Guanacos Melting Pot now open on Route 1 Rehoboth
Taking an if-not-now-probably-never approach, Celso and Xiomara Morales have opened Guanacos Melting Pot outside Rehoboth Beach.
Starting as a dishwasher and working his way up to chef, Celso has been working in the kitchen at local restaurants for the past 14 years. He said he and Xiomara have been thinking about opening their own place for years.
“It’s been a dream of ours to open our own restaurant and work for ourselves,” said Celso. “We’re not getting any younger, and if we were going to do it, the time was now.”
The eatery is run out of a food trailer, so it has the ability to move, but Guanacos’ otherwise permanent location is on Route 1, in front of the Fractured Prune. The duo looked up and down the highway for a good location, said Celso.
“It doesn’t get much better than this,” he said. “Everyone knows where the Fractured Prune is.”
The menu features a variety of foods, but it’s heavy on the El Salvadorian delicacies. There’s street corn, street tacos, pupusas and burritos. The short rib taco is very popular, said Celso.
For now, Celso and Xiomara are the primary employees. However, Celso said his sister helps on weekends, and she makes the pupusas. On the weekends, Celso said the menu also includes different Latin-style soups.
Celso said the couple is focused on getting the mobile restaurant up and running, but they’ve also got their eye toward the future.
“We’re always looking for new horizons to see what doors open,” he said. “It’s all about providing a good future for our two kids. They’re our engine. This is our dream and we’re along for the ride wherever it takes us.”
Guanacos is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week, with breakfast served 7 a.m. to noon on the weekends.
The trailer is available for private events. For more information on Guanacos Melting Pot, 20214 Coastal Highway, go to the Facebook page, call 302-278-2199 or email 503meltingpot@gmail.com.
Chris Flood has been working for the Cape Gazette since early 2014. He currently covers Rehoboth Beach and Henlopen Acres, but has also covered Dewey Beach and the state government. He covers environmental stories, business stories and random stories on subjects he finds interesting, and he also writes a column called Choppin’ Wood that runs every other week. Additionally, Flood moonlights as the company’s circulation manager, which primarily means fixing boxes that are jammed with coins during daylight hours, but sometimes means delivering papers in the middle of the night. He’s a graduate of the University of Maine and the Landing School of Boat Building & Design.
