MADE On Multi-Cultural Montgomery: Meet The Owners of La Coronilla

WORDS Natilee McGruder

The landscape of food in Montgomery is noticeably changing: there is Venezuelan, Jamaican, Korean, Mexican, Thai, Chinese and Indian food now available in a town where “meat and three” reigns supreme.  The food served in these restaurants acts as a gateway. For those from abroad who now call Montgomery home, the gateway opens to comfort, solace, the evocation of memories. For those from Montgomery, the restaurants are a gateway to cultural diversity, to new experiences and new memories, to people one would otherwise never meet. By exploring the people behind these restaurants, I hope that you might come to know them more personally and be inspired to step outside the culinary box when eating around town. While it’s simple to stay on the trail blazed by ease and familiarity, that path will lead you right past an upstart local gem like La Coronilla - meaning “the crown”.

Friends Apolonio Ramirez and Epifaunio Barrios own La Coronilla. Epifaunio (or Epi) runs La Coronilla on the service road (near Wares Ferry) that runs alongside the Eastern Boulevard, while Apolonio owns and runs El Chido, a Mexican tienda on Burbank Drive just a few miles away from the restaurant. Epi came to Montgomery in 1996 and has spent the past 17 years working hard to realize his dream of owning a restaurant. I walked into to La Coronilla and asked him if he wouldn’t mind telling me his story and that of his restaurant.

Epi’s story began in his home state of Guerrero, Mexico which has a deep influence on his particular brand of Mexican food - which is fresh, traditional and made from scratch in La Coronilla’s open kitchen. He came to the United States for work and ended up in Orosi, California doing backbreaking work as a field hand. He moved to Montgomery in 1996 and began cooking at the newly opened China Buffet which many long-time Montgomery residents will recall. After five years at China Buffet and five years at Lek’s Taste of Thailand, Epi had honed his skills in various culinary traditions but still heard the siren call of freshly made enchiladas con mole and pozole from his native Guerrero.
He has put those skills to work in La Coronilla, a place he decorated by hand with Mexican artwork and live plants. He stresses the freshness and his commitment to delicious traditional food that includes augas frescas (fresh juices), tamales, carnitas, various types of soups, as well as tacos with hand-patted tortillas made fresh daily by his sister. When I asked Epi what were the main challenges of owning his restaurant in Montgomery, he said that people don’t like “cebolla y cilantro”—meaning that people don’t want the fresh onion and cilantro (which, along with lime, complements most any authentic Mexican dish), they want cheesy, saucy, Americanized Mexican food. I told him that I didn’t think that was strictly true, but rather that the local culture of wanting to experience the familiar or making a selection through word of mouth can be limiting to new and “foreign” establishments.

When your friends, family and co-workers are not Korean or Mexican, don’t speak Korean or Spanish, and don’t frequent those restaurants, you are less likely to receive a recommendation and or get a wild hair to seek one out. La Coronilla has been in Montgomery for four years but according to Epi people are not as interested in 100% authentic Mexican food, although he hopes to change that. When I ask if he means that they seem to prefer Mexican food a la Taco Bell he shudders and affirms with a nod. He notes that he welcomes more residents and visitors to experience his version of the Meat and Three: various savory choices of meat or seafood with rice, beans and salad. Some of the Montgomery Crossfit community patronize his establishment and often order dishes off the menu that fit a paleo or primal-style diet, which generally excludes beans and grains. He even remarked that when a large group of them came by one weekend he made them Tom Yum soup by special request. Urbanspoon has highly favorable reviews of La Coronilla from some satisfied souls who have experienced Epi’s homemade food.

Epi has made his home and business in Montgomery and he plans to stay for the long haul. At this point, he says, he just needs a wife. He enjoys the calm way of life in Montgomery but thinks that we need more jobs. According to him, “Si no hay trabajo, no hay dinero y si no hay dinero no hay negocio.” Which means if there are no jobs there is no money, and without money, businesses like La Coronilla cannot survive.

