At two new Mexican gems, the next generation pushes culinary boundaries

Options for inspired Mexican cooking are expanding as fast as any genre in our dining scene, so much so that taqueria-rich South Philly — the Puebladelphia heart of our Mexican community — can no longer contain the ambitions of a new generation looking to make their marks. Cantina La Martina in Kensington and Nemi in Port Richmond were among the most notable in recent years to present next-level Mexican food to neighborhoods that were previously lacking. Now one of South Philly’s longtime standbys, Tamalex, has spread its wings to open a dressed-up sibling with a liquor license near Head House Square called Tamalex Bar & Grill. South Jersey’s burgeoning Mexican food scene is also evolving. At La Ingrata, a chef couple with experience behind the line at some of Center City’s hottest kitchens has planted their flag in Camden, where flavorful dreams of a Mexico City childhood fuel creative dishes I’ve not seen elsewhere in the region. No matter what side of the bridge you live on, you’ll want to check out these notable newcomers.

So near, yet so far. At least that’s how it has felt for married chefs Karla Torres and Ernesto Ventura as they’ve tried to build momentum for their first restaurant since opening La Ingrata nearly two years ago. Their BYOB is only minutes from the Ben Franklin Bridge, in a cheerful black and pink-trimmed former pizzeria set on an industrial stretch of Federal Street in East Camden, which has a thriving Mexican community where Ventura grew up.

But La Ingrata has remained off the radar for the broader audience it deserves. If the smoky sweet tenderness of barbacoa short rib is any indication, this is a rising kitchen that we should all be paying attention to. That’s because this couple brings a unique perspective to Mexican cuisine, not only refined by years of work on multiple cuisines in Michael Schulson’s various Center City kitchens (Torres was a kitchen manager at Double Knot; Ventura worked at Sampan, Osteria, and Alpen Rose, among others). They also cook from a deep nostalgia for the unique flavors of Torres’ native Mexico City, which differ from the largely Poblano cooking found in our region.

The alambre skillet is one of their signatures, a sizzle pan of mixed marinated meats and crispy bacon covered in oozy white quesillo cheese that’s made in-house, like so many of the other essential ingredients here, from tortillas to the chorizo. Try it with Torres’ refreshingly fermented pineapple tepache, which she gave me CDMX-style in a clear plastic bag tied around a straw, ready to sip and stroll. But you’ll want to sit here and linger over some of La Ingrata’s other must-order items, including crispy gordita pockets stuffed with crunchy tlalitos (pork bits for the uninitiated) and tender carnitas. There are flaky flautas made from fresh flour tortilla rolls and as long as flutes — not the stubby fried corn tortillas more common locally that Torres says are really tacos dorados. A vivid green mole, taught to her by her abuela from Zacatecas, is pungent with epazote and cloves, rich with pepitas and zinged with pureed fresh radish greens, spring onions, and three kinds of chiles. A tribute to her mom’s pozole rojo is deep with the lip-coating richness of the pig’s head that is slowly steeped into its aromatic broth of hominy and chiles.

Was I surprised that Torres recently won Cantina La Martina’s annual tamalada? Not after eating her novel twist on birria, transformed into deep-fried tamales, just as her grandpa used to make at snack time. This version seasons the masa with birria spice, then stuffs stewed beef shreds inside with cheese, served alongside a profoundly flavorful consommé swirling with five different chiles, juniper, ginger, sesame, and bay.

Ventura brings memorable twists on his own Poblano family traditions to the table, including a fantastic Árabes taco whose marinated pork filling is paired with a tamarind salsa I’d buy if it was bottled to go, the sweet and tangy brew spiced with smoked chipotles rehydrated in-house. Ventura’s masterpiece, though, is the plump bone-in short ribs for barbacoa he marinates for days in a cumin avocado leaf spice paste. After cooking it overnight over singed agave leaves, it’s served with handmade tortillas and snappy nopales salad. It’s a new addition to a menu that this couple has bolstered with increasing creativity in recent months, to more boldly realize a vision that deserves attention: “We want to do something new and different,” Torres says. “We just need the opportunity to show what we can do.”

📍1999 Federal St., Camden, N.J., 08105, 📞 856-203-3424, 🌐 on Facebook and Instagram. Open daily 10 a.m.-9 p.m. BYOB.

