By ERIC BARTON
It’s my job here at The Pitch to edit the Burnt Ends page, so you can imagine how bad I felt when I found out that an article this week said incorrectly that a restaurant had closed. What’s worse, it wasn’t a chain restaurant -- you can bet Chipotle wouldn't even notice such a comment. Instead, it was a family-run Mexican joint that’s been serving burrito spreads since 1949.
The place is Los Corrals, a 200-seat restaurant a block west of Broadway on 9th Street. I went over today to apologize to the owners, the affable Chay and Josie Ortega.
Josie’s parents, Philip and Lola Corral, opened the restaurant at 14th and Pennsylvania. The original location got eaten up by Interstate 35, so they moved it to 9th Street in 1964.The Ortegas took over the place in 2001, and they’ve continued serving the recipes that her mother brought from Parral, Chihuahua.
The place is best known for its burrito spreads, but it also serves tacos the old-fashioned way. Josie took me back in the kitchen to show how it’s done. Fresh corn tortillas are filled with taco meat, pinched closed with toothpicks and deep fried for about 30 seconds. They remove the toothpicks, and add sauce, lettuce and cheese. It's like a flauta with taco fixings.
The tacos and burrito spreads attract a steady business, especially from DST and other offices nearby. Unlike the other businesses that have closed in downtown, the Ortegas say theirs hasn’t been hurt by the Power & Light District.
“The people who come in here, they’ve been coming for generations. Five generations, some of them,” Chay said.
As far as Power & Light, Josie says she just doesn’t see the district as a competitor. “What they serve there isn’t anything like I serve,” she said. “Their whole thing is to serve liquor. Our thing is the food.”
And meeting the owners when you walk in the door? Aside from Chefburger, you don’t find much of that at Power & Light.
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best food in town , i drive 45 miles one way just to eat there . salsa is the best anywhere no doubt .
Been going since I was 3...I remember getting a big ol chip full of hot sauce and it lit my ass up. Have been going ever since. The staff is as awesome as the food. Hey Josie, jar up that cheese dip already...I'll take 2 cases. ;)
da best....if you haven't been there, don't go. I don't want to wait in line for you to finish!!!! :-)
Really though. They do it right, and have been doing it since I was a wee lad. Give em your business, they are your neighbors.
Death to the chains!!!!
Sounds delicious, can't believe I've never tried them.
But am I the only one that saw some sort of horrible gaping wound on someone's hairy arm before I realized it was a taco?
Maybe I'm just weird.
You have shamed me, I haven't been to Los Corrals since I returned from a 30yr exile four-years-ago.
Many a night I dreamed of the great food there only to awaken and find (as always) Philadelphia thought Taco Bell was Mexican food.
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