{"id":2997,"date":"2021-07-06T15:48:45","date_gmt":"2021-07-06T15:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brownsvillecic.com\/?p=2997"},"modified":"2025-07-24T17:01:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T17:01:15","slug":"success-story-terras-mexican-urban-kitchen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brownsvillecic.com\/es\/success-story-terras-mexican-urban-kitchen\/","title":{"rendered":"Terra\u2019s Mexican Urban Kitchen"},"content":{"rendered":"

From NPR\u2019s John Burnett<\/p>\n

Terras Urban Mexican Kitchen<\/a> in downtown Brownsville, where entrepreneurs are bringing historic structures back to life. On our visit, co-founder and head chef Christian Nevarez brings out platters of corn tortillas filled with ribeye steak, corn and saut\u00e9ed onions splashed with queso fresco; with cochinita pibil, braised pork in a peppery, yellow spice from Mexico\u2019s Yucatan Peninsula; and with braised octopus in chipotle salsa and grilled pineapples.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up eating tacos. I love tacos,\u201d says Nevarez, who hails from Matamoros, just across the border. \u201cIt\u2019s something the common folk eat because it\u2019s cheap. The meat is cheap and the tortillas are cheap.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we opened this restaurant in 2014,\u201d he recalls, \u201cwe knew we wanted to do something with better ingredients. If the regular taco is already good, then that means the only place you can go is up, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Lone Star State, tacos often fall into the hybrid cuisine known as Tex-Mex, which is usually pumped full of cumin and loaded with melted orange cheese. But just because a Mexican restaurant is in Texas doesn\u2019t make it Tex-Mex.<\/p>\n

Medrano weighs in: \u201cI would call this food Mexican American. What Christian is doing is cooking who he is. Just eat it. The food narrates its identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Terra\u2019s Urban Mexican Kitchen was a BCIC BIG Grant Recipient for 2018 \u2013 2019.<\/p>\n

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