This fast-casual concept seeks consistent success through international flavors, easy-to-execute sauces and a full bar.

Chain restaurants looking to rejuvenate themselves often turn to their roots for inspiration. That’s the case for LIME Fresh Mexican Grill, but it comes with a twist. Founded in South Florida in the early 2000s, the chain changed hands a few times over the past 20-plus years, with more than 30 locations opening and closing during that period. Today, Mandala Holdings owns LIME Fresh, with the hospitality investment firm overseeing a total of nine locations, seven franchised and two company-owned units.

While the brand’s longevity shows the LIME Fresh concept has legs, it was long overdue for an update when Patrick Fore joined the company in 2021 as CEO, he says. The result: LIME 2.0. The flagship version of this design opened in 2023 in Winter Garden, Fla.

According to Fore, this new design draws inspiration from Miami, but the Miami of the 2020s — a place where South Beach meets international culture and international flavors. “Miami had changed, and so we reflected upon what [those changes are],” he says. “They inspired our color palette, some of the architectural elements, and the internationality of food and flavor that Miami has now become known for.”

Images courtesy of LIME Fresh Mexican Grill

Global Flavors

When updating LIME Fresh, one of the biggest challenges was the menu itself. According to Fore, the menu prior to this effort was unfocused and inconsistent from restaurant to restaurant. The leadership team, then, unified the offerings across all the brand’s locations. More than this, though, the chain’s redesigned menu reflects the international nature of Miami as a city, with flavors from Asia and South America. New menu items that reflect this approach include the Peruvian-influenced aji amarillo shrimp tacos and fajitas with kimchi (Korea) and Toban sauce (China).

The chain has also gotten creative with its limited-time offerings. These include Mexican flatbread pizzas such as the Tabañero hot honey with salsa roja, cheese, hot honey chicken, pickled red onions, avocado ranch and cilantro.

LIME Fresh updated its many sauces and salsas, too. Made in-house, these represent a key element of the chain’s revamped menu, Fore says, since they check several boxes: They add variety to the menu, they can be executed without impacting ticket times and staffers can easily create them with standard prep equipment.

Perhaps most important, though, is the upgraded drink menu. Previously, LIME Fresh served margaritas and bottled beer from a grab-and-go cooler, but its restaurants now feature a full bar with signature cocktails. The cocktails emphasize frozen drinks and include frosé, various margaritas (mango, strawberry, etc.), and margarita spin-offs like the Lime-acolada (part margarita, part piña colada) and the Sandbar (margarita with spiced rum and blue curaçao).

The new bar area allows LIME Fresh to offer a full-service experience in a fast-casual setting.

New Design, New Service?

Guests can enjoy these and other drinks at the bar, a feature introduced in the 2.0 model as part of a redesigned front of house. The bar includes a durable solid surface top and a face covered in a Mexican-style patterned tile. A black metal structure hangs overhead and is used for storage as well as live greenery. According to Fore, these plants are “definitely an opportunity to bring some of that beach and that breeziness inside.”

Where possible, the bar connects to the patio with either accordion doors or a garage-style door. Such patios, Fore states, represent a great addition to LIME Fresh restaurants in warm weather climates, but may not be used in cold weather cities. The bar itself plays a key role not just in the new design, but also in the brand’s updated service model, he adds. “We’re trying to identify what fast casual will become — a hybrid service model that is able to offer more than just cold beer and wine.”

For LIME Fresh, that means guests sitting in the bar area, including high tops near the bar, basically get the full-service treatment. Bar workers take food and drink orders and deliver them straight to the guest.

Beyond the bar, LIME Fresh’s interior features a self-serve salsa bar, also clad in Mexican tile. Seating options include an upholstered banquette and floating hardwood tables, some of which pair with chairs in classic Miami shades of coral. 

Much of the rest of the design leans on more neutral, modern elements, though. Floors are stained concrete, while an open ceiling overhead is painted black. Metal architectural features like slats run across much of the dining area. A stick-on wood-style tile covers sections of walls, with one featuring an Instagram-friendly neon sign saying, “Feed me tacos and tell me I’m pretty.”

Another key element of the front of the house? A window giving guests a full view of the kitchen. 

LIME Fresh’s new bar area includes standard bar equipment, including a tap system, a soda gun and undercounter refrigeration.

Color Within Our Lines

When guests look through this window at LIME 2.0 locations, they’ll see a kitchen that’s very similar to the ones in legacy stores. This, says Fore, was by design. “That was one of our biggest hinge points. We couldn’t go back to legacy stores and the footprint they had for 15 years and then add multiple fryers, flattops or other [pieces of equipment]. We had to color within our lines. It was a very, very difficult task to pull off, but we did it,” he explains. “The future LIME 2.0 is just slightly expanded in terms of equipment.”

The chain uses a fairly standard kitchen layout and equipment package. The hot line sits against a wall and starts with a chargrill, which staff use to cook chicken and beef for Mexican standards like fajitas, tacos and burritos. On one side of the chargrill, moving away from expo, sits a cutting board where staff chop grilled meats before moving the proteins to the assembly area. On the other side sits a flattop for quesadillas, mahimahi and other menu items. Both the chargrill and flattop sit on refrigerated bases for storing proteins and other ingredients. Following the flattop comes a small worktable that holds items like skillets for fajitas.

Last on the hot line is the fry station. Here, the chain makes items like fried mahimahi for tacos, house-made tortilla chips and churro bites. The station got a small tweak in the LIME 2.0 model with the addition of a second single-vat fryer. This piece, Fore says, improves kitchen efficiency and food quality and helps accommodate dietary restrictions.

