Beer Board will meet to consider permits for two new eateries
Martin Contreras, left, and Guadaloupe Calderon Borja are partners in the new El Indio Mexican restaurant that they plan to open next month in the shopping center at 1115 N. Charles G. Seivers Blvd., between the Goodwill store and Jackson-Hewitt tax service. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
The Clinton City Council sits as the Beer Board, and all on- and off-premises permits for beer sales within the city limits must be approved by the board.
At the 5:30 p.m. meeting, Sam Martin’s request for a Class C on-premises permit for The Garden restaurant, 303 Market St., will be considered, along with a similar request by Guadalupe Calderon Borja for the El Indio Mexican Grill and Bar at 1115 N. Charles G. Seivers Blvd., Suite 21.
A notice of the Beer Board meeting on the city of Clinton website notes that “the public is invited to attend and will be heard.”
Martin is listed as a Clinton resident, and Borja as a resident of Knoxville.
Business partners Borja and Martin Contreras plan to open the El Indio restaurant in April in the space that has housed two different Mexican restaurants over the past four years in the Centre Plaza shopping center, between The Goodwill Store and Jackson-Hewitt Tax Service.
On the restaurant’s Facebook page, the owners say, “We are excited to announce that we are just weeks away from opening our doors. We have been working so hard, day and night to bring you an authentic Mexican restaurant here in Clinton Tennessee.”
Borja told The Courier News earlier that he and Contreras had hoped to have the restaurant open by now.
“We’d like to open as soon as possible,” he said. “We are waiting for the permits, but everything is moving slowly right now.”
Clinton issued a building permit to Contreras for $105,000 in interior improvements for the restaurant on Jan. 4, which included construction of a bar.
The two men already have two other Mexican restaurants in the Knoxville area – the Taco Boy Sports Bar & Grill in Campbell Station, open for the past seven years, and the Mi Toro Mexican Restaurant in Morristown, open for five years.
“I think Clinton is a good opportunity for us,” Calderon said. “I don’t see any good Mexican restaurants here. We will try to be more authentic than what people are used to.”
Both men are from Oaxaca, one of the 32 states of Mexico, in a region known for its unique cuisine.
Some of the special menu items for the Clinton restaurant will be Mexican street tacos available with a variety of meats, including steak, tongue, cow’s cheek, pork stomach, pork, chorizo, chicken, and chitlins.
The menu is wide and varied, however, and includes lunch specials, various combinations, and homemade tortillas.
El Indio will have a full bar, serving a variety of beers on tap and in the bottle, along with margaritas and mixed drinks. Permits for alcohol other than beer are issued by the state.
The restaurant will be open seven days a week, probably from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Calderon said. It will have 12 to 15 employees, and there will be 39 tables with seating for up to 150 people.
Local professional photographer Taylor Martin plans to serve beer at his new business, The Garden, a “pop-up restaurant and bar” inside the Spindle Tree photo studio and event space at 303 Market St.
Plans now are for it to operate only on the days the new Clinton farmers market will be open, which will be only on Fridays from May 7 through October.
Although Martin has not yet settled on the exact times, the restaurant will be open afternoon and evening hours, and will be operating longer than the 3 to 6 p.m. time that the famers market will be open.
The Spindle Tree is in the former site of a short-lived Cajun restaurant that went out of business about three years ago.
Martin plans to offer “local small plates” from restaurants and caterers in Clinton and Anderson County, he said.
He hopes to expand The Garden’s operating days if feasible.