GREENFIELD — The owners of Salvadoran restaurant Cocina Lupita are seeking the community’s support to help fuel their goal of opening a second location in Turners Falls this May.

After first opening Cocina Lupita as a food truck in July 2021 and then moving to a brick-and-mortar space inside the Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center later that year, co-owners Joshua Breitner and Aleyda Romero are now hoping for more space at 125 Avenue A, the former home of the Black Cow Burger Bar.

With a goal of opening the Turners Falls location on May 1, the restaurant is looking to raise $30,000 through a GoFundMe at gofundme.com/f/help-cocina-lupita-expand-and-thrive. The donations will help them afford the supplies, furniture and equipment for a second restaurant. Thus far, they’ve raised $2,650.

“It’s ready to go right now. It doesn’t need work,” Breitner said of the restaurant space in Turners Falls. “It’ll give us something more that we can do right now.”

The option to expand was something Breitner and Romano jumped on within the last few weeks, with the former Black Cow Burger Bar being an attractive option. The Black Cow Burger Bar closed in June 2024 after 12 years in business, and the space, owned by Bob Obear, has remained vacant since then.

In Greenfield, Breitner explained, the space doesn’t have the capacity to seat large parties, with a maximum seating capacity of around 15 people. Sharing a space with a concert venue also poses challenges involving noise during evening dining hours.

Although Cocina Lupita will keep its Greenfield location, the hope is to offer an expanded menu and bar service inside a larger dining room. Since it operated as a restaurant previously, the Turners Falls space already has a range hood, a walk-in cooler, a grease trap and a bar.

Even with some of the equipment in place, Breitner said there are still large pieces of equipment that they’d like to buy with donations. Items they are still looking for include an iPad for their point-of-service system, glassware for the bar and wire storage racks, the GoFundMe notes. Donations would also go toward permitting fees.

This vision for the future of Cocina Lupita is something Romano and her husband, Chef Efrain Fuentes, are looking forward to, especially knowing there is community support behind an expansion. With Breitner translating, Romano said she’s “very happy” to see that people are looking to offer their support.

“Our community has just been so supportive from day one. We know that they care about local business,” Breitner said. “We know that they care about supporting the local community, and so we figured we’d give people the chance to help us succeed.”

Erin-Leigh Hoffman can be reached at ehoffman@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.