A new, family-owned, authentic Mexican restaurant opens in Warner Robins
Samuel “Sammy” Naranjo and Jenny Ramirez celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary Friday working in their new restaurant.
The couple opened Taqueria Don Sammy — or loosely translated Sammy’s Taco Shop — at 1431 Watson Blvd. March 9.
The small restaurant offering authentic Mexican food is nestled between an Auto Zone and Sharron’s Flower House. The spot formerly housed the Family Deli.
Sammy and Jenny run the restaurant with the help of their three sons: Samuel, 19, Osvaldo, 17, and Carols, 12. Samuel mans the front register, Osvaldo makes sure tables are cleared and clean, and Carlos helps out from time to time washing dishes.
“Everything here’s made fresh every day,” the eldest son said.
Sammy, who has 15 years of restaurant experience and once had a taco food truck in Americus, does the cooking and Jenny helps him with the prep work.
The food
They serve up Mexican street tacos, quesadillas, tortas and burritos — everything Sammy once served on his taco truck with the addition of the burritos.
The taco choices include variety of beef selections, including asada, barbacoa, lengua, suadero and cabeza, and pork selections of alpastor, carnitas, buche and chorizo, as well as a chicken taco.
Tucked inside a soft corn tortilla, the tacos are topped with cilantro, come with grilled onions on the side as well as a choice of homemade salsas: a hot sauce made with red peppers and a mild sauce made with avocados.
Sammy held up a big bag of dried red chili peppers used to make the hot sauce.
Their most popular menu items are their tortas.
The most ordered is the Torta Cubana, which is an authentic Mexican sandwich with cheese, sausage, ham, avocado, tomato, lettuce and mayo.
They also make up daily naturally-flavored waters using fresh ingredients, rotating flavors that include coco, pineapple, horchata, melon, papaya, watermelon, glava, strawberry, tamarind and hibiscus.
Eventually, they plan to add dessert options such as flan, chocolate flan and strawberries and cream.
The restaurant is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday. The telephone number is 478-236-2760.
This story was originally published April 11, 2022 at 5:00 AM.