A popular Mexican restaurant has celebrated its 18th year in business.

Salsa Mexican Bistro, which is located on Penrith's Castlegate, celebrated its 18th year in business at the beginning of November. 

The restaurant was opened in 2006 and is owned by Steve Stables who also part-owns other local favourites such as Keswick's Bar Es and Lake Road Brunch or 'LRB'. 

(Image: Tara Hodgson) Salsa initially began its life in Keswick in 2001 before moving to Penrith in the mid-noughties, with Steve on hand to discuss nearly two decades in business as the restaurant celebrated its 18th birthday.

He said: "We are over the moon, there have obviously been good times and bad times but the good must have outweighed the bad in order for us to get to this point.

"The hardest part of the 18 years was the credit crunch in 2008. We opened in 2006 and we had two really good years and then once the financial crisis hit that was the closest we ever came to going out of business.

"We managed to scrape through and things have gone from strength to strength from then."

(Image: Tara Hodgson) To celebrate the business' 18th birthday, Steve and his staff hosted an anniversary party on Friday, November 1 which was attended by people who have supported the restaurant since 2006 and featured a performance from The Acoustic Vandals.

The event, which Steve described as 'brilliant', was the perfect way to reflect on 18 years of memories and celebrate everyone involved with Salsa. 

He said: "It was a really good night and a busy one as well.

"It was brilliant and it was nice to celebrate it with our team.

"Over 18 years we have had many different staff members but what we seem to find is that when we take on new members of staff they stay with us for a long time.

(Image: Tara Hodgson) "I quite like to think that we are good to work for and we try to look after our staff as much as we can and I think that helps that our customers usually see a familiar face whenever they come in."

For Steve, Salsa is a 'lifestyle' not just a business and he thanked everyone who has supported the restaurant since its opening in 2006.

He said: "Any form of hospitality you go into has to be a lifestyle choice, the hours are quote unsocial so it is not just a job or a business it is your life.

"You need to treat it as a family, you see your regulars all the time and you do all you can to look after them and deal with any problems they may have."