Provided by El Tesoro.

A third location of Edgewood taqueria El Tesoro will open next year along Hotel Row in South Downtown. 

Located in a one-story building at 171 Mitchell St., the South Downtown location of El Tesoro will feature an indoor/outdoor bar serving margaritas, mezcal cocktails, and other drinks, a fresh fruit and vegetable smoothie bar, and televisions tuned to sports.

In addition to El Tesoro’s Guerrero-style tacos, burritos, tamales, and mulitas, many of the restaurant’s weekly specials from the Edgewood location will become permanent dishes on the menu in South Downtown. This location will also offer full-service dining inside and counter-service ordering on the patio, similar to the operations in Edgewood.

El Tesoro’s patio faces Broad Street, where it intersects with Mitchell Street, and will be part of the South Downtown development’s “town square,” which will include a stage for live entertainment, seating, and other park-like amenities.

“We will be at the center of the South Downtown food district,” El Tesoro owner Alan Raines told Rough Draft. “We are so excited to be part of this reimagining of the original downtown Atlanta.”

A one-story, mid-20th-century, boarded-up brick storefront at 171 Mitchell Street in Downtown Atlanta which will become home to El Tesoro Mexican restaurant in 2026.
171 Mitchell St. in South Downtown as of July 2024. (Via Google Maps)
A rendering of people milling about on the sidewalk of South Downtown Atlanta development on a sunny day
Rendering of the “town square,” which El Tesoro’s patio will face at the intersection of Mitchell and Broad. (Provided by South Downtown ATL)

Raines first opened El Tesoro in 2019 on a tiny parcel of land at the intersection of Arkwright and Whitefoord in Edgewood. At the time, the counter-service restaurant only featured 14 seats inside but has since expanded into a neighborhood hangout with an outdoor bar and sprawling patio seating 175 people. 

Raines opened a second, albeit scaled-down, location of El Tesoro two years ago inside the taproom of Wild Heaven Beer at Lee and White in West End,  steps from the Westside Beltline. Unlike in Edgewood, the West End location doesn’t serve cocktails, only beer in partnership with Wild Heaven. 

Related stories:
Delilah’s Everyday Soul opening on Hotel Row in South Downtown
South Downtown revitalizes city’s historic center
Spiller Park Coffee opens in South Downtown 

A view of historic Hotel Row on Mitchell Street in South Downtown. (Photo by Isadora Pennington)

El Tesoro joins Tyde Tate Kitchen, Spiller Park Coffee, and the upcoming full-service location of Delilah’s Everyday Soul along Mitchell Street. Darryl Harris, owner of Moods Music in Little Five Points, will open Crates record store soon at 215 Mitchell St. While Moods Music sells mostly new vinyl, CDs, turntables, and books, Crates in South Downtown will sell used vinyl records as well as home goods and music-related merchandise. 

More Hotel Row restaurant and retail announcements are expected in the coming weeks. 

In 2023, Atlanta Tech Village founders Jon Birdsong and David Cummings purchased the Hotel Row and South Downtown redevelopment project from German developer Newport RE. The project includes 56 buildings and six acres of parking lots.

Birdsong and Cummings plan to continue the sympathetic renovations started by Newport of the buildings along Hotel Row to help maintain the historic character and charm of the century-old commercial corridor. 

Last year, Birdsong and Cummings opened a South Downtown location of Atlanta Tech Village.

El Tesoro, 171 Mitchell St., South Downtown. Opening 2026.

Beth McKibben serves as both Editor in Chief and Dining Editor for Rough Draft Atlanta. She was previously the editor of Eater Atlanta and has been covering food and drinks locally and nationally for over 14 years.