us,” Harris said about the roots of Dos Mexican Eats. “One of the really exciting things about this move is that these guys picked the name and did the logo. It’s a real reflection of who they are and their connection to music. It’s a really exciting transformation.”

The ownership trio have their sights set on opening HiFi Burritos on Monday, Aug. 21.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Dos Mexican Eats to become HiFi Burritos on Main Street in Dover, NH