Yeh, know what ya mean CRG. I have to say we have some of the sorriest excuses for restaurants here. A few gems here and there, but generally, ubiquitous monotony interspersed with stale banality with a few restaurants who interpret having character as being rude, dirty, and tasteless or just putting up a couple of faux antique coke signs. One now-tarnished gem was our second non-franchise mexican restaurant. The first was good, not great, but missed, and closed down years before the second one opened. This is a city where salt and black pepper is considered spicy, and before the explosion of latino immigrants. People here did not eat mexican food. The second one was started by a mexican family that started it in a corner of their building that housed their tortilla factory. Neither the wait staff nor the cook staff spoke english. They only had one flat top, a counter, and 4 tables at the time. I usually had to dine alone as nobody else had enough guts to go with me. But they had the best chorizos, tacos de lengua, tripas, carnitas, menudo, a variety of fish and shrimp dishes - my favorites being Filete De Pescado Relleno, Pescado al mojo de ajo and a wonderful Chilpachole with Albondigas de Pescado, various types of Chiles Rellenos, vuelve a la vida with lots of octopus and a refreshing wonderful Campechana. But then they got popular and expanded and "lost" the good recipes - and are just about like every other "Speedy Gonzales" Mexican Restaurant now. Loved going back home and eating at the little family owned mexican joints - hand patted tortillas and all. This last time, two of my favorites were closed. These two were literally housed in the garages where these guys lived. But boy they had some of the best puffy tacos, Chiles Rellenos, Menudo, canitas, and the like. One the proprieter died and the other, some newcomer street nazis to his neighborhood complained and he had to close. Some change can be defined as good, I don't deny that, but so much of it is not!