Visit Epi at La Coronilla located at 425 Eastern Boulevard. Open from 9am-9pm, serving Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Wednesday to Monday (closed Tuesdays). On Thursday, Saturday and Sunday they serve pozole. Epi is happy to explain anything on the menu or create an order to meet you or your child’s needs. La Coronnilla is also on Facebook at LaCoronillaGrillCosinaMexicana.

Off The Beaten Path: South of the Border, In Montgomery

WORDS & PHOTOS David Mowery

On the night of our first “real date” I declared to my future wife “I don’t like Mexican Food.” My wife is from Texas, where Tex-Mex is a way of life. This is not the only reason she would have had for immediately dropping me like a bad habit, but given her upbringing it would not have been an unreasonable reaction.

Granted this was the type of Mexican restaurant with a menu based around white cheese dip, ground beef and watery Margarita specials. There are many of these establishments in Montgomery, and they all seem to thrive. We ran a perfectly good joint out of The Alley downtown for not giving out free chips and salsa, and there’s typical other places in every strip mall between Ann Street and Shorter.

For the capital of a state that passed “The Strictest Immigration Law” in the country (still tied up in those pesky Federal Courts), Montgomery sure has its share of Mexican restaurants. There’s high brow, locally-sourced, high end beers and margaritas at El Rey in Cloverdale. You can get family-friendly and good middle brow food, great service and cold beer at La Zona Rosa on Zelda Road. If you go try the Banda Mexicana dip –seriously. And then there’s the type of “authentic” Mexican restaurants that foodies like our discerning readership want to seek out. The kind with day laborers and contractors sipping Horchata (queue Vampire Weekend) and Saturday menudo specials – con tripé!

The first such establishment I was aware of is El Cantaro Mexican on Ann Street across from the Wal Mart and next to The Money Store. On our recent visit they had significantly expanded the dining room and the menu. They offer both run of the mill “Mexican Food” and also “authentic” fare - I had Pork Carnitas Gorditas, which were excellent, though lacking a certain grit that you find out on Troy Highway.

Be forewarned, while exploring The Real Taquerias of Troy Highway, no matter how Hail-Fellow-Well-Met you may be in everyday life, most of these places will not recognize, or even appear to appreciate your patronage. You will get past the perceived rudeness when you tuck in to a plate of Tacos Campechinos – beef and chorizo – with a full platter of toppings and three different sauces at Taqueria Los Primos, or Lengua Tacos at Taqueria Vallarta. While most of these joints can be a little sketchy or unwelcoming, Taqueria Vallarta is a breed apart - housed in gas station with owners of Middle Eastern decent, staffed by a tattooed and be-weaved woman, and patronized by the type of folks who buy porn DVDs while popping in for a pack of blunts – and people like you who love tacos.

Troy Highway tends toward Taquerias, which are more in line with the Street Food ethos, but La Coronilla is a sort of split-the-difference between these other places. Located across from Twain Curve on Wares Ferry Road, and run by a nice guy named Epifario. He cooks amazing molé with whatever fresh fruit he has available, and also let us know: “if you know something you want to try, not on menu, just tell me, I make.” 

Our party ran the gamut of enchiladas –which were spiced pork, not wrapped, and with a plate of warm corn tortillas – to bone-in chicken with molé, tortas and even posole – which comes in red and green varieties. All were deemed excellent, and the molé and enchiladas will merit many a return trip.

Despite almost ruining my chances with a  beautiful woman over what I thought Mexican Food entailed, I can report that I’m happily married and have eaten my way across town. Montgomery has enough Mexican restaurants that you could plausibly eat at a different one each day of the week for a month and never repeat yourself. The inherent contradiction of a place that wants all Mexican “Job Destroyers” thrown out, but can’t live without those sweet, sweet tacos is yours to ponder – but I do recommend venturing off the beaten path of No Way Jose and their ilk once in a while and get outside your comfort zone, vibe La Migra, and eat some cow tongue or pig intestine. It certainly worked out for me.