Cabana Grill to Break Ground Dec. 20 in Snellville

Cabana Grill, a Mexican-style restaurant, will be breaking ground next week in Snellville. 

With weather permitting, the official date for groundbreaking is set for Friday, Dec. 20, in the Lowe's shopping center at 1615 Scenic Hwy., according to COO Todd Coerver. After construction, Cabana Grill aims to open by late March or early April 2014. 

While Cabana Grill has 170 locations under the name Taco Cabana primarily in Texas, the restaurant in Snellville will be slightly different and be the first of the franchise in the entire country, Coerver said. 

Serving lunch and dinner, Cabana Grill will be a restaurant open to those who either are looking to dine fast or linger a bit. It will have a drive-thru in its stand-alone building in the Lowe's shopping center, but it also will have a full-drink and -liquor menu available to those who dine in. 

"It's sort of this hybrid approach that we think is going to be compelling to folks," Coerver said.

While it isn't a full-on traditional sit-down restaurant, Cabana Grill will have limited service, where customers will queue up for the cashier to take their orders and then sit down with a table number, waiting for their food to be delivered to them.

Cabana Grill's food will be fresh to order, too. Line cooks will be hand-pressing and making corn and flour tortillas where customers can see, and an all-you-can-eat salsa bar filled with complimentary salsa made from scratch will be available.

Other amenities include free wifi and happy hour, with $1.50 margaritas and nachos available everyday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

And the prices aren't took shabby, either: Customers can expect to spend an average $8 to $10 per guest. 

While Snellville is getting the first taste of this new restaurant, another location is scheduled for Jacksonville, Fla., later in 2014, and the company will be adding a second Atlanta location before 2015, too.

Chipotle also plans to move in across Scenic Highway. It will replace the closed Marble Slab in the Kroger shopping center.