Tinga Restaurant May Reopen Next Week

Millburn customers may be able to get their fresh tacos, favorite quesadillas and tasty salads next week.

After being closed for almost a year and then vowing to open in April or May, , a Mexican restaurant with branches in Montclair and Westfield may finally reopen next week, one of the restaurant’s owners said.

"We want to open the week of the 15th," co-owner David Fishman said. "We're pushing it."

The restaurant won't just reopen, though. Fishman said the owners took the opportunity to redesign the restaurant while it was closed. The redesigned Tinga will feature some new seating, equipment, titles, carpentry and floors, blended with some of the old decorations, for its return to downtown Millburn. Seating will remain at 50 to 60 people.

"We've spruced up the place quite a bit," Fishman said. "The new booths just arrived today."

Even with the new look, the menu will stay the same.

Tinga renewed the lease with the landlord back in March, with the goal of a May opening, something that didn’t happen.

"It's based on everything falling into place at the right time." Fishman said. "Having done this a few time you just never know."

Originally, Hurricane Irene flooded Tinga, closing it down 11 months ago. In the storm’s wake, all of the restaurant's files, phone system and invoices were damaged. 

At the time of hurricane, Fishman told Patch the “basement was flooded to the ceiling, our front door burst open, our wood floor was ripped up and buckled so bad that the floor is now down to the beams. You can stand and look down to the basement.”

Fishman said the landlord took care of all the repairs structurally, but the restaurant needed new investors to restore everything the restaurant lost.