Chef Nico Sanchez
By Ed Avis
Savory TexMex cooking—fajitas, burritos, chile con carne—was born in Texas and still pleases many palates in and around Dallas. But in the past decade, a cadre of chefs has introduced that city to a new level of Mexican cooking, including regional specialties, creative tacos and twists on tradition aimed to please millennials.
Seven of those chefs are leading the restaurant scene in the “Big D” past its Tex-Mex tradition.
Nico Sanchez: Regional Focus
The average Dallas foodie’s understanding of regional Mexican cuisine was in its nascent stages when Nico Sanchez, a native of Guanajuato in central Mexico, began developing the menu for Meso Maya in 2011.
“My main idea was to bring a regional Mexican food option to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area,” says Sanchez, whose previous experience included stints at Dallas restaurants Cuba Libre, Hibiscus, and The Porch. “I wanted to bring something to the community, and go back to my roots and remember everything I was eating with my mom and grandmom. And we wanted to do it in a way that was approachable.”
At that time, Sanchez notes, only a few such concepts existed in the Dallss/Ft. Worth area.
Sanchez worked on Meso Maya’s menu in the home kitchen of Mike Karns, owner of Firebird Restaurant Group—the company that was developing Meso Maya. “I worked on it there for three months to get feedback from him and his friends and family,” Sanchez remembers.
Memories of Sanchez’s youth influenced his menu. He started working in a bakery at age 9 and later worked in kitchens throughout southern Mexico. His carnitas recipe, for example, is from Michoacán, and his tamales are like those made in Guanajuato. He uses hickory to char tomatoes for salsa because that’s the way they did it when he was a kid. And he nixtamalizes and grinds the corn for his tortillas right in the restaurant, like many people do throughout Mexico.
But there was something else Sanchez wanted to add: top-quality service.
“There was the perception that people shouldn’t expect good service from a Mexican restaurant, but in order to compete with the other restaurants in the city, you need the service,” Sanchez says.
His thorough server training has paid off: today’s Meso Maya customers can expect the attentiveness and passion found in professional servers at the best restaurants.
Meso Maya opened to rave reviews from critics and customers like when it opened in August 2011—even though it was ahead of the curve in authenticity. What was unusual then is expected now.
“Six years ago, bringing mole and cochinita pibil to Dallas was not easy, because people were not ready for that,” he says. “But now we are known for that, so I keep bringing a little more, gradually adding more real Mexican items.”
The menu is packed with classics done expertly: Bistek Oaxaca, wood-fired and served with a corunda tamal, housemade crema Mexicana, queso fresh and roasted serrano salsa verde; Carne Asada served with a sweet corn tamal, crema Mexicana, charred salsa, queso fresco, and black beans; and Cochinita Pibil, braised with a tangy orange and achiote sauce.
Two more locations of Meso Maya have opened since 2011, and Sanchez has developed several other Mexican concepts for Firebird. La Ventana, for example, is a top-quality taqueria, and Tortaco Meson Mezcal is a popular spot for elaborate tortas or tacos such as Truffle Steak, which combines beef tenderloin with black truffle aioli, tomatoes, caramelized onions, cheddar, arugula and cremini mushrooms.
But Sanchez’s success with that first Meso Maya makes him most proud.
“I feel like we came into the market at the right time—people were ready for something better,” he says. “It was tough at the beginning, since for 90 percent of the community Tex-Mex is Mexican food, but they tried what we brought to them and liked it.”
Beto and Julian Rodarte: Reaching Millennials
Beto and Son in Dallas’ Trinity Groves neighborhood has nailed a formula many Mexican restaurants struggle with: how to appeal to foodie millennials while maintaining solid connections to traditional Mexican cuisine.
Of course it helps that Julian Rodarte, the “son” in the restaurant’s name and a recent graduate of the Culinary Institute of America’s San Antonio campus, is only 24. And that Beto Rodarte, his dad, honed his skills creating high-appeal Mexican dishes for Nacho Mama’s, Cozymel’s Coastal Mex and Chili’s.
When Dallas restaurant entrepreneur Phil Romano approached the father-son duo about partnering with him on a Mexican restaurant, they knew the new place would stand out if they could create an atmosphere and a menu that appealed to discriminating 20-somethings.
“Dallas is full of Mexican restaurants, so we were a little hesitant when it came to starting another one, but at the same time we wanted to do something different here,” Julian says. “So what we created was ‘next-gen’ Mexican food.”
That, in the Rodartes’ eyes, is a marriage of tradition with innovation. And it is what they introduced customers to when they opened opened Beto and Son just last November.
“When you read the menu, it looks familiar. But when it arrives it looks nothing like you’ve ever seen before,” Julian says.
Enchiladas come stacked rather than rolled, with unexpected toppings like shaved watermelon radish, pickled slaw and fried eggs. The shrimp ceviche, which Julian says is the most popular item on the menu, is layered into a “tower” that includes slaw and avocado. The complimentary chips and salsa come with bean hummus.
But what really has put Beto and Sons on so many “Best of…” lists are the more out-there menu items. The Next-Gen Noodle Bowls, for example, are assortments of classic and unusual ingredients atop a bed of roasted fideo pasta. Even that dish, however, is rooted in tradition.
“My dad grew up in Durango, and one of the most memorable dishes his mother made was stuff on a bed of pasta,” Julian says. “We said, ‘How can we take something authentic and make it more trendy now?’ So we have these noodle bowls, like seared salmon topped with chipotle cream, fresh squash, bell peppers, onions that we pickle here in house, all on top of roasted pasta cooked in chicken broth.”
Another unexpected menu item: table-side margaritas, frozen instantly with a blast of liquid nitrogen. “The cool thing is it freezes like a sorbet rather than crystally, so the texture is light and fluffy.”
Nearly everything on the menu is picture-worthy, another thing that appeals to millennials. Julian says he regularly gets calls from bloggers who just want to do a photo shoot of the food. The ultimate millennial marketing.
And of course, what do young people like more than a celebratory atmosphere?
“One of the biggest things people tell us is that they like the energy,” Julian says. “Before we opened the restaurant my father and I loved packing our house with friends, and dancing, cooking, getting them drinks. We took that whole concept and put it in the restaurant. People say, ‘We feel like we’re walking into your family home.’ That was our goal.”
Raul and Olga Reyes: Restaurant Builders
When you say that Raul Reyes has built a successful Mexican restaurant in Dallas, that’s a more literal statement than you might think—Reyes got into the restaurant business from the construction side.
“My first profession was hair stylist, along with my wife,” says Reyes, co-owner with his wife Olga of Mesa Restaurant. “We opened two hair salons in Mexico and one in Dallas. But I’m a very impatient person, so after a while I jumped into construction, starting with small residential jobs and eventually restaurants. We really loved cooking and the restaurant business, so after a while we figured we would try our own restaurant.”
Mexican food lovers in Dallas are glad the Reyes did just that. The first restaurant the Reyes built—literally and figuratively—was LaPalapa, a Veracruz-style seafood restaurant that opened in 2007. The restaurant was a hit with customers and critics, but profitability was hampered by the lack of a liquor license, and one year later it closed.
In 2011, the couple opened Mesa, a concept featuring in gourmet presentations of dishes from their home town of Veracruz. Although unfamiliar to clients expecting Tex-Mex, Mesa has met with success. A second location opened in Grapevine just six months ago.
“One of our most popular dishes is the seafood enchiladas—stuffed with crab, shrimp, and lobster knuckles, covered with a red cream sauce, and served with jasmine rice with bacon and bell peppers,” Reyes says. “Another is the avocado, blue crab and mango salad. We developed it as a special, and people requested it so often we put it on menu.”
Mole is also essential to Mesa’s menu. The recipe came from Olga’s great grandmother, and she remembers it being made for large family celebrations in Mexico.
“It’s probably the best mole in Dallas—very well balanced, more on the sweet side. It has over 20 ingredients, and she’s been making it since she was a kid,” Reyes says.
Despite the popularity of Mesa’s genuine Veracruz cuisine, the pressure to please those with other expectations is ever present.
“In our second location, we had to add some fajitas for the Tex-Mex crowd, which is very big in Grapevine,” he says. “It’s a constant struggle to educate people the difference between Tex-Mex and real Mexican.”
More Dallas-area residents may eventually have a chance to try Mesa’s special cuisine: “We’re looking to grow, maybe two or three more locations,” Reyes says.
