For Chris Beltran, Agave Café isn’t just about the food, or the tequila or the work he put in transforming an old restaurant space into the Miss-Lou’s only Mexican buffet.

It’s about the tradition.

“We like to work hard and show people where we came from and what we can do for this country and its people,” he said. “We want to offer them traditional Mexican food, but also give them the American Tex-Mex dishes we know they want.”

Beltran has helped others open several other Mexican restaurants in the past, but how he and several others have opened their own, Agave Café, in Vidalia. While the restaurant has not had an official grand opening, it’s been operating since a soft opening approximately two months ago.

Located in the space formerly occupied by a Chinese restaurant in the Concordia Square Shopping Center at the intersection of Carter Street and Nichols Drive, Agave Café offers both menu and buffet dining.

“We saw what was offered here, and we thought we could offer something here that nobody else does with a Mexican style,” Beltran said. “We have the buffet, but we also wanted to have it in the style of a café, where you go to get a coffee or a drink and spend time with others.”

In its initial months of operation, the café has had a buffet — offering such items as tacos and enchiladas — every day of the week as a promotional effort, but Beltran said the restaurant will officially go to Monday through Thursday buffet offerings with menu only Friday through Sunday.

The buffet is during lunch hours, but the menu is also available at that time.

While the menu has the familiar steak and chicken Tex-Mex items one will find in a Mexican restaurant, Beltran said it was also crafted with the purpose of showing people traditional Mexican food.

“I wanted to show the people how it is, what it is like,” he said. “Part of it is Mexican food is healthier, without all the seasonings — we have one dish that is made only with steaming it.”

But Beltran said he knows the community, and steak dishes are a favorite. For steak lovers, the restaurant offers a number of rib eye, sirloin and grilled options.

One of those is the Pique Macho, a sirloin steak chunk mixed with jalapeno peppers, onions, tomatoes, boiled egg slices and hot dog slices over a bed of fries with a special sauce.

“That special sauce is very special — it is made with tequila and beer,” he said.

And tequila and beer are an important part of the offerings, he said.

“We are a family restaurant, but if you want to spend time at the bar, you can,” Beltran said. “We have tried all the margaritas around, and nobody has our style.”

That’s because the tequila the café uses comes from the plant from which it derives its name — Agave.

“If you drink this tequila, you aren’t going to get that second flavor you sometimes get with tequila,” he said. “It is really smooth. It is a different experience.”

The bar will also offer a number of what Beltran characterized as traditional aged Mexican beers, including Victoria, Pacifico, Carta Blanco and Modelo.

“With the aged beers, the smooth flavor, how your body and tongue feels the alcohol when you drink it is different,” he said. “It feels like a 16-year whiskey — it’s a better experience.”

Agave Café is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and from 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Buffet hours are 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The buffet costs $8.99 on weekdays and $11.99 on Sunday, when it is open from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Children younger than four eat the buffet free.

The  restaurant menu is available online at agavecafevidalia.com.

Agave Café’s Facebook page can be found at on.fb.me/1VrsufZ.