On August 11th, 65 customers coursed through the front door of Lake Highlands' newest restaurant at 9711 Plano Road to celebrate the grand opening of the new Tex Mex Grill and Cafe.

Owner Elvis Ahmis of Bosnia is the front of the house guy, while Pancho Rodriguez from Zacatecas, Mexico, is the chef who's making all the food from scratch with his own recipes.

Elvis and Pancho? It may sound like an unusual pairing, but from all appearances they make a good team.

Upon walking into the large, bright restaurant, the ambiance immediately conveys relaxation with a bit of a Mediterranean feel.

The walls are earth tones with a variety of textures and include a beautiful hand carved plaster mural depicting a rustic street scene.

The Austin Stone bar stretches across the back of the room with stemware racks hanging low over the dark wood counter.

The restaurant's kitchen is tucked behind the bar so there's no clanking dishware to spoil conversation, and there's even a semi-private party room that seats up to forty.

The interior was designed and hand crafted by Ismar Hasanovic of European Faux Art, and it truly looks like a labor of love.

Ahmis' father has owned the Euro Mart at Shoreview and Ferndale for the last eight years.

He recently bought the property next to the Dollar General at Plano and Walnut Hill, re-opened the Euro Mart in the smaller storefront, and turned the larger storefront over to his son to open his first restaurant.

Says Ahmis, "My father kept the grocery, and when he gave the large space to me, I decided to open the restaurant."

"A friend introduced me to Pancho, said he had a lot of experience cooking good food from scratch."

The menu is extensive and, as Ahmis is proud to note, priced for families.

Among the staff of eight is Ahmis' wife Azra who is a charming hostess, and Rodriguez's daughter Gabby, an efficient and personable waitress.

During the dinner my family and I enjoyed last Friday night, the entire staff was efficient and friendly, and as any good owner would do, Ahmis visited all the guests in house several times during the evening.

As to the food, there were no leftovers at our table of four.

The Tacos Al Carbon were juicy, lean and tender and came already wrapped in soft flour tortillas. The Flautas were a good eight inches long, crispy fried with succulent chicken inside.

Both the Fajitas and the Laredo Dinners were served on two separate plates to keep hot sizzling meats separate from cold condiments.

Thanks to adult beverages being offered upon presentation of a Unicard, we enjoyed straightforward frozen margaritas. Don't have a Unicard? Ahmis is pleased to offer one free of charge.

Then there were the Sopapillas. They were denser than more generic Sopapillas, and also less sweet but by no means lacked flavor. The cinnamon was prominent and worked perfectly with the honey dip. Our group certainly enjoyed them, and according to Ahmis, they are already the house favorite.

Along with serving up good fresh food at affordable prices in lovely digs, Tex Mex Grill and Cafe offers catering to parties of all sizes.

Additionally, Ahmis is turning the table on the traditional restaurant policy of automatically adding a gratuity to larger parties. Instead, he gives a 10% DISCOUNT to parties of 10 or more.

As he says, "I want to do what I can to help our customers during this economy." He also made it clear that he wants to support his Lake Highlands community.

Judging from the crowd last Friday night, the Lake Highlands community is glad Elvis and Pancho are in the building.