I love Fresh Mex food. You know, the places where you can get a burrito filled with whatever you want? Problem is, I am picky, too. I don't like Chipotle because their meats are too spicy (except for the carnitas -- but who wants to eat pork every day?). I don't like Q'doba because, well, I just don't like the food there -- the rice and beans taste funny to me. So I'm always on the lookout for new to the area Fresh Mex restaurants.Salsarita's opened up about a year and a half ago down the street a bit from where I work. I went there at least three times a week. And, I always brought new folks with me. I wanted them to enjoy it too. Now, it was never really crowded, but I was hopeful that maybe it was more of a dinner place and that's why it was so empty around lunchtime. About six months later, it closed. No warning, one day it was there, the next day it was gone. And, there are no other Salsarita's in the area. Sigh.
Then, in November, another Fresh Mex place opened near my work -- Panchero's. Their claim to fame is freshly-made tortillas. They were great! I felt that I had finally found a place to replace Salsarita's in my lunchtime repertoire. I had the burrito, I had the burrito bowl, I had the tacos. All were delicious and the toppings were great, especially the grilled corn salsa. Again, I brought my co-workers, my friends, my family. I was even two stamps away from a free burrito. Then, they were gone. Vanished overnight. The entire place cleaned out, closed down. They had only been open two months. I checked and there are two more Panchero's in the area but both are at least a 40-minute drive from me.
How can Chipotle's continue to thrive and grow and these other franchisees wither and die? Were they both bad locations? Neither one had a lot of walk-by traffic. But I couldn't help thinking that if it was an established brand, such as Chipotle, that both locations would have done well. We'll just have to see what goes into those locations (yeah, the Salsarita's still sits empty). And I'll keep looking for new Fresh Mex.
2 comments:
I have bad news for you but those are about as mexican restaurants as pizza hut is an italian restaurant. I have found that the so called mexican food at these places more closely resembles alpo than real mexican food. Once you live out west and had real mexican/southwest food you realize all these places are a joke.
I agree with ilovemexicanfood, it is tough to find good authentic Mexican outside of the southwest U.S., or of course Mexico itself. Even in Central America, good Mexican food is regrettably hard to find.
Here in Costa Rica, Taco Bell is almost as authentic as it gets, which is pretty sad. I have found one Mexican restaurant here that I like -- it's called Tacontento. Be sure to check it out if you visit Costa Rica. The price is a bit steep, but I have't come across better Mexican food in this country.... yet.
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