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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.
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“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.
“Because I know there’s Mexicans everywhere, you know what I mean?” Zepeda said.
Transcript:
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Mexican food is becoming more popular across the U.S. According to reports from the Pew Research Center and the firm, Datassential, it accounts for more than 10% of all American restaurants, and its Gen Z’s top cuisine.
SHAPIRO: Mexican food is becoming more popular across the U.S. According to reports from the Pew Research Center and the firm, Datassential, it accounts for more than 10% of all American restaurants, and its Gen Z’s top cuisine.
ANDRES BALBUENA: Now everybody’s talking carnitas. Now tacos are everywhere. Everybody wants to open a taqueria.
SHAPIRO: That’s Andres Balbuena, co-owner of several restaurants. In New York City, young community organizers are highlighting the range of flavors and people behind their favorite dishes, as NPR’s Isabella Gomez Sarmiento reports.
SHAPIRO: That’s Andres Balbuena, co-owner of several restaurants. In New York City, young community organizers are highlighting the range of flavors and people behind their favorite dishes, as NPR’s Isabella Gomez Sarmiento reports.
(SOUNDBITE OF UTENSIL SCRAPING)
ISABELLA GOMEZ SARMIENTO, BYLINE: In a small, colorful restaurant called Ollin, in East Harlem, the chef is prepping a cemita.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
JONATHAN PEREZ: A lot of people don’t even know what a cemita is.
SARMIENTO: That’s Jonathan Perez. His family started Ollin in 1997.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOD SIZZLING)
SARMIENTO: They serve tacos, tortas, enchiladas, but their specialty is the cemita.
PEREZ: It’s a sesame bun bread with breaded beef or breaded chicken, and it’s got our homemade chipotle sauce from actual peppers.
SARMIENTO: Cemitas are popular in the state of Puebla, where Perez’s family is from. A lot of Mexican food in New York, he says, has Pueblano roots. But that taste of home did not used to be so prevalent across the city. Noe Zepeda agrees. He’s part of a grassroots arts collective called Migo Events that celebrates Mexican culture.
NOE ZEPEDA: I used to tell my friends growing up, I can’t find a good Mexican spot.
SARMIENTO: But Zepeda says that’s changed a lot. Mexican food has become trendy. Birria tostadas and mezcal are all the rage now. That’s why for Hispanic Heritage Month, Migo Events pulled together a Mexican restaurant week that mapped out 20 must-try spots across New York City.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
PAULINA MONTIEL: We never have a good reputation in New York of having good Mexican food.
SARMIENTO: That’s Migo co-founder, Paulina Montiel.
MONTIEL: It’s always LA has good Mexican food. Texas has good Mexican food.
SARMIENTO: But she says New York does too. And the people creating those dishes deserve their flowers.
MONTIEL: A lot of us grow up and our families have worked in the restaurant industry.
SARMIENTO: A quarter of all food service employees in the U.S. are Hispanic, according to the National Restaurant Association. Most of them are from Mexico. That’s why Migo collaborator, Joaly Silva, aka Lil Joe Momma, has blown up making TikToks about mom-and-pop shops, taquerias and street vendors like her grandmother.
JOALY SILVA: I like to create a bond with the restaurants every time I go, so I could just sit down with the owners and just not only highlight the business but highlight the people behind it.
SARMIENTO: That’s exactly what she recently did at Mexi, an upscale spot in Brooklyn.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SILVA: (Speaking Spanish).
BALBUENA: (Speaking Spanish).
SILVA: (Speaking Spanish).
SARMIENTO: She bonded with Mexi’s co-owner Andres Balbuena, about a shared love for pipian, a green mole sauce with pumpkin seeds, chile poblano and chile serrano. Balbuena came to New York in the late ’90s. He worked every restaurant role from bus boy to server to manager before opening up his own kitchen.
BALBUENA: Probably in the last, like, 10, 15 years, there’s been, like, such a resurgence of not just Mexican restaurants, but Mexican identity altogether.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SARMIENTO: Noe Zepeda of Migo Events says he’s proud to be reclaiming his roots, and he hopes more Mexican Americans feel empowered to pursue their passions too.
ZEPEDA: ‘Cause I know there’s, like, Mexicans everywhere. You know what I mean?
SARMIENTO: Isabella Gomez Sarmiento, NPR News, New York.
(SOUNDBITE OF MANA SONG, “OYE MI AMOR”)
