Overview:
New restaurant from Tekila Group slated to open in East Memphis.
Get ready for Fuego Vivo. The new restaurant from Tekila Group, which owns the Tekila Mexican Cuisine restaurants, is slated to open in two weeks. It’s at 5110 Poplar Avenue at the site of the old Carrabba’s Italian Grill in front of Clark Tower.
Fuego Vivo is going to be different from their other restaurants, which fall under separate categories, including “Tex Mex,” “steakhouse,” and “Modern Mexican ,” says Ricardo Rivera, 23, who is controller for the restaurant group.
“Plates include hamachi, carpaccio,” he says. “We have risotto. I mean from all over the world. Asian. South American countries. It’s going to be more international.”
They will serve Mexican food, as well, but Rivera says, “I wouldn’t say we’re a Mexican restaurant. And a lot of our chefs, they’ve worked at really nice restaurants in Mexico.”
And, he says, Fuego Vivo won’t serve authentic Mexican food. “It wouldn’t be right to say we’re authentic, but we do have a lot of Mexican inspiration.”
They want to “do something different,” he says. “The MId-South is used to Tex Mex. And there’s nothing wrong with it, but just after a while it gets a little boring.”
“A lot of people here in the Mid-South have the belief that Mexican food is chimichangas and burritos. That’s just not the case. We want to sort of change that here in the Memphis area.”
Instead of the “bright colors” found in a lot of Tex-Mex restaurants, Fuego Vivo is natural colors, including earth tones, with gold accents. The look of the entire restaurant is elegant. The lighting fixtures, including the circular fixtures in the main dining rooms, and the exposed marble tops, are a departure from standard lighting fixtures and red-and-white checkered tablecloths in some Mexican restaurants.
Fuego Vivo, which is owned by Rivera’s dad, Jose Gomez, and his uncle Alexander Gomez, includes an open kitchen, main dining room, a center bar that seats 10 people on either side, three meeting rooms, and a patio.
The restaurant’s interior was designed by Filipao Nunes. “A Mexican architect. He designs for Cancun restaurants. So, pretty much those nice, touristy Mexican restaurants he designs. He’s really good.”
Translated, “Fuego Vivo” means “live fire,” Rivera says.
The logo is a “fire emblem,” he says. Diners will be able to see “the fire come out of the grill” when they look in the kitchen.
His father came up with the restaurant’s slogan: “Elevated by Fire. Inspired by Passion.”
His family isn’t stopping with Fuego Vivo, Rivera says. Zona 55, which will be located on Hwy. 55 in Senatobia, Mississippi, is slated to open in about a month and a half. “We wanted to keep growing. We don’t want to sit still.”
