The name speaks for itself. It’s a respected restaurant with strong community roots with over 30 years serving west side residents. We had the pleasure of sitting down with Lucy Cardenas and Bill Coker of Red Iguana this month and learned a little more about this family owned restaurant — a gem along the North Temple corridor.

Red Iguana has been involved in the Fairpark Community Fairpark for decades.

“I try to do what I can by taking care of our properties, and bringing people in. I also love helping our neighboring schools. I really just want to support what we have here,” said Lucy.

“There’s a lot of potential to see North Temple turn into a Grand Boulevard. We want to invite people to come check us out!”

If she could fix one thing about the neighborhood, it would be the trash. “My biggest thing that drives me crazy is the trash. I live here in Fairpark and I walk a lot. I walk between the restaurants. We walk downtown and to the dog park. I want this to be a walkable neighborhood and I want it to be safe and
clean.” We couldn’t agree more!

Also, Red Iguana is growing! The Red Iguana 2 restaurant expansion is now open. “A lot of people thought it was counter intuitive to open a restaurant nearby. But really, I didn’t want to leave the neighborhood. It will be fantastic thing – funky and cool. So I said, you know what, we are going to open up right here in this neighborhood! It’s in operation and it’s going beautifully. Really, really nice. We are so appreciative that the community supports us.” They are open 363 days a year, and closed Thanksgiving and Christmas.

When asked about growth in the neighborhood Lucy said, “I love the idea of more restaurants coming into our neighborhood. People have a real perception of this neighborhood and we need to fix that. I’d love to see a floral shop, or a specialty food store. Just bring it on in! If another restaurant opened up nearby, we would love that. Having grown up here, North Temple used to have all kinds of things happening, a movie theater, a bowling alley, a Dees and a lot of stuff going on. I’d love to see that come back.” For more information, hours and menu, go to rediguana.com.