Beyond chips and salsa

Serranos Salsa Co. owner and founder Andy Blouin has an idea about why Mexican restaurants have a firm grip on Baton Rouge.

“Margaritas,” he says.

He’s not being glib, nor does he think frozen beverages are the cuisine’s landmark. But Blouin, who managed both chain and locally-owned Tex-Mex eateries before launching Serranos, says that when diners want a convivial experience, Mexican restaurants spring to mind.

“They’re thought of as a gathering place,” Blouin says. “More of a social event.”

Mexican restaurants and local diners have enjoyed a long relationship, starting a half-century ago when La Fonda on Airline Highway and El Rio Grande up the road opened their doors. Since then, a steady stream of Mexican chains and quick-service eateries have appeared, making fajita salads and quesadillas practically as common as burgers and fries.

But while pińata-bedecked ceilings and margarita-rich singles bars might be the backbone of the local Mexican scene, a handful of newer eateries are expanding local palates. Today, the range includes authentic taquerias, which popped up with the influx of working-class Hispanics, as well as spots like Blouin’s, which take inspiration from the national wave of gourmet Latin American fare.

Serranos opened in 1999 just outside the north gates of LSU, and since then has expanded to New Orleans and Lafayette. Its second Baton Rouge location opens this year near the Mall of Louisiana.

“We always wanted to do more than just Mexican,” Blouin says. Serranos features foods from throughout Latin America, including Cuban steak, Brazilian fried calamari and high-end tequilas and rums.

Similarly, restaurateur Jim Urdiales has pushed the bounds of traditional Mexican by fusing it with indigenous Louisiana ingredients like shrimp, crab, crawfish and sweet potatoes at Mestizo on Acadian Thruway near I-10. Urdiales doesn’t eliminate Tex-Mex standards completely, but he’s far more inspired when patrons order an Anaheim chili relleno with shrimp and crab, or a simply prepared skirt steak with rice, onions and crawfish.

“There’s so much more to it than what most people are probably used to,” he says.

Urdiales comes from a line of local Tex-Mex restaurateurs. His uncle founded El Rio Grande in 1962, and his cousin runs it today. And his father was the longtime founder and proprietor of Carlos Mexican Restaurant at Airline and Florida, where Urdiales trained and worked before launching Mestizo in 1999.

“It’s been excited to watch things change recently,” he says. “Baton Rouge is starting to become a melting pot.”

The Louisiana Restaurant Association hasn’t kept hard data on the growth of Latin American restaurants throughout the state, but speculates they’re on the rise, says Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff Tom Weatherly. “Anecdotally, I would concur that there has been a definite increase—particularly in South Louisiana since 2005,” he says.

Local diners have discovered La Reyna on Perkins Road in Southeast Baton Rouge. Its Central American-heavy menu features sopa de res, tureen-sized bowls of vegetable-beef soup, traditional Salvadoran pupusas, grilled cornmeal pancakes stuffed with pork cracklings and condiments like jaw-jerking curtido, onion relish and chimol, pico de gallo’s radish-spiked cousin.

Meanwhile at La Tiendita on Siegen Lane, patrons find whole fish, carne asada and an adjacent market filled with Central American foodstuffs. Another restaurant-cum-grocery nearby, Taqueria Mi Pueblito just down the road on Siegen, offers winning, hard-to-find pork carnitas and more.

Urdiales likes the idea of a bounty of Latin American restaurants where Baton Rougeans can become familiar with diverse flavors and preparation methods.

“There’s room for a wide range of experiences,” he says.