Granville Island’s Alimentaria Mexicana brings us a new way to enjoy our next caffeine infusion. El Cafecito features Mexican-style specialty coffees and a dedicated retail space offering its unique salsas.

When the folks at Alimentaria Mexicana acquired a place in the heart of Granville Island, they set it up as the previous tenant had, with a large restaurant space and a smaller retail area. They stocked the shelves with imported Mexican products and their own salsas, and soon discovered that their customers mainly bought the company’s house- made salsas. Also realizing that more retailers were carrying the same once-hard-to-find goods from Mexico, the company seized the opportunity to focus more on its own products.

“That gave us an idea to treat our products properly. [To] create this branding and this awareness that people can identify with, because I feel that restaurants as a whole community still have a big [opportunity] to create products that you can have at home,” says Martin Vargas, chef and partner of Alimentaria Mexicana.

Now visitors to the space can buy take-home taco kits with tortillas made at sister restaurant Chancho. They’ll also find unique chiles such as the fruity chile costeno or the diminutive, yet extremely hot, tabaquero alongside Mexican hot chocolate de taza and a host of unique salsas made in-house at Alimentaria Mexicana.

Salsa Roja is a mixture of tomato, tomatillo and pasilla chiles. Vargas explains the key to its distinctive flavour: “We really, really like to char our tomatoes. That char is essential in a lot of the things that we do.” Indeed, during a visit to El Cafecito, the air is pleasantly fragrant with the scent of those charred tomatoes and smoky chiles coming from the restaurant.

The green Salsa Jalapeño is what Vargas describes as a “taco stall version that we are not afraid to make spicy.” Salsa Macha and Salsa Habanero, meanwhile, are oil- based condiments — the former a crunchy Mexican- style chile crisp made with a blend of three different chiles and dried shrimp, and the latter made with habaneros, garlic and pumpkin seeds.

But the focus on the company’s own products was only part of their idea. The company also saw an opportunity to reach out to the local community. Within the retail space, a small coffee shop called El Cafecito features Mexican-style specialty coffees and grab-and- go burritos loved by their regulars. The coffee menu includes “Horchatte”— espresso mixed with vanilla oat milk and horchata, a delicious Mexican aqua fresca made with rice, sugar and cinnamon.

Customers can also opt for the Nitro Cafe de Olla — nitro cold brew coffee steeped with cinnamon, orange peel and piloncillo, a conical-shaped form of raw cane sugar. If you’ve ever tried champurrado or Mexican hot chocolate thickened with corn masa, you’ll want to try El Cafecito’s Mesoamerican Brew, a rich mix of champurrado and espresso.

Alimentaria Mexicana is also reaching out to locals through a series of workshops, including one based on nixtamal. Key to making corn tortillas, nixtamalization is the process of softening corn by soaking it in an alkaline solution. This allows for easier grinding and for a grain that is both more malleable for forming into corn masa and, importantly, more digestible. In the workshop, participants can learn the process as well as try their hand at making tortillas, tamales and sopes — fried cake-like iterations of corn masa with savoury toppings. Vargas explains that they use non-GMO, single-variety corns from Canada and Mexico that “have that same DNA from 2000 years ago.”

And for those who love to sip new spirits, the realm of mezcal — that other agave-based spirit — is open for exploration. Vargas’ enthusiasm for mezcal is evident as we discuss the workshops he hosts. Participants have the opportunity to taste various types of mezcal from small producers in diverse regions of Mexico while learning about those regions, the numerous varieties of agave used to make mezcal and the distinctive flavour profiles.

“Here we try to represent the Mexican culture as we know it,” inviting customers to explore the diversity of the cