Progress on the New Mamita's Market and Restaurant?

Zappos boss Tony Hsieh and his Downtown Project are planning to insert a restaurant and upscale grocery store into both the shuttered Mamita's Mexican & Cuban Food restaurant and the closed Fremont Family Market on Fremont Street.

The official, and strangely slow, timetable calls for the restaurant to open "spring 2014" and the Market "offering prepared foods, wine, fresh produce, and a variety of grocery and sundry items at varying price points" not opening until winter 2014.

But things might be moving faster. A new job posting on the Downtown Project Website is searching for a general manager for the grocery store.

The successful candidate will " drive overall vision for Market concept in conjunction with adjacent restaurant space."

While there have been persistent rumors of a Whole Foods Market ultimately heading downtown, the grocery store empire will temporarily land on Fremont for the Life Is Beautiful festival in October.

Whole Foods is sponsoring "The Culinary Village" portion of the event, including a "Moroccan-style bazaar." They will be setting up camp inside the former Western Hotel and Casino and demonstration stages featuring more than 60 chefs will be situated on the adjacent lot, formerly occupied by hotel rooms and currently being demolished and readied for the festival.

Nostalgists for the former Mamita's tend to forget it was repeatedly shut down by Southern Nevada Health District inspectors for health and food code violations.
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