Lee Epstein, the man who brought the City Cafe Diner to Chattanooga 14 years ago, is one of the backers of a new restaurant slated to open downtown in August, the Mayan Kitchen.
The restaurant, which will offer Latin cuisine and a tequila bar, is under construction now in leased space at 507 Broad St., which previously was home to the downtown Sugar's Ribs.
"This is Latin cuisine - Central and Latin America," said Epstein, who's opening Mayan Kitchen with two partners, Jacob and Benjamin Lemus, who are native Guatemalans.
The menu will have familiar items, such as fajitas and tacos, Benjamin Lemus said, but it also will introduce diners to less-known dishes, including arrachera, a marinated skirt steak and pollo adobado, a Guatemalan-style marinated chicken.
Prices will be "very, very, very, very, very reasonable," Epstein said, with entrees ranging from $9 to $12 and appetizers at $3 to $10. Portions will be big, too - though not as huge as at City Cafe Diner, he said.
The restaurant will have garage-door style front windows that will be open when the weather's nice, murals painted by a local artist, and it will seat about 150 people - which is 50 more than the City Cafe Diner downtown. The bar will have room for about 35, but it's not the focus of what Epstein said will be a family-friendly restaurant.
"I'm not in the bar business," he said. "I'm in the restaurant business."
That said, Mayan Kitchen's tequila bar won't skimp on the selection, he said, since the bar is meant to draw in customers in the same way that the gigantic pies, cakes and baked goods at the City Cafe's front counter are a draw.
"I'm going to have every tequila you can possibly name," Epstein said. "The margaritas that we sell will be the best in town."
Epstein, who's from Brooklyn, N.Y., opened the first City Cafe at 901 Carter St. in 2003 and has partnered with Jacob Lemus since 2006, when the second City Cafe opened at 7641 Lee Highway. They partnered again two years ago with a City Cafe in Cleveland, Tenn., at 919 25th St. NW near exit 25 of Interstate 75.
Epstein and Lemus thought about expanding the City Cafe concept to Nashville or Knoxville, but instead they opted to launch their new brand here as other successful Chattanooga restaurateurs have done. For example, the Monen Family Restaurant Group has a handful of different restaurant brands in Chattanooga, including Urban Stack, Taco Mamacita and Clyde's on Main.
"I'm just following their lead," Epstein said. "If it worked for them, why can't it work for me?
Epstein is a restaurant business veteran who was 25 years old when he opened his first coffee shop, Jason's, in Queens, N.Y. He sold it, and then went to work for the International House of Pancakes (IHOP) and opened stores for that chain in the northeast, until he got his first IHOP franchise near Exit 9 in Noonan, Ga. Epstein owned several IHOP franchises, and then he struck out on his own and opened six diner-style restaurants in Atlanta, which he later sold.
When Epstein opened City Cafe Diner in downtown Chattanooga, he figured he'd stay for a few years and then sell it.
But he liked it here enough to stay.
"I love the area. I got a nice house. I'm 57 years old. I don't need to keep moving," he said.
The owner of the Days Inn Chattanooga-Rivergate, where the City Cafe Diner is attached, recruited Epstein to open the 24-hour, 365-day diner here. The downtown hotel has a contract to lodge CSX railroad employees who are up at all hours.
"I don't even have a lock on the door," Epstein said. "It's 24/7. We never close."
A downtown booster hailed the news that the Mayan Kitchen will open in the space that's been vacant since the fall of 2015 when Sugar's Ribs closed.
"We love to see diverse food offerings," said Amy Donahue, spokeswoman for the River City Co., a private nonprofit group that promotes development downtown. "We're just excited that the building's being put back into use."
Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/MeetsForBusiness or on Twitter @meetforbusiness or 423-757-6651.