photo by: Chad Lawhorn

La Familia, 733 New Hampshire St.

Yes, those may be tears of salsa running down the cheeks of downtown Lawrence diners. Word came out this afternoon that La Familia Cafe, the longtime Mexican restaurant at 733 New Hampshire St., is closing.

A post on the restaurant’s Facebook page announced that the restaurant won’t have its lease renewed because there is interest on the part of the building’s owner to possibly sell or redevelop the property. And I just got off the phone with one of the owners of La Familia who confirmed the news: The restaurant’s last day of business will be Dec. 31. It does not plan to find a new location to reopen in Lawrence, at least not in the near future.

“My husband has been doing this pretty much his entire adult life,” said Keri Rodriquez, who owns the business with Phil Rodriquez, who is the son of the restaurant’s founder. “We’re not saying never. We’re just saying not right this minute. He deserves to take a break and see if there is something else he wants to do in life.”

La Familia dates back to 1987 when Phil’s mother, Jenny Reyes-Hepner, opened the restaurant in North Lawrence. It moved to its New Hampshire Street location in 1991. Reyes-Hepner retired in 2003, and Phil and Keri have owned the restaurant since then.

My math says the restaurant has been open 29 years, which is a long, long time in the fast-changing world of Mexican restaurants in Lawrence. La Familia is somewhat related to El Matador restaurant in North Lawrence. Reyes-Hepner’s family opened that business. Keri said that is one of the reasons La Familia has stayed open so long — there was no shortage of good recipes in the family.

“She really came from that environment,” Keri said.

And the restaurant hasn’t tried to change it much through the years either.

“Anybody who has been in the restaurant knows we have that shabby-chic thing going on,” Keri said. “We have just focused on having home-cooked meals.”

As for what is next with the property, I’ll keep my ears open for that. There certainly is talk that the redevelopment wouldn’t just involve the La Familia building but also would involve the two vacant storefronts on either side of La Familia. (Don’t worry, music fans. I haven’t heard of any talk of The Bottleneck being involved.) There certainly have been rumblings that it will be another food type concept, but that information is all pretty speculative at the moment.

In terms of the final days of La Familia, Keri said she and Phil just hope lots of longtime customers come by at least one more time before the restaurant closes.

“We would love to see everybody,” she said. “We greatly appreciate everything Lawrence has done for us. We have so many loyal customers. Our employees and our regular customers are what we will miss most of all.

“We have loved serving Lawrence all this time — and who knows, we’ll see what happens in the future.”