Chain Leader

Lane Cardwell

Eating Tex-Mex in Dallas (Part 2)
April 30, 2008

In my 38 years of living in Dallas, I have eaten a lot of chips and salsa on my way to finding a Mexican food restaurant that I could call home. There have been some bumps in the road, and some evolutionary dead-ends, as I searched for the perfect Mexican restaurant. Dallas, like most cities in Texas, has an abundance of Mexican restaurant choices. We have hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurants, restaurants for local Hispanics, Mexican restaurants for people that really don't like Mexican food, small chains, big chains, Mexican chains formerly in Chapter 11, Mexican chains on their way to Chapter 11, fancy Mexican restaurants, inexpensive Mexican restaurants, good Mexican restaurants, bad Mexican restaurants, and everything in between.

As a Texan, choosing a Mexican restaurant is a very personal thing. It is like living on the coast, and choosing your favorite seafood restaurant. You quickly learn that it takes more than fresh fish to make a great seafood restaurant. At the very least, it is the ante for playing the game. With Mexican food, it takes more than just solid execution of the Tex-Mex basics to earn the loyalty of the Dallas restaurant customer. A lot more.

My search ended when I became a customer of Mi Cocina. It hits on all 8 cylinders: menu variety, food quality, plate presentation, price, service, staff, atmosphere, and an intangible element that just makes you feel smart about being a customer there. My purpose in writing about Mi Cocina isn't to try to make you a customer if you live in Dallas, and aren't one already. It isn't to make you feel bad if you don't live in Dallas, and can only read about these Mexican Meccas. It is to point out the many ways that the Mexican full-service restaurant segment can still improve.

Mi Cocina began as a 12 table, nine employee restaurant in 1991. Mico Rodriguez, the founder, started in the business at the age of 6 busing tables at an El Chico restaurant where his parents worked. In 1980 his mother opened Mia's Tex-Mex restaurant, and Mico began working there with the rest of the family. Eleven years later Mico opened the first of what would become the 15-unit Mi Cocina chain, which is part of his 23-unit, five concept empire called The M Crowd. Mi Cocina is a chain the same way that Houston's is a chain. Every location varies in decor; the only constant being that they exude a clean, modern, professional feel.

What separates Mi Cocina from the other hundreds of Mexican choices in Dallas? It is proudly Mexican. The modern, upscale decor is the first clue that you are in for something different. The menu accomplishes what many restaurants can only dream of: customer segmentation without alienation. Tex-Mex not on your diet? Mi Cocina offers traditional Mexican cuisine, as well as "Modern" Tex-Mex (served with Latin stir-fry vegetables and white rice). When they added three steaks in the $23 price range, I waited to see if this signaled the upscaling of the concept. No, they followed that with the addition of four $8 egg dishes. They even offer some dishes with a mole (as in sauce, not the mammal). Mole is extremely labor and ingredient intensive. You will not find it in 99.5% of the Mexican restaurants that you visit. It is the domain of Mexican fine dining. You can get it on two entrees here for $12 and $14.

Naturally, the food is outstanding. As I said earlier, however, that is not enough. Many Mexican restaurants have outstanding food. But few Mexican restaurants offer the variety beyond Tex-Mex that Mi Cocina does. I have attended two different cooking schools in Mexico. I have seen first hand the variety of the cuisine; far beyond what most of our U.S. Mexican restaurants offer. I experienced the labor intensiveness of the dishes when done properly, and the importance of quality ingredients in producing a dish that lives up to its potential. Mi Cocina is one of the few Mexican restaurants in its price range to give a hint of a cuisine that extends beyond tacos, enchiladas, etc.

Most Mexican restaurants in the U.S. pay very little attention to plate presentation and garnishes. They are usually content to overfill the plate with food and try to impress you with volume. Mi Cocina presents every dish with a simple, but effective, flourish that reinforces the quality of what you are about to eat. A julienne slice of tomato served alongside the guacamole, and a sprinkle of paprika on the queso, to give color contrasts. Every plate is a $9-$12 work of art. Your eyes tell your brain it is going to be good, before your stomach ever gets a chance to agree.

The biggest difference is their people. Mico hires Hispanics to work in his Mexican restaurants. How novel. Busboys become waiters. Waiters become managers. Managers become executives. Mico is loyal to his people and his people are loyal to him. Mico likes to tell his waiters that they are now businessmen, and their three tables are their restaurant. He asks them to treat their customers as if they were guests in their own restaurant. You can feel the difference in the service.

I am lucky. I have a Mi Cocina in my neighborhood. I probably eat there 6 times a month. Of course, I still try other Mexican restaurants to make sure that I am not missing out on something better. So far, I am not.   

Posted by Lane Cardwell on April 30, 2008 | Comments (3)