Crews Relocate Salsa Limon Across Fort Worth

There was a major move across town Tuesday, all to save a piece of Fort Worth history, the hard way.

"Is it easier to build it from scratch? Yeah, but it's not the same," said Milo Ramirez, owner of the local taqueria Salsa Limon.

The restaurant moved on wheels from the West 7th Street area out to White Settlement Road in the new development called the River District.

It was no easy task. As of Tuesday night, the 80-ton building remained on the flatbed it moved there on, waiting to be settled onto its foundation.

The owners plan to open up in four to five weeks and it’s far from the only business moving in to the River District.

"Here comes the building!" KC Harrison said to his son as they watched from the side of the road.

If you want to move a whole restaurant across a busy city, you've got to get a few things right.

"We sure got the perfect day to do this," Ramirez told his sister.

You need someone to clear the streets, someone to check every power line, and a mover with 71 years of experience to get you there.

"It darn near made me start cussing. I've never done that, but I started, got pretty close," said H.D. Snow of H.D. Snow and Son House Moving, Inc.

But mostly you need the motivation to know it's worth it.

"Everything you see around is a crane and concrete being poured," said Ramirez.

Salsa Limon started the day Tuesday on a valuable lot in the West 7th Street area. So valuable, the lot owners decided to redevelop the land, into a larger, mixed-use building. The taqueria had to go.

“You should have seen the day they told me. It’s like I had seen a ghost,” Ramirez said.

But the restaurant was built in 1947. It’s been through a few evolutions since then. It's one of the last architectural examples of a Streamline Moderne cafe and owner Milo Ramirez wanted to pick it up and save it.

"It keeps that whole mysticism," said Ramirez. “We need to keep that kind of quality to us.”

It’s a piece of Fort Worth history now staking a claim in the city's next big boom neighborhood, the River District.

"Very exciting," said KC Harrison.

He and his son watched the parade pass by, ushering in the old and the new in the changing face of their community.

"All the new development, all the new houses and the businesses coming in, it's an exciting time,” said Harrison. “Everything is really looking up over here."

Salsa Limon is on the leading edge of a 26-acre development planned in the River District. There's a 300-plus unit apartment complex under construction right across the street that's set to accept its first tenants in July 2017.

A whole batch of restaurants and businesses are on-line to join the development, as well.

Salsa Limon is planning to open another storefront in the new West 7th area development where it once stood, once that project is complete. That will be one of five locations in DFW open by early next year, plus three food trucks.

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