Business

Southside shuffle: Kelsey's closes, El Paso moving

El Paso is moving from Greenville Highway to 807 Spartanburg Highway.

By Bill Moss, Published: September 4, 2015

You know that saying about change being the only certainty? It’s never truer than when it comes to restaurants. Hendersonville’s ever-evolving dining landscape is changing again.

On the south end of town, an old restaurant has closed and a popular stalwart is moving.
Kelsey’s restaurant, which closed in 2011, had been reopened in 2012 by Mills River Family Restaurant owner Nick Selas.
“He called me probably six months ago and said he was struggling and then he called me and said he was going to be leaving at the end of August,” property owner Bob Quattlebaum said. “I tried to encourage him to cut back. The thing was his menu was just unbelievably large. He didn’t want to cut it back. He finally did and added a salad bar but it was too late.”
Quattlebaum said he worked out an exit agreement and parted ways with Selas and his partner, Nick Syrigos, on good terms.
Meanwhile, the El Paso Mexican restaurant plans to move from Greenville Highway to a larger building at 807 Spartanburg Highway.
“I think with a Publix (potentially in the Atha Plaza property), a new Ingles and the old Quincy’s being opened by El Paso, I think long term it’s going to be a great location,” said Quattlebaum, a veteran restaurateur who owned Kelsey’s and Kelsey’s City Grill and still operates Binion’s Steakhouse. “This is where the action is. Kelsey’s is a great building. It’s a prime location for a good operator to go in there and make a lot of money.”
Across the road, the restaurant built in 1986 as a Quincy’s was last operated as Roula’s Country Kitchen before its owner vanished after writing $5,000 in worthless checks to the landlord. El Paso owner Maricela Montano bought the property in March for $850,000 from Mary Pace Lamir of Jacksonville, Fla., county land records show. Montano is currently renovating the 8,400-square-foot space.
The new El Paso could open “maybe by the end of October,” Montano said. “We don’t know for sure yet.”