Eat Athens: Lively westside cantina is the latest concept from veteran restaurateurs

The closure last summer of International Bar & Grill left a noticeable hole in the nightlife landscape of Athens' westside, but a promising new option has come along less than a year later to offer food, drinks, live music and a rooftop bar for locals and guests looking for a fun place to gather outside of the downtown scene.

San Angel Cocina & Cantina opened on May 7 at 2226 W. Broad St. in the space left vacant by the old Applebee's location. Though the restaurant is new, Athens area residents may have already dined at one of the owners' other businesses, and The Banner-Herald paid a visit to San Angel to see if this latest venture lived up to the restaurateurs' established standards.

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Located right beside the Hampton Inn, San Angel will likely see a lot of business from folks who are lodging at the hotel, but its visibility from the busy intersection of Alps Road and West Broad Street is sure to attract area traffic drawn in by the abundancy of blue neon lights. The restaurant is owned by Oconee residents Eduardo and David Lopez, who also own Lalo's Tacos and La Cabaña in Watkinsville and another La Cabaña in Bogart.

San Angel is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday, making it a destination for lunch, dinner, or late night drinks with friends in the indoor lounge area. The Lopez family's wise choice of location makes for lots of parking, and their covered rooftop bar is expected to open in June.

General Manager Carrie Carter told the Banner-Herald that dancing and live music were also part of the owners' plan.

Despite the temporary menu that was in place during the Banner-Herald's visit, we still found San Angel's lunch options to be unique and tasty. Carter told us the full menu would be available within the next couple of weeks, and our peek at the multitude of choices might just warrant a future dinner excursion, particularly if San Angel's bar adds alcohol-free drinks. As with Lalo's and La Cabaña, the cuisine is Mexican-American, and the seafood, fajita, street taco and burrito selection seemed to perfectly compliment the plentiful tequila, draft beer and margarita options.

For our starter, the Banner-Herald chose the Guacamole Deluxe for $13.99, which included a choice of pork belly or chicharron (pork rinds). The pork belly added great texture and flavor to the already excellent guac, and was decently easy to scoop up with tortilla chips. Our entrée was the San Angel Burrito, which was big enough for two people to split at $14.99 and combined a generous mix of chicken, chorizo, beans and rice with juicy pieces of grilled pineapple. It's a given that San Angel beats Applebee's, but it might just be our new favorite place to eat on the westside.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Eat Athens: San Angel Cocina and Cantina opens on westside