A family-owned Mexican restaurant group known for flaming fajitas and towering margaritas is moving into the ground floor of Hotel Celare near the University of Cincinnati, filling a 6,400-square-foot space that its previous tenant abandoned after less than a year. Mi Cozumel announced on September 3 that its seventh location will open at 310 Straight St., inside The District at Clifton Heights.
The new restaurant will include two private dining rooms, a covered patio, and a 1,173-square-foot outdoor patio, according to developer Crawford Hoying, which built and owns both Hotel Celare and the surrounding $640 million District at Clifton Heights development. Signature menu items planned for the space include flaming fajitas, tableside guacamole, and a Margarita Tower, the developer says. As reported by Local 12 News, Mi Cozumel is known for its over-the-top presentation, extensive menu, and wide margarita selection.
The move puts Mi Cozumel into a retail space with a rocky recent history. The 6,400-square-foot ground-floor unit previously housed Cap City Fine Diner and Bar, a concept from Columbus restaurateur Cameron Mitchell that opened in December 2024 and closed just nine months later, according to Local 12 News. CityBeat reported the closure marked an unsuccessful Cincinnati entry for the central Ohio brand, which still operates three locations in Grandview, Gahanna, and Dublin.
A Brand Built on Volume and Spectacle
Founded in 2018 as a family-owned business, Mi Cozumel features over 40 margarita flavors, soft-serve margaritas, and a menu of more than 300 items across its Greater Cincinnati locations, according to Newport on the Levee. By August 2026, the chain operated six locations across Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, including Fountain Square downtown, Oakley, Finneytown, Kenwood Mall, Lebanon, and Newport on the Levee, per Mi Cozumel's own account of its footprint.
The UC location isn't the group's first expansion push. Hoodline reported in a 2024 story on its Springdale move that Mi Cozumel relocated and expanded its Springdale restaurant to 11340 Princeton Pike to accommodate higher seating capacity, reflecting an ongoing strategy of seeking larger footprints across the region.
A High-Profile Host Building Near Campus
Hotel Celare, which opened in January 2025, has already built a national reputation. In February 2026, Visit Cincy reported that the 171-room Tribute Portfolio boutique hotel by Marriott was voted the No. 4 Best New Hotel in the United States in USA Today's 10Best Readers' Choice Awards. The hotel overlooks the UC campus in the Uptown Innovation Corridor and, according to architectural filings published by Meyers+Associates in 2025, was designed with floor-to-ceiling windows and shared parking facilities with adjacent student housing to serve both university visitors and faculty.
Marriott notes that Hotel Celare already runs two internal food and beverage concepts alongside its ground-floor retail space, the Iris Café and The Vick Rooftop Bar, which offers American cuisine, craft cocktails, and skyline views over the UC campus. Mi Cozumel's arrival adds a third, decidedly louder dining option to that lineup, one built around tableside preparations and social-media-ready drink towers rather than the rooftop bar's quieter skyline appeal.
Clifton Heights in the Middle of a Building Boom
The restaurant is landing in a corridor that's seeing significant investment beyond Hotel Celare itself. Hoodline reported in May that the Clifton Heights corridor surrounding UC is seeing substantial real estate activity, including a 57-unit affordable housing shake-up tied to MidLine, a $21 million development receiving $1.4 million in state backing. Taken together with The District at Clifton Heights' $640 million price tag, the numbers point to a neighborhood in the middle of a broad residential and commercial reset.
That growth comes with oversight. The Clifton Heights commercial strip along West McMillan and Straight streets falls within the CUF neighborhood, where the Cincinnati Police Department District 1 and University of Cincinnati Police conduct joint daily patrols, Hoodline has reported, after CUF was reassigned to CPD District 1 in a late-2023 citywide police district reorganization.
Whether Mi Cozumel's largest-ever footprint can hold up against the seasonal ebbs of a campus corridor, where foot traffic can dip sharply during summer and winter breaks, remains to be seen. For now, the family-owned chain is betting that flaming fajitas and a Margarita Tower can succeed where an upscale Columbus diner concept could not.
