[QUATRO] Zama Mexican Cuisine to Open New Restaurant in Roswell

A growing Mexican restaurant is looking to open its fourth location in in metro Atlanta.  Zama Mexican Cuisine & Margarita Bar is coming soon to 2630 Holcomb Bridge Road in East Roswell where it replaces Taco Mac, which closed last January.  The new Zama will measure 7,000 square feet, making it the largest location.  

Zama founder Juan Carlos Velasquez spent nearly two decades helping his brother Martin grow his restaurant, La Parrilla, into the multi-unit restaurant chain that it is today before branching out on his own to open the first Zama in Smyrna's West Village in late 2015.  

In Smyrna, Velasquez was fortunate to inherit a nearly 5,000 square foot restaurant already built-out to serve Mexican food.  Jose's Not Here, originally Lime Taqueria & Tequila Bar, and later Village Taqueria, was opened in 2007 by Rene Diaz of Diaz Foods, a large Hispanic and specialty foods distributor based in Atlanta.  Following the aforementioned name changes, the restaurant closed for good at the end of 2014.   

Late 2017 saw the opening of a second Zama, this time at the LA Fitness-anchored Sprayberry Square shopping center at the corner of East Piedmont and Sandy Plains Roads in Marietta.  This location, roughly 5,200 square feet, was a little larger than the Smyrna location, but still featured the same classic Mexican fare and awesome margaritas for which the restaurant has become known. 

ToNeTo Atlanta exclusively reported in August 2021 on the planned opening of the third Zama in Kennesaw.  That location, which replaced the longstanding Rafferty's in Barrett Pavilion, needed significant work to upgrade and update the 6,500 square foot space, and its opening was delayed from late 2021 to early 2023!  

In Roswell, Taco Mac was the first occupant of their space when it opened in 2012.  That space, which is far newer than the Rafferty's space was, has still been vacant for more than a year and likely needs significant updates to suit Zama's needs.  

The new Zama will be situated along Holcomb Bridge Road in an outparcel of a center that previously included both a Super Target and Marshalls, but is now welcoming some 70 townhomes, and later about 300 or so apartments.  

An exact timeline is still fluid but the new Zama is slated to open before the end of the year.  

Have you been to Zama Mexican Cuisine & Margarita Bar?  Are you excited about the opening of Zama in East Roswell?  What are your thoughts on the redevelopment of the former Super Target into housing?

Please share your thoughts below.