NYC isn’t known for its Mexican food. A restaurant week was organized to change that

Updated October 17, 2024 at 11:34 AM ETIn the kitchen of a small, colorful restaurant called Ollin in East Harlem, Jonathan Perez and his brother recently prepared a number of dishes: crispy empanadas, birria enchiladas and fluffy cemitas.

Publish Date: Wednesday 16th October 2024
Share 

Atlanta Good Food category interest

Updated October 17, 2024 at 11:34 AM ET

In the kitchen of a small, colorful restaurant called Ollin in East Harlem, Jonathan Perez and his brother recently prepared a number of dishes: crispy empanadas, birria enchiladas and fluffy cemitas.

Perez’s parents opened the first iteration of Ollin in 1997, and the restaurant has been serving Mexican staples like tacos, tortas and sopes since then. But the cemita, a sandwich from the state of Puebla, where Perez’s family is from, is Ollin’s specialty.

“A lot of people don’t even know what a cemita is,” Perez told NPR. “It’s a sesame bun bread with breaded beef or breaded chicken. It’s got our homemade chipotle sauce from actual peppers – not chipotle aioli or anything like that – and it also has an herb called papalo, and it has quesillo.”

Perez says that a lot of the Mexican food in New York has Poblano roots; some people even refer to the city as “Puebla York.” But he says the taste of home was not so prevalent across the boroughs. Noe Zepeda, a 23-year-old fashion designer and co-founder of a grassroots arts collective called Migo Events that celebrates Mexican culture, agrees with Perez.

“I used to tell my friends growing up, ‘I can’t find a good Mexican spot,”’ said Zepeda.

But now, he says, that’s all changed. A Pew Research Center analysis found that about 1 in 10 restaurants in the U.S. serve Mexican food — and a report by the research firm Datassential found that Mexican cuisine is growing in popularity, especially with Gen Z and millennials. Birria, tostadas and mezcal are all the rage right now. That’s why, for Hispanic Heritage Month, Migo Events pulled together a Mexican Restaurant Week that mapped out 20 must-try spots across the city.

“We never have a good reputation in New York of having good Mexican food,” said Paulina Montiel, co-founder of Migo Events. “It’s always ‘L.A. has good Mexican food,’ ‘Texas has good Mexican food.”’

But New York does too, says Montiel, who is originally from the West Coast. And she believes the Poblano dishes sprinkled across the city’s menus deserve their flowers, as do the people cooking them. “A lot of us grow up and our families have worked in the restaurant industry,” she explained.

According to the National Restaurant Association, more than a quarter of all food service employees in the U.S. are Hispanic; most of them are of Mexican descent. Migo collaborator Joaly Silva, aka Lil Joe Momma, has blown up making TikToks about street vendors, taquerias and mom-and-pop shops across New York City. Her grandmother, she says, used to be a street vendor. It gave the 22-year-old perspective on what it means to work hard and feed a community — that’s why she says she started shooting her videos, some of which receive hundreds of thousands of views.

“I like to create a bond with the restaurants every time I go,” she said. “So I sit down with the owners and not only highlight their business, but highlight the people behind it.”

She recently did that with Andres Balbuena, one of the owners of the upscale eatery Mexi. They bonded over a shared love of pipian, a green mole sauce with pumpkin seeds, chile poblano and chile serrano, which Mexi served over chicken for Mexican Restaurant Week. Balbuena came to New York in the late ‘90s. He worked every restaurant role, from busboy to server to manager, before eventually opening up his own businesses. Balbuena says his first restaurant was Italian, but he has always aspired to serve Mexican cuisine. “Probably in the last 10 or 15 years, there’s been such a resurgence of not just Mexican restaurants, but Mexican identity altogether,” he said.

He cites the global rise of regional Mexican music, Mexican cinema and young creatives like Migo Events – who host parties, publish a DIY magazine, throw fashion shows and raise funds for undocumented artists — paving the way for more avenues of Mexican expression. Noe Zepeda and Paulina Montiel say they’re proud to be reclaiming their roots, and they hope more Mexican Americans feel empowered to unapologetically pursue their passions, too.

Copyright 2024 NPR

December 23, 2024

Story attribution: Isabella Gomez Sarmiento, www.wcsufm.org, isabella-gomez-sarmiento
WCSU

Share 

More from Atlanta Good Food

The Healthiest Orders at Moes Southwest Grill —and What to Avoid
Atlanta Good Food

The Healthiest Orders at Moes Southwest Grill —and What to Avoid

Moe's Southwest Grill is a popular fast-casual Tex-Mex chain restaurant originating in Atlanta, Georgia.

The 25 Best Restaurants & Bars In Bellevue
Atlanta Good Food

The 25 Best Restaurants & Bars In Bellevue

Based on the way some Seattleites talk about the Eastside, it seems like an untouchable place where you settle down, buy a house with a yard, get a dog (or a Roomba), and send your fleeting youth away in a puff of humidifier smoke.

The Best Barbecue Joint in Every State
Atlanta Good Food

The Best Barbecue Joint in Every State

1 / 50via sawsbbq.comAlabamaSaw’s BBQ, HomewoodThis hole-in-the-wall barbecue joint makes some of the most delicious ribs and pulled meat in the country.

Natalie Bianca opens in Cascade Heights and more metro Atlanta restaurant news
Atlanta Good Food

Natalie Bianca opens in Cascade Heights and more metro Atlanta restaurant news

Offerings include small plates like fried green tomatoes topped with red onion and a sweet onion and bacon sauce; potato onion pancakes; and black bean crepe.

A Day Like No Other: When The Vice President Visits
Atlanta Good Food

A Day Like No Other: When The Vice President Visits

“Having the Vice President of the United States come to your shop, it’s an honor.

The 18 Best Restaurants in Santa Monica
Atlanta Good Food

The 18 Best Restaurants in Santa Monica

Famous for its iconic pier and walkable Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica has something for everyone when it comes to restaurants.

Sign up for Atlanta Post Online Newsletters

Keep in touch with everything on Atlanta Post Online. Sign up for our newsletter!
 


Stats
Elapsed time: 0.3087 seconds
Memory useage: 2.5MB
V2.geronimo