When brothers David and Efren Piña bought the original Tamalex in 2011 along with their brother-in-law, Alejandro Mondragon, the Mexican restaurant boom taking root in South Philadelphia was just beginning. They continued servingthe pupusas and Honduran breakfasts that had been a draw to the restaurant under its previous Central American ownership, but their new primary focus was serving made-to-order huaraches, pozole, tamales, and costillas en salsa verde to other new arrivals from San Mateo Ozolco who’ve since helped transform South Philadelphia into a Mexican cultural hub.

“We call our menu there ‘Pueblo para el Pueblo,’ ” David says of the homey, no frills plates that have made the first Tamalex at Seventh and Elsworth one of the area’s most reliable touchstones of Poblano cooking.

The opportunity to expand to a second space in Society Hill off Head House Square in December, Tamalex Bar & Grill, has provided a chance for the families’ younger generation to make their mark, expanding into a liquor license with an engaging bar program and a slightly more upscale approach in the kitchen. (”Not too ‘up’ — just a little bit,” hedges David.) In all, 10 members of Tamalex’s extended family are involved in the new location, a deceptively long and festively decorated space with a pair of bars, two exposed brick rooms, and 100 seats.

With experience working for Jose Garces at Distrito and for Stephen Starr at El Rey beside Dionicio Jiménez, chef Miguel Angel Vera Peña brings some Center City polish to dishes like the entree of jumbo shrimp stuffed with pumpkin flowers, which add a vegetal note, before they’re wrapped in a jacket of crisp bacon over a tangy tamarind sauce.

Classic flavors still anchor everything this kitchen cooks, from tacos filled with tender slabs of lengua to the guajillo-tinged al pastor and tender carnitas. But the platters are served in playful style as a trio of handmade tortillas reflecting the colors of the Mexican flag, tinted green with epazote, plain white, and red with beet. This kitchen hits the quesabirria trend in a big way with one of my new favorites, one of the few local examples that use lamb, which is incredibly tender after a seven-hour roast bundled inside maguey leaves.

There were a couple of disappointments. The rib eye for the Tlacoyero platter was flavorful, but also thin and a little tough. A stuffed roulade of breaded chicken was dry inside and seemed like an out-of-place banquet dish on a menu whose strength is refreshing traditions with a light contemporary touch.

The mole Poblano, made from a base crafted in San Mateo by the Piñas’ mother, Manuela Aparicio, is one of Tamalex’s essential sauces, finished perfectly with stock and other add-ins so its final profile is less sweet than other local versions, with a present but balanced spice. Even more distinctive is the mixiote, which brings two parchment paper bundles of beef that are steamed inside to sublime tenderness in a complex adobo paste of guajillo and pasilla peppers blended with bay and avocado leaves, cumin, clove, and vinegar made by Manuela herself during a recent visit to Philly. It’s served Mexico City-style, with a side of macaroni salad, which suddenly makes it taste like a picnic.

But this party really hits its stride at the bar, overseen by another cousin, Alejandro Vaca, who worked previously at Village Whiskey. He’s mastered the beach resort cocktail canon with quality spirits to fuel solid renditions of margaritas, a Charro Negro (tequila and Coke), and an agave version of a Black Manhattan called El Valiente. Even a piña colada is irresistible when made with good rum in a hollowed-out pineapple (”It doesn’t matter the season, you always try to get a pineapple,” he says.)

But given Vaca’s background as a spirit nerd, having also worked at Tequilas and Ashton Cigar Bar, his bottle collection is worth exploring, too. Not only are there 20-plus mezcales (so far), including a range of Real Mineros, there are also sotols distilled with snake and venison, rum-like Uruapan charandas from Michoacán, and a Sol Tarasco charanda infused with mushroom he uses for an old-fashioned riff he calls Old Tarasco. Grab a stool, some sopesitos, and a plate of Valentina wings from the bar menu, and let Philly’s next generation of Mexican restaurant talents tell their story the best way they know how.

📍122 Lombard St., Philadelphia, 19147, 📞 223-228-4025, 🌐 tamalexbarandgrill.com. Full menu available Monday through Friday, 4 p.m-12 a.m. Saturday, noon-12 a.m. Sunday, noon to 11 p.m.