Spice, Hold the Sugar

Mestizo celebrates twenty-five years of upending expectations

by

In Baton Rouge’s past quarter-century, we’ve seen five governors, four mayors; hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes sending hordes of people into and out of the city; and perhaps most consequentially for Jim Urdiales and his restaurant Mestizo, a greater affinity from local diners for all things “Local”.

Now is that local or lo-cal? At Mestizo, it can be both. The “Mexican with a Louisiana flair” restaurant up-ends ideas of traditional Mexican and blows past Tex-Mex to serve zesty cuisine with a dietary conscience.

When I first ordered “taco salad” at a beloved Tex-Mex restaurant in my hometown, I was wowed by a throne of crunchy corn tortilla padded with ground beef, melt-in-your-mouth yellow cheese, and orange tomatoes resembling Legos in both shape and flavor. The dusting of iceberg lettuce made the whole mess nearly verdant. “So that was the healthy choice?” I thought at ten years old. “This is going to be a cinch.”

Now is that local or lo-cal? At Mestizo, it can be both. The “Mexican with a Louisiana flair” restaurant up-ends ideas of traditional Mexican and blows past Tex-Mex to serve zesty cuisine with a dietary conscience.

We’ve all wandered in the desert of faux-nutrition, if wandering can include a shuffle down the buffet line at Piccadilly, where vegetable options include carrot souffle and macaroni & cheese. "As my metabolism has waned and I've finally looked up "how to avoid cholesterol" (please, don't take my biscuits!), I’m grateful for the spots like Mestizo that help me when I can’t help myself.

[Read Lucie Monk Carter's story about The St. John's Restaurants efforts to grow produce hydroponically here.]

“There are about seventy to eighty dishes you can get on our menu, so I understand if it takes you a minute,” I overheard my server, Dallas, tell another table on a recent lunch there. He steered them toward the Power Bowl, with a choice of protein nestled among antioxidant-rich purple rice, black beans, avocado, spinach, tomatillo sauce, onions, cotija cheese, and pico de gallo. “The purple rice was developed by LSU,” said Dallas.

I have no dietary restrictions beyond “you better have salted my hamburger or I’ll simply perish” and “a roasted potato should never be wet,” but I am always eager to be appealed to by an unfamiliar ingredient. Hence, Dallas recommended the jackfruit enchiladas. “The sweet chili sauce is going to balance well with that mole rosa.”

Dallas’s upbeat and informative approach allows even the most guarded diners to relax and can be credited, in part, to Urdiales’s lifelong experience in restaurants. In creating dishes at Mestizo, he thinks of his teen self approaching a table. “I understand the menu from the perspective of the chef, the customer, and the server trying to sell the menu,” Urdiales told me.

This instinct runs in the family, it seems. In 1940, Urdiales’s grandparents Joe and Eva opened El Rio in Lake Charles. Here in Baton Rouge, his Uncle Joe’s El Rio Grande has remained a favorite along Airline Highway since 1962 and is now run by Jim’s cousin Raul Urdiales. And when he was as young as eight, Urdiales was helping out in his parents’ Carlos Mexican Restaurant, which operated on the corner of Airline Highway and Florida Boulevard until its 2016 closing.

He opened Mestizo in the old Tastee Donut building on Sherwood Forest Boulevard in 1999 before relocating in 2006 to the Acadian Thruway location, where the restaurant still stands today, a stone’s throw away from the interstate. (If you’re going to spend an hour crawling toward the Mississippi River bridge, what’s thirty minutes more to stop for tapas and a small margarita? Call it an antidote to rush hour road rage.)

[Read Lucie Monk Carter's story about Red Stick Spice Company in Baton Rouge here.]

With his bonafides as a restaurateur marketing Mexican food in Louisiana firmly intact, Urdiales could have thumbed his nose at a 2012 blog review lambasting his lack of vegetarian options. He may even have clapped back, in the modern parlance. Instead he added a few more vegetarian items, then a few more when those were gobbled up. Now he cites that unimpressed review as a turning point for Mestizo. A visitor today will be swimming in vibrant, vegetable-forward options, certain on the steak or redfish—unless forgoing altogether—but struggling to choose between the broccoli and brussel sprout mash or the quinoa salad. There are separate menus for gluten-free and keto dishes (swap the tortillas for lettuce wraps in a scrumptious ahi tuna taco with a side of pistachio mole) as well as keto and low-carb cocktails and mocktails. You can even let Mestizo handle the daily stress of home cooking with their meal prep offerings.

With his bonafides as a restaurateur marketing Mexican food in Louisiana firmly intact, Urdiales could have thumbed his nose at a 2012 blog review lambasting his lack of vegetarian options. He may even have clapped back, in the modern parlance. Instead he added a few more vegetarian items, then a few more when those were gobbled up. Now he cites that unimpressed review as a turning point for Mestizo.

Urdiales writes a new menu each year, letting the restaurant remain malleable to his experiences in food and travel as well as the desires of his diners. “I remember having my first grain bowl in a restaurant and realizing we could offer something similar,” he told me. “It could be highly customizable and empower the customer.”

On an episode of the local podcast, The Patty G Show, last year, Urdiales told host Patrick Gremillion, “I like to evolve the menu. I like to tell a fun story. I like to challenge people to think a little differently when they dine in my restaurant.”

Consider a visit to Mestizo an immersion in local culture too, whether it’s the environmental and exuberant paintings by artist Chase Mullen or the flyers for Dancing for Big Buddy, in which Urdiales’s longtime partner Y’zell Williamson is competing. At Christmastime, the restaurant hosts a market to connect shoppers with local artisans.

With Omega-3s in abundance and a light hand on the salt shaker, Mestizo should make it well past twenty-five years. Still they celebrated this year’s big anniversary in late March after a year and a half in planning. Three hundred guests packed inside to wish Urdiales and his team well. “It felt like a wedding,” he said, blaming the talents of John Gray for the “jazzy dance party” that kept the crowd going until the wee hours. 

Stop by Mestizo on the 25th of the month for the rest of the year for special anniversary events. Visit mestizorestaurant.com for details.