In case you missed it, Pancho’s closed last year.

And in case you also missed this, I felt betrayed on behalf of all the people of Memphis, loyal to the end. Trying to sneak out of business after 65 years — well, best I don’t get started again.

Is it time to say adios to Pancho’s?

But for the past month or so, a sign on the former Pancho’s space in the Cloverleaf Center at Summer Avenue and White Station Road has announced that Antigua Mexican Bar & Grill is coming, and now it has arrived (at least the grill part). It’s Andres Gutierrez’s first restaurant, and he’s all in.

Don’t walk in expecting to see campy old Pancho’s, because Gutierrez knocked down all the walls and has created a big open space that will seat more than 200 people, including about 20 in big stools around a large bar. (It’s serving beer at present and will, hopefully within the month, begin serving a good selection of margaritas and a grapefruit and tequila drink called a cantarito.)

I stopped in for lunch on Wednesday and found that a decent crowd had already gotten word the restaurant was open. There were 20, maybe 25, people dining around 1:30 p.m., but in the large space, it seemed almost empty.

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The menu is mostly standards: Enchiladas, fajitas, tacos, tortas and so on. I chose Famosa Rice, because lately I’ve eaten rice almost any time I have a choice; I’m cyclical this way sometimes and right now, I’m on rice.

It was a plate of rice covered with cheese sauce, topped with a lot of small pieces of well-seasoned grilled chicken that had charred bits here and there, and it was just delicious. It was almost as simple as food gets — chicken and rice — and there was no attempt to make it anything but. Satisfying, filling, and no doubt calorie dense, though I will say there was ample protein, if that matters to you (it does to me).

Gutierrez said that while this is his first restaurant, he’s worked in several, mostly in Mississippi, from the front of the house to the bar to the kitchen.

He believes that when he gets his liquor license, he’ll be so busy that he even has a back room already outfitted with tables and booths. It can be used for private parties or for extra seating, should he need it.

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If you walk back that way, you’ll spy something that might look familiar: A parrot, painted on a wall that wasn’t taken down. That’s what remains of Pancho’s.

Antigua Mexican Bar & Grill, 717 N. White Station Road, is open 10 a.m.-9:30 p.m., Sunday through Thursday, and 10 a.m.-10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday; call 901-761-1374.