Leaving Gold Street for Fajitaville

“I had some success with it, (but) I think it was a little ahead of its time,” Nichols said.

Nichols launched his Fajitaville restaurant on North Fourth Street in 1997. A second eventually opened at the intersection of Juan Tabo/Montgomery.

Both were closed by 2002.

At Fajitaville, the large, hand-held fajitas could be customized from an array of meat, vegetable and fresh-made salsa options. Everything was grilled to order.

Nichols has reintroduced many of the same salsas — including a charred tomato chipotle and pineapple salsa — at his newest eatery, Rocka Taco. Nichols took over the University of New Mexico-area taco shop last fall.

Now that he’s out at Gold Street — which he’d owned for nine years — Nichols said he will devote more attention to Rocka Taco and to reopening Fajitaville. He’s been speaking to investors, scouting locations and would like to have Fajitaville open within the next few months.

“It helps to be excited about stuff. I was just ready for something new,” Nichols, 43, said on Monday. “I had an opportunity to get out of (Gold Street Caffé) and do something new, and I’ve been wanting to open up another Fajitaville for quite some time.”

Nichols came to Gold Street 10 years ago as executive chef/general manager and bought it shortly thereafter.

He sold earlier this month to an ownership group that includes Kanella Barnes and Kristin Fleming.

The terms were not disclosed.

Barnes said nothing is changing at this point, though the new Gold Street owners may ultimately get a little more creative with dinner in the hopes of increasing evening traffic.

“If there are going to be any changes to food at all it will be dinner,” Barnes said. “Our breakfast is killer. That is not broken and we are not going to fix it.”