SAN ANTONIO — It's only been open a few days, but the word is out: La Fonda Alamo Heights is back, including the signature sign and famous margaritas, albeit in a new location.

Its resurrection is due to the Hasslocher family, but that's not all that the restaurateurs have been working on. They're bringing back another old San Antonio favorite: Fans of the charbroiled Frontier Burgers and thin onion rings that made Frontier Drive-Ins so famous can expect to see their revival as early as next year.

“La Fonda and Frontier restaurants are part of San Antonio history and it's good to be able to bring them back,” said Jimmy Hasslocher, president and chief operating officer of Hasslocher Enterprises.

The family-owned restaurant company owns and operates 19 Jim's Restaurants in San Antonio and Austin and two Magic Time Machine restaurants, one in San Antonio and one in Dallas.

Hasslocher and Bill Sheridan, general manager of La Fonda Alamo Heights, sat down Thursday afternoon at the restaurant at 8633 Crownhill, off 410 between Broadway and Nacogdoches, to talk about working on La Fonda at the same time as the Frontier project.

It wasn't long after La Fonda Sunset Ridge, which opened in 2000 at 6402 N. New Braunfels in the Sunset Ridge Shopping Center and closed March 31 this year, that Hasslocher and his team began focusing on moving it to another location.

“If we hadn't been able to buy the La Fonda name, the restaurant was going to be called 'Bill and Juan's,'” Hasslocher quipped. “It was important for us to secure the name.”

“Juan” is Juan Romero, the La Fonda barman known for his margaritas.

Many of the menu items at the old restaurant, including Rick's Special, a queso dish that includes picadillo and guacamole topped with pico de gallo, are on the menu as well as some new ones.

There is a complete bar and diners can sit inside or on the patio. It is open weekdays 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and on weekends from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

La Fonda Alamo Heights occupies the former Raffles Restaurant & Bar, which moved to 1039 NE Loop 410. The property sits on 6.5 acres of land along Loop 410 that Hasslocher Enterprises purchased in 2012.

Employees from the old La Fonda were given jobs at Jim's restaurants while construction was ongoing in the new place, Sheridan said. Many of the employees returned to the new location when it was ready to open.

It took three months to remodel the building, which had been vacant for some time, Hasslocher said.

The original La Fonda sign was removed two weeks ago from the Sunset Ridge location, repaired and on Saturday was put up by a crane at the Crownhill location.

On Monday, the Hasslochers hosted lunch for company employees. La Fonda Alamo Heights had a soft opening on Tuesday; the formal opening was Thursday.

“We didn't put out the word that we were opening on Tuesday but so many people came that in the evening, there was a 35-minute wait for a table,” Sheridan said.

At the same time that the building for La Fonda Alamo Heights was being remodeled, Hasslocher and his team were devising plans for what will be known as Frontier Drive-Thrus.

The original Frontier Drive-Ins provided the seed money for the first Jim's Restaurant, opened in 1963 at Broadway and Loop 410.

Jim's and the drive-ins were opened by Hasslocher's parents, G. “Jim” Hasslocher and the late Veva Hasslocher. The elder Hasslocher, known as “Mr. Jim,” is still involved with the company, his son said.

At one time there were eight Frontier eateries. The last one closed in the 1980s.

The first new one will be built not far from the La Fonda Alamo Heights location, possibly opening in the first quarter. There also are plans for several others, on the South Side, in the Culebra Road area on the Northwest Side and on the Northeast Side, near Nacogdoches Road and Loop 1604, Hasslocher said.

Unlike Frontier Drive-In, there won't be any carhops at the Frontier Drive-Thrus, which will be open 24 hours. There will be a drive-thru, of course, as well as seating for 85 inside.

Plans for the drive-thrus had already been submitted to the city and approved but are now being revised after Ron Gomez, who retired from Whataburger and was hired by Hasslocher three months ago, said changes were needed.

“The biggest challenge right now is the cooking time for burgers for drive-thru customers,” Hasslocher said. “We've been testing them here at La Fonda. We've got them at 4 minutes (cooking time) but we need to get that down even more.”