Andrew Savoie: Taco Creativity
Making tacos is a great way to show off a chef’s creative culinary skills because just about anything goes. Perhaps Dallas’ most creative tacos appear on the menu of Resident Taqueria, the invention of chef Andrew Savoie.
Savoie moved to Texas in 2003 after stints in some of America’s most famous restaurants: Thomas Keller’s Bouchon in Yountville, Calif., and Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s three-Michelin star Jean Georges in New York City. He learned about Latin ingredients by traveling throughout Texas and eventually taught a course on Latin cuisine in the culinary program at the Art Institute of Dallas.
“In 2015 we had three children and I wanted to open my own restaurant,” Savoie says. “One day we were driving back home after my daughter’s soccer game and we wanted breakfast tacos, and there was nowhere to get them near Lake Highlands [the Dallas neighborhood in which Savoie lives]. I said, ‘You know what? Wouldn’t that make a good concept?’”
Savoie’s intuition was right. He opened Resident Taqueria in 2016, and it has collected “Best of…” awards at area taco competitions ever since.
“The tortilla is a vehicle for anything you want to put in it,” Savoie says, adding that his tortillas, both flour and corn, are made fresh in-house. “I didn’t want to be authentic because I’m not, and I didn’t want to compete with those who are. But I wanted to elevate the taco. I wanted it to be my idea of a taco.”
Savoie’s most popular creation is the Caramelized Cauliflower taco, which features crispy, roasted kale and caramelized cauliflower topped with pepitas and an aioli with lemon and epazote. The Slow Cooked Mushroom taco, which includes poblano peppers, Oaxaca cheese, and almond salsa in addition to the funghi, is another popular item.
But Savoie does flirt with more traditional tacos, too—he just makes them his own.
“We have a braised pork shoulder taco, and the idea was to build it around traditional al pastor,” he says. “We marinate it for a day and a half with achiote and orange juice to allow it to build up its flavor. Then we braise it in orange juice, shred it, and sear it on the plancha, so it’s crispy and moist. We finish it off with an orange juice reduction with chiles, garlic, and oregano.”
Every Monday he introduces two new tacos for the week, and lets his creativity shine. One week in April he created a taco with shitake and hen of the woods mushrooms in a tomatillo salsa, and the following week he served a taco with braised duck leg topped with rhubarb salsa.
“Creativity is what it’s all about,” Savoie says.
Gabriel DeLeon: Triple Threat
Even though chef Gabriel DeLeon has created extraordinary regional Mexican dishes at Mí Día from Scratch, he knows better than to resist the allure of Dallas’ beloved Tex-Mex cuisine.
“My first restaurant didn’t last long, and the main thing was I didn’t have Tex-Mex,” he says, referring to his Masaryk Modern Mexican Kitchen, which opened in 2009 and closed nine months later. “After I closed it seemed like all these others opened that served regional Mexican—I was a little miffed! I guess it was just bad timing.”
But when DeLeon decided to try again with Mí Día from Scratch, he hedged his bets by including some Tex-Mex dishes. He also included a selection of New Mexican (from the state of New Mexico) dishes at the suggestion of his partner, Steve Hartnett, a Texas restaurant entrepreneur who passed away just a month after Mí Día’s debut.
The combination of Tex-Mex, New Mexican and regional Mexican food has proven to be a winning one. DeLeon opened a second location in Plano in 2015, and a third will open in Flower Mound, Texas this summer.
Of the three cuisines, DeLeon says the New Mexican sells the best.
“I didn’t know anything about New Mexican cooking,” says DeLeon, who trained under Chef Patricia Quintana in Mexico City and has run La Margarita (a restaurant his father started in Irving, Texas) since 1995. “So I went to Santa Fe to a restaurant named Maria’s, where the owner was very gracious and showed me how to cook New Mexico red and green. It’s comfort food, like stacked enchiladas with eggs. I never thought that would work, but it’s one of the best sellers. Nobody else in Dallas is doing New Mexico red and green like we do.”
DeLeon says the regional Mexican dishes, such as duck carnitas tacos and huitlacoche quesadillas, are also highly popular. But he keeps the Tex-Mex on the menu because he knows that’s exactly what some customers want.
“I say there’s something for everybody,” he says. “If you want queso fundido and fajitas, we have it. If you want venture further out, we have it.”
Ed Avis is the publisher of el Restaurante.