Zona 55 Urban Kitchen is the newest member of Tekila Group’s collection of restaurants, which includes Tekila Steakhouse and Fuego Vivo in Memphis and Tekila, a modern Mexican restaurant, in Southaven, Mississippi. This time the group ventured to Senatobia, Mississippi, where they opened Zona 55 Urban Kitchen on May 25th.
“Zona” means “zone” and “55” means Highway 55, which is near the restaurant, right off the highway at 181 Norfleet Drive, says general manager Jonas Garcia Vidana, 27.
Each restaurant in the group has its own theme and personality. “Zona 55 is a Mexican smokehouse,” Vidana says. “That means we have a smoker in-house. In the back of the building.” The menu includes brisket, smoked chicken, pulled pork, and short ribs. But, Vidana says, they have “a spicy kick to them” because of the sauces they use. “It’s not your traditional barbecue.”
That’s all served in a variety of ways. “We have a brisket quesadilla,” says Vidana, “which is the number one seller right now. And we have the shrimp and pork belly tacos (with) pico de gallo.”
Empanadas
Carrot Cake
Their pulled pork sandwich is “basically the traditional barbecue sandwich with barbecue sauce. But it comes with mango habanero sauce and pickled red onions, which gives a kick to it,” Vidana says. “We paired it with something international. We want to make sure we give you something that is a traditional dish and give a little twist to it.”
They also have pork ribs, Vidana says. “Our ribs are going to be wet ribs. Slow cooked for six to eight hours.” Those are the traditional ribs, but you pair them with macaroni and cheese, barbecued beans, potato salad, or onion rings. Diners can also pair them with Mexican items, including quesadillas and tacos.
Zona 55 also offers “corn ribs” — corn on the cob that’s been boiled and fried. “We’ll cut it and it’ll look like a rib.” They cut it into six pieces and serve it with buffalo sauce and ranch dressing.
Their short rib burritos are beef short ribs slow cooked from six to 12 hours and put inside a tortilla with rice, beans, and cheese.
The enticing drink menu includes the “Ultimate Paloma,” which is tequila, grapefruit soda, and lime juice; “Prickly Pear Margarita” — premium tequila, prickly pear syrup, and lime; and a “Mezcal Old Fashioned” — mezcal, aromatic bitters, and simple syrup.
In Sonora, Mexico, where he was born, Vidana was into soccer, not cooking. His mother was the cook. One of her specialties was “green spaghetti with chicken Milanese,” he says. She used regular pasta noodles, but added jalapeño peppers and a green tomatillo-based sauce instead of a red sauce.
His first restaurant job was working as a busboy and dishwasher at a Mexican restaurant in Pontotoc, Mississippi, where he grew up. “Even as a kid, my dream or goal was to own a restaurant. I knew the GM [general manager] at the time and I’d see what he would do.”
Vidana began working for the Tekila Group at their Southaven restaurant in 2022. Pablo Blanche is executive chef for the Tekila Group restaurants. “Give him the idea, and he comes up with the recipe,” Vidana says.
