What we explain to our customers time after time at Bracero is that Mexican cuisine varies by region. Our younger customers understand this. They tend to be more well-traveled and open to tasting new things. They also ask a lot of questions. We like this. Older people, not so much. We get a lot of requests for chips, salsa, and burritos. I do not serve these items. They also expect big, big, big portions and are not willing to pay $5 for a taco.We even get shit from our Mexican customers because they give us their whole "why am I going to pay $12 for one of your tostadas topped with raw uni and clams when I could just drive across the border and pay $4 for the exact same one?" If they only knew that my cost is $11 per tostada, and I'm only making $1 off them!
Don't get me started on people who have lived in San Diego or anywhere else in California their entire lives and deeply love Mexican flavors, yet haven't traveled to Mexico much or at all. They tend to think that they know Mexican food more than an actual Mexican!This mentality makes its way to our back-of-house operations, too. A lot of American-born cooks who work for me haven't tasted the real flavors of simple, traditional, Mexican-style braised dishes or even a homemade mole, so it is really difficult to train them to accurately recreate proper Mexican flavors. I've definitely grown a lot of gray hairs in the process since opening Bracero.A lot of American-born cooks who work for me haven't tasted the real flavors of simple, traditional, Mexican-style braised dishes or even a homemade mole, so it is really difficult to train them to accurately recreate proper Mexican flavors.