While the fryer marks the end of the hot line, the assembly line is a simple turn away. The line supports a scoop-and-serve operational model. Moving toward the expo area, it starts with a steam table holding base items like proteins, rice and beans. It’s followed by a cold table with a large work area. This unit holds vegetables, cheese and various sauces.

Next is a cutting station, which primarily serves as a work surface for staffers building orders. Then comes a large chip warmer that sits across from the fry station.

After staff put together orders, they move the food to the expo/staging area, which uses infrared heat lamps to keep food warm. Runners deliver meals using order numbers assigned at the POS station.

The chain’s kitchen was little changed in the redesign. Sticking with legacy equipment allowed existing franchisees to easily adopt the new menu.

The production kitchen was little changed in the LIME 2.0 model, but the chain did adjust its equipment in other areas. Take, for example, the back-of-the-house prep area, a separate space from the production kitchen. The key addition here is a high-powered, high-end food processor. This piece improves consistency and speeds up prep work — important benefits, given the chain’s sauce-
forward menu changes.

“We’ve got about seven sauces and a couple that rotate back and forth,” Fore says. “Each one of those are either pureed down to where it’s ‘chippable’ or nice and chunky. That is very labor-intensive. That is what that food processor helps us maintain consistency on, and that’s something that really has been the hallmark of the brand.”

Initially, Fore notes, some prep team members were concerned that they’d lose work hours due to the food processor, but that hasn’t been the case. LIME Fresh’s prep typically starts around 7 a.m. or 8 a.m. and runs to about 4 p.m. High-volume restaurants may even have a separate evening prep, he adds. 

What’s more, staff appreciate that they’re able to move through their punch lists without having to worry about consistency. Plus, there’s greater job satisfaction, thanks to the elimination of nicks and cuts that come with hand chopping. As a result, the chain is seeing lower turnover rates on its LIME 2.0 prep teams, says Fore.

“We look at prep as being probably more important than our line cooks,” Fore says. “We pay our prep people probably more than our line cooks, and that’s because prep for us is difficult. It’s just got to be done right, and there are certain shortcuts that we are not willing to take.”

Given the chain’s emphasis on making food in-house, including salsas and sauces, most existing LIME Fresh locations get four to five produce shipments per week. That may change at newer restaurants, however. Legacy locations don’t have large walk-in coolers, Fore says. The LIME 2.0 design does, which will increase cold storage capacity and should reduce the number of deliveries individual restaurants receive.

The chain also made an equipment investment in the bar area. Much of the spend here is what you’d expect, such as a tap system, underbar refrigeration and a well for holding ice. At the Winter Garden LIME 2.0 location, near Disney World, the chain tested custom versions of some pieces in the bar, Fore notes. “I think that was a really good experiment for us to have gone through,” he says. “It was really very, very nice equipment. It works. Everyone’s really happy with it, but there’s nothing wrong with [standard equipment from established brands]. So, that was a value engineering moment for us.”

The new design features industrial elements like a blacked-out open ceiling and black metallic shelving.

Grow at Home, Then Beyond

With a new, more unified menu and a bar program that promises to drive revenue, LIME Fresh is now in the early stages of a renewed franchise program. Fore forecasts 15 to 25 new LIME Fresh locations will open within the next three years.

Geographically, the company plans to expand east of the Mississippi, with a focus on its home state of Florida to start. It will then begin to grow outside the state, primarily along the I-95 and I-75 corridors. 

Notably, the chain will be careful not to saturate markets with multiple restaurants. In Atlanta, for instance, LIME Fresh would likely only open four to five restaurants at most. This approach allows the chain to be choosy when evaluating real estate, opening only in the best locations. It also gives LIME Fresh a bit of planned scarcity, helping make every trip a little special, Fore says.

With plenty of ups and downs in its past, LIME Fresh’s leaders see the LIME 2.0 prototype as the way to offer a unified, elevated experience that can help the chain consistently thrive in the years to come. 

At a Glance

• Headquarters: Orlando, Fla.
• Year founded: 2004
• CEO: Patrick Fore
• Chief financial officer: Lee Babcock
• VP of growth & franchise development: Ethan Albrecht-Carrié
• Brand director of operations: Jon Pavano
• Operations support manager: Sharon Fernandez
• Signature menu items: Original signatures include margaritas, tacos, queso and freshly made guacamole. New signatures include 4 Rivers smoked pork tacos, award-winning mahimahi tacos and Bim Bim fajitas.
• Number of units: Nine total: Two corporate LIME 2.0 locations in Orlando, seven legacy franchised units in South Florida, one nontraditional concessions location at Amerant Bank Arena, home of the NHL’s Florida Panthers, in Sunrise, Fla.
• Unit size/seats per unit: LIME 2.0 units are targeted at 1,800 to 2,500 square feet, with approximately 120 seats, including bar and patio/outdoor seating.
• Total system sales: Just over $18 million in 2025
• Average unit volume: Approximately $2.1 million in 2025
• Check average: Approximately $22 at legacy South Florida locations and $26 at LIME 2.0 locations featuring a full liquor bar
• Real estate: In-line endcaps and corner locations with patios or designated outdoor seating. The brand is also open to second- and third-generation spaces. While the LIME Fresh 2.0 concept includes standard design elements and requirements, there is greater flexibility for nontraditional locations, including arenas, campuses, airports and medical facilities.