CALERA – Calera restaurant Zapopan is relocating in 2019 to accommodate the growing business, said owner Alejandro Chavez at the restaurant’s groundbreaking ceremony on Monday, Aug. 27.

A new 7,500 square-foot restaurant is being constructed behind Zaxby’s by Montevallo-based Wayne Davis Construction LLC. The family-operated restaurant is currently located at 4416 U.S. 31 and has been doing business in Calera for 17 years. Alejandro Chavez’s wife Holly and their children Alejandra and Alejandro Chavez II help him run the restaurant, which specializes in Mexican cuisine.

The new facility will include an open bar, an outside patio, 110 parking spaces and a drop-off car port for when it’s raining outside.

“We need more space because the business is growing,” Alejandro Chavez said. “We need more parking, a bigger kitchen and more seating.”

The restaurant added a room to its existing facility, bringing the seating to 200 people, but Alejandra Chavez said they still get overcrowded on Friday and weekend nights. The new facility will be able to accommodate 295 people.

Right now, the restaurant employs nine waiters, five cooks, two dishwashers and two bus boys, but Alejandra Chavez said more people will likely be hired when the new restaurant opens.

Weather permitting, the restaurant is expected to open in April or May 2019. If the new restaurant is not ready by Cinco De Mayo, which is on May 5, the restaurant will remain at its current location until after the holiday.

The family thanked Calera and the Shelby County community as a whole for years of support.

“We are so grateful for the support we have received over the years,” Alejandra Chavez said. “We are looking forward to providing our customers with many more years of great food and great service.”