RICHMOND, Va. — Chef Danny Mena and Beverage Director Lauren Spain not long ago opened Big Kitchen area Hospitality’s most recent restaurant Conejo in Richmond, Virginia.
For Mena, a indigenous of Mexico Metropolis, Conejo is a prospect for him to demonstrate off a side of his hometown he finds less than-represented at lots of Mexican eating places in the U.S.
“Mexico Town is incredibly cosmopolitan. It is not the standard strategy that a good deal of people have of Mexican foods. It’s a huge town with a large amount heading on. And which is my affect,” he explained. “I am a town boy, born and elevated. And so which is what we are trying to convey [here], a modern day get on traditional foodstuff.”

Conjeo
Mena cooked in some huge-name New York Town restaurants and opened two of his individual (Hecho en Dumbo and La Loncheria) in advance of he was tapped to guide the Conejo kitchen.
And in that kitchen area, Mena explained he and his workforce lean on good quality substances.
“The quality of meat that we use, the top quality of elements that we do is far top-quality [to many other Mexican restaurants],” he reported. “We the good thing is have the time, the energy, the knowledge, and the means to be equipped to do that.”
So what need to you buy on your very first take a look at to Conejo?
“The finest seller, and this is each and every Mexican cafe, is the guacamole. Men and women go into a Mexican restaurant and right before they glance at a menu they buy guacamole and two margaritas and then appear at the menu,” Mena mentioned. “But genuinely our ideal vendor suitable now and is a Baja taco. It is really one of those we place on that we variety of participate in with a ton. We use a fish termed hake, which is very similar to cod, but it is really a very little bit firmer, but still nice and flaky. We do this beer vodka batter. So it is form of somewhere between like a Korean fried rooster beer batter and like Japanese tempura. So it’s crispy, it can be great and mild and flaky.”
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