Connoisseurs of Mexican cuisine return to Tios Mexican Café for the food, but if plans proceed as expected, Tios could draw in new customers with the addition of a tequila bar by November 2009.

On Monday, the Ann Arbor City Council approved a liquor license for the restaurant, and the license is now under review by the state. Management has been advised that the state review process could take between four and six months.

If Tios receives the license, General Manager Jeremy Seaver, son of Tios owner Tim Seaver, said the restaurant will add a full service bar specializing in tequila and margaritas.

“We’d like to have a tequila selection comparable to our hot sauce selection,” he said.

The bar would join a list of improvements made to the restaurant since its relocation from Huron Street to Liberty Avenue in June, including outdoor seating, expanded indoor seating and new menu items.

Seaver and LSA junior Robert Harris, a veteran Tios employee, agreed that adding alcohol to its menu seemed like a logical next step after the move.

“The obvious challenge is that (the addition of a bar) could be six months away,” said Harris, explaining that alcohol is a main request of customers, many of whom forgo eating at the restaurant upon hearing that it can't serve alcohol.

Seaver said multiple bartending positions will open up if the restaurant receives the license. Extra serving and cook staff may also be added, depending on increases in the dinnertime customers due to the license.

Kim Clugston, an Ann Arbor resident and long-time Tios customer, said, “with the new location and restaurant seating, (I'd) definitely be here for dinner.”

She added that she was glad to see the restaurant survive the trials of its relocation.

In July of 2008, the city purchased the building next to City Hall where Tios had been located since 1985, forcing the restaurant to relocate. The purchase provoked the restaurant to request help in financing the move — a request that was largely heeded by the general public and McKinley, Inc., the landlord of Tios’ current building on Liberty Avenue.

“It was heart-warming. It was just amazing,” said Seaver of the general public’s response, which totaled approximately $45,000 in donations.

Since the relocation in June, the public has helped with Tios's continued business. Seaver attributed much of the restaurant’s recent success to its new location.

“Liberty is really the connector between State Street and Main Street,” Seaver said. “We get a lot of customers who are just walking between the two areas.”

Though it will be situated in the heart of the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair this weekend, Seaver said Tios’s management and staff have no specific plans for the fair other than to offer a limited menu and brace themselves for the customer rush.

And amidst the disorder of expanding, moving and catering to new customers, Seaver has assured regular customers that the restaurant’s old menu and service are intact.

“We want our customers to know that it’s still the same Tios,” he said.