March 11, 2019

New Restaurant Going in Corner Spot in Cooper Young

The Daily Memphian

By Jennifer Biggs

The northeast corner of Cooper and Young that most recently housed Strano has a new tenant coming. Jose Flores will open a Margaritas there in the next few months.

“We are very excited about this spot. It’s going to be Margaritas, but we’re going to have new dishes that will start with when we open it,” Flores said.

He’s hired a chef and recipe developer who works for a family-owned chain in Texas as a consultant and she’s helping Flores  bring trends from Texas to Tennessee. Dishes currently under development include Tex-Mex smoked tuna, a ribeye fried in a tortilla and Mexican spaghetti.

Flores owns about 20 restaurants, most of them in small towns within an hour’s drive of Memphis – Covington, Oakland, Atoka and so on, but also a few in Georgia and one in Knoxville and another in Chattanooga. All the places in the Memphis area, including one on Germantown Parkway and one in Downtown, are called Margaritas. They used to be Las Margaritas, but Flores changed the named a year or two back.

“Every sign cost me $3,000 more with the Las,” he said.

Besides an updated menu, he’ll have a bar program that will include a variety of margaritas as well as other cocktails. He plans to be open by May.

Jonathan Aur of Boyle represented the landlord and Margaritas in the transaction.