La Pinata hits the ‘upgrade’ button with new Centerville restaurant

Mexican eatery relocates from strip retail center to its own larger, free-standing building nearby

A larger, and free-standing, La Pinata Mexican Restaurant at 9505 Dayton-Lebanon Pike in south Centerville is now open.

The new restaurant, which served its first customers Friday, replaces the La Pinata Mexican Food restaurant that was located in a nearby retail center just north of the new venture. The stand-alone restaurant is at the intersection of Sheehan Road and Ohio 48 at the site of a former Coldwell Banker realty office.

>> END OF AN ERA: The last Pepito’s Mexican restaurant shuts its doors after more than 35 years

The new restaurant seats more than 100 inside. It was doing a brisk business Sunday afternoon, two days after it opened. La Pinata also operates restaurants in Fairfield and Colerain.

Centerville is becoming an epicenter of sorts for Mexican restaurants. It now has at least six full-service Mexican eateries, and a handful more operating not far from Centerville’s city limits.

>> New restaurant at Cross Pointe Centre comes with a twist

Last summer, Rancheros Cocina Mexicana opened in the Cross Pointe Centre, and later in the year, El Toro Mexican Bar and Grill added a restaurant on South Main Street (Ohio 48) in the Centerville Square Shopping Center, in space that previously housed Buffalo Wings & Rings.

>>  New El Toro Mexican restaurant coming to Centerville is scheduled to open this fall

Elsa's has a long-standing Mexican restaurant on Far Hills Avenue near Centerville's northern border.

Chiapas Mexican Grill at 298 N. Main St. (Ohio 48) and Las Piramides Mexican Restaurant at 101 W. Franklin St. in downtown Centerville round out the south-of-the-border-themed restaurants in Centerville proper.

>> 4 dishes we tried at the new Chiapas restaurant

An Elsa’s Corner Cantina opened last year in the Sugarcreek Plaza off Wilmington Pike a few hundred feet from Centerville’s eastern border.

>> PHOTOS: Take a look inside the new Elsa’s Corner Cantina

>> New Corner Cantina 'not your parents' Elsa's,' co-founder says

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