Pepitos 4820 Chicago Ave

Pepitos
4820 Chicago Ave. S. Minneapolis, 612-822-2104

Authentic Minnesota-Mexican?

When Aging Hippies start a Mexican Restaurant

No neighborhood in town better epitomizes the change in dining scene in the Twin Cities than the location of The Lunch this week: 48^th and Chicago in South Minneapolis. Within a block’s walk you have two places that are about as different as two restaurants in such a neighborhood can be. One place is new, upscale, nouvelle French, a draw for discriminating diners from all around town. The other is long-established, ultra-casual, Minnesota Mexican, and a draw for nostalgic diners from all around town. Unfortunately Levain is only open for dinner and hence out-of-scope for our outings.

I almost want to write about Pepitos as a cultural icon rather than a restaurant. It predates my arrival in the Twin Cities, over 18 years ago. Along with La Cucaracha it probably qualifies as Minneapolis’s original Mexican restaurants, harkening back to a time when Midwesterners worked in local Mexican restaurants (rather than the other way around) and when if you heard a shout of "Ole" it was probably a waiter being beckoned. Small brass plates affixed to walls by the booths indicate that various celebrities had "sat here." Our booth had apparently hosted Alexander O’Neal, Roseanne Barr, and Darryn Nelson (former Vikings running back).

With a very good, authentic Mexican restaurant not too far away (Taco Morelos), you would expect Pepitos to be struggling for customers, but the Midwestern palate is what it was in many ways. And, to be fair, the restaurant is a friendly, cheerful, brightly colored place—walls, ceiling, chairs, tableware come in a variety of hues. Somewhere between my last visit and now, a redefinition has been attempted; the menu is new and refers to the restaurant as "An Urban Latino Pub." I don’t recall seeing any Latinos in the place, however.

B had got to the restaurant ... er, pub ... some time before me because of some miscommunication between us. He did the taco bar that’s available for lunch and was almost done by the time I joined him. After munching on some of the complementary chips (quite good and crispy; not raw or overdone), I decided to order off the menu, which offers a large variety of dishes under headings such as Azteca sandwiches, "fire grilled," house specialties, and family favorites. There’s the usual smattering of tacos, enchiladas, burritos, and fajitas. Specialties include some combination plates, chicken mole, and a tamale dish. Not wanting anything too heavy, I chose the pork Azteca sandwich. This consisted of a Mexican roll (similar to a French roll) with a heaping pile of pork pieces in a spicy sauce, lots of vegetables, layers of guacamole, lettuce, and black beans, and covered with what could have been Cheez-Whiz or Velveeta ... so much for the light lunch idea. Other than the "cheese," the fillings were tasty, but it was impossible to eat this as a sandwich. Knife-and-forking it didn’t work too well either.

Sandwiches come with a choice of rice, beans, French fries, or jojos. I had the jojos; they were round-cut, skin-on home fries, basically; somewhat greasy but good.

For dessert we shared some Mexican cookies from the buffet: thin, crisp pastry sprinkled with powdered sugar. This was a good, simple dessert choice, but with any thoughts of a light lunch now long dissipated I suggested to B that we walk over to the nearby Pumphouse Creamery, a shop that opened about a year ago and that makes its own ice cream. We both opted for some relatively exotic flavors. B took a scoop of the kulfi (cardamom, pistachios, rosewater; modeled after a South Asian ice-cream-like dessert) and I sampled a new flavor, dulce de leche with pecans and chocolate chips. Both were dense, creamy, and strongly flavored. I preferred mine; the rosewater scent was a bit overbearing in the kulfi.

By all means go to Pepitos to check out what ethnic cuisine in Minneapolis used to mean. Then, to see how far we’ve come, head to Taco Morelos.

Pepitos has been around since I can remember and apparently very little has changed since the eighties. The one thing that is new (at least to this diner) is the all-you-can-eat Mexican taco bar/buffet.

The location can’t be faulted. There’s the critically acclaimed Levain within shouting distance and a third or fourth run cinema that occasionally has interesting movies. Mix all that with a vibrant South Minneapolis neighborhood and you can’t go wrong. Well there’s plenty that’s wrong with Pepitos. Why dub a honest-to-goodness taco selling Mexican restaurant as a "Latino Pub"? Perhaps Latino Cantina is copyrighted…? Not that there were many signs of Latinos in this pub. The clientele, as one would expect, is middle-aged, middle-class and all white (please don’t write in telling us that this is Minnesota what do you expect?); the one interesting patron, with a tangled mullet and a flushed face, was denied entry on the grounds of being an undesirable.

The restaurant does have some redeeming qualities: the sun streams in; the colors are vibrant and the waitresses welcoming. It seems the place has known its share of celebrities. Our table had had the dubious pleasure of being dined upon by Roseanne Barr and Darryn Nelson (of Viking fame). I had a terrible mix-up with poor A who drove all over trying to find me. After a while I was convinced that we weren’t destined to meet so I decided to start lunch. I opted for the taco bar, which was well supplied with taco shells, corn and flour tortillas for making your own tacos and burritos. The meats were shredded chicken and beef with a goodly supply of beans, shredded cheese, sauces and salad elements to fortify the burritos and tacos.

Don’t expect high quality in a gringo taco bar—for the real stuff you have to visit the East Side of St. Paul or preferably Chicago—just be satisfied if you can get the taste of your taco to an appropriate spiciness. For some reason this was almost impossible to do at Pepitos; adding more sauce just insured a wet (and quickly disintegrating) taco rather than a hot one. But one can’t complain too bitterly given the circumstances.

A did eventually arrive and promptly (and unsurprisingly) ordered a pork sandwich. His sandwich was piled high with meat and he seemed to struggle with coming to grips with it.

For dessert the waitress roguishly suggested that I share some of the Mexican cookies (simple sugared affair) with A from the taco bar. A then suggested we try out the neighboring Pumphouse Creamery. I am not sure if this choice of a second dessert was due to the simplicity of the dessert that we’d already had or because of some innate shortcoming of his pork sandwich. PC features hand made ice cream (is there any other kind?) and had some exotic flavors on offer. I chose the kulfi flavor (a South Asian style ice cream that features cardamom and pistachios) which was not quite like the kulfi that I remember. Perhaps the taco bar, on which I had dined well if not wisely, had taken its toll.

Perhaps this is less than a lukewarm endorsement of Pepitos but I suspect the bar might be more interesting with the various offers of drink specials that are advertised. But stay clear of that taco bar.