For Somos Bandidos owner and University alumnus Patrick Fellows, business at his new Mexican restaurant on North Boulevard has been booming.
“I completely underestimated how successful it would be and how much business we would have,” Fellows said.
Fellows, who also operates the Louisiana Marathon, said he was in Boston one day promoting the marathon and noticed all of the Mexican restaurants in the city. After realizing Baton Rouge did not boast as many Mexican restaurants, he decided to open Somos Bandidos.
The restaurant opened almost three weeks ago.
Fellows said he believes the restaurant is in a great location because of the various events and nightlife activities that take place downtown.
Fellows also owns local salad and wraps restaurant FRESHJUNKIE. Somos Bandidos’ current location was one of the original locations for FRESHJUNKIE.
“On a Friday night, we were FRESHJUNKIE, and the next Tuesday, we opened as Somos Bandidos,” Fellows said.
The significance behind the restaurant’s name comes from Fellows’ roots in fitness, which is a hobby he enjoys with his close friends. He watched an episode of the Netflix series “Narcos” in which one of the characters said “Somos bandidos,” which translates to “we are bandits.” Relating “bandits” to his friend group, Fellows latched onto it.
He said the name adequately described his group of friends, who are “guys and girls who go out and do things that are not the safe and conservative thing.”
He said it amuses him when people ask him what he does for a living and he gets to say he “wear[s] T-shirts and shorts to work and own[s] restaurants.”
His Mexican restaurant puts a healthy spin on tacos and burritos with its pulled pork and beef brisket, which take up to 15 hours to make. Somos Bandidos makes everything fresh, and all of the restaurant’s sauces are made from scratch.
“I may not be the most traditional chef, but I’m good at coming up with intense sauces,” Fellows said.
The restaurant prides itself on using locally owned suppliers. A company in Gonzales makes tortillas for the restaurant. To speed up the long process of making the pulled pork and beef brisket, Fellows said the restaurant is working with another local company to help make the dishes.
Even though he is the owner of the restaurant, Fellows said he “picks up trash just like everyone else.” He said he tries to maintain a team atmosphere..
“We try to have a little bit of an edge in a positive way,” he said.

Gallery • 10 Photos

Mykeil Chambers

Somos Bandidos attracts customers with pun inspired quotes on Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2016 on North Blvd Downtown.