A Mama Roja location is set to open mid-July on the northeast corner of Lindsey Street and Berry Road.
The restaurant will include a patio that runs the full length of the building along Lindsey Street and a bar that serves both the indoor seating area and the patio. More than 80 parking spaces will be available on site.
Hank Kraft is the chief operating officer for Hal Smith Restaurants. As part of the company’s leadership, he shared details about the Norman location’s design and operation.
“It will be a fun atmosphere — very colorful,” Kraft said.
Mama Roja is owned and operated by Hal Smith Restaurants, a Norman-based company that operates a chain of restaurants across Oklahoma and surrounding states. The original location is off Britton Road and Lake Hefner Parkway in Oklahoma City.
Kraft said that the Norman location’s menu will be similar to the original restaurant’s in Oklahoma City, but it will be more focused on appetizers.
The restaurant will not host live music or other regular entertainment events.
“We don’t plan on doing that, any live music or anything,” Kraft said. “We’ll celebrate every year, Cinco de Mayo … but other than that, we probably won’t have live entertainment.”
This location was set to open in mid-June, but that date was changed to mid-July following a recent update.
According to Kraft, the development process for this location has taken several years. In 2023, the Norman Planning Commission approved a request from Hal Smith Restaurants to rezone the property. When the request was made, area residents expressed concerns about the traffic a new restaurant would bring to Berry Road, a two-lane residential street and an emergency service road.
The property has come before Norman City Council several times, and people living in the area have opposed the development from the start. Sooner Traditions LLC requested rezoning the property for commercial use twice. In 2015, a proposal for a strip mall brought backlash from residents, and in 2022, a request for a new development was denied by the council.
Hal Smith Restaurants oversees several establishments in Norman, including Charleston’s, El Huevo Mexi-Diner, The Garage, Louie’s Grill & Bar, Neighborhood JAM, Pub W and The Winston.
This story was edited by Madisson Cameron and Macey Thaxton. Andrew Higgins and Gretchen Schultz copy edited this story.
