Lakeshore Kitchen is coming soon to 555 9th St NW, according to an Instagram post by Salem Oregon Living. Owner Jorge Castro is behind the project. A banner on the building promotes the best happy hour, a banquet room and a family-friendly atmosphere, and says the restaurant is presented by Margarita Factory. No opening date has been announced.
Castro is the founder of Pearl West Restaurant Group, which runs the Margarita Factory, DOSALAS Latin Kitchen & Tequila Bar and DIOSA restaurants in Oregon and Washington. The Lakeshore concept is the group’s modern American spot, and its first restaurant opened in the Felida neighborhood of Vancouver, Washington.
The menu is expected to mirror the first location’s. Lunch is served Monday through Friday until 3 p.m. and includes a hot honey fried chicken sandwich, a smash burger, street tacos and salads, along with The Lakeshore French Dip, made with shaved prime rib, provolone, caramelized onion and horseradish cream. A happy hour runs Monday through Saturday, and Sunday brunch serves until 3 p.m. with dishes like the OG breakfast plate, biscuits and gravy, chorizo hash and breakfast burritos. Cocktails are a big part of the concept, as the name suggests.
Castro opened his first restaurant in Longview, Washington, in 2008, at age 22, and later trained at the Western Culinary Institute in Portland. His group has since grown to about 10 locations in three states, and it has been expanding in Oregon, including a Margarita Factory at Keizer Station. Margarita Factory also has restaurants in Beaverton, Gresham, Happy Valley and Tigard.
The Castro family has been central to the business from the start. Castro runs the restaurants with his sister, Betty Cantu, and the family’s recipes, many from their father, Jose, form the base of the Margarita Factory menu. Lakeshore brings a different style, with Margarita Factory’s focus on hospitality applied to a more American menu.
