New Mexican takeaway opens in Kirkcaldy

Paco - Burritos & Co, which launched yesterday, is operating from the kitchen of The Kirk Inn, on Milton Road.

The new business is being run by Francesco Arcobelli, who has 20 years of experience in hospitality and previously owned Gran Torino Cafe and then Pizzeria 1985 in Edinburgh from July 2018 to October 2020.

The experienced chef, who is renting the Kirk Inn kitchen, is opening the takeaway for four days a week currently – Thursday to Sunday, but he is hoping to open for more days once he gets up and running.

Francesco is offering delivery service only with a limited menu.

He said: “It is definitely a challenge opening a new business during the pandemic, especially in the food business, but we decided to take the risk. At the moment we have a limited menu and we are open for delivery only but we have plenty of ideas in mind.

"We want to focus on good quality food, our food is homemade, and we'd like to see first how the feedback is from customers. Then we will definitely add more items to our menu.

"We'd like to just take it step by step into the market.”

He revealed what is on offer: “We are serving nachos, burritos, quesadillas and side dishes. We also make our own guacamole, salsa, chilli sauce and our prime cut meats are slow cooked in a special mix of herbs and spices for at least eight hours.

"Fresh, tasty and affordable is our motto. We promise a really different take-away experience, far away from cheap, tasteless and junk food.

"I decided to offer Mexican food because while I do have a high knowledge in Italian food, I am interested in cooking something different and also experimenting fusions between different foods. Plus there's already few Italian restaurants and takeaways in the town.”

He said he thought Kirkcaldy was the ideal place to launch his new takeaway: “After I have sold my business in Edinburgh I tried to do other jobs, but there's isn’t a lot of work available just now because of the pandemic. It didn't work for me, so I decided to invest in opening another business in hospitality, understanding that takeaway food is the only option at the moment,” he said.

“Discovering a wee town like Kirkcaldy was quite a surprise – I love walking on the esplanade but also in city centre."

Franscesco said he may look at developing the business in the future: “At the moment there is two of us working in the kitchen and we have hired a few local drivers to do the deliveries.

"While the restrictions are in place, we’ll offer a delivery service only but speaking with the landlord, there may be an opportunity to use other rooms in the Kirk Inn in the future so we might be able to offer a sit-in service as well.”

He added: “We have already received lots of good feedback on our Facebook page - people asking about our food and where to order, so we can't wait to serve the community.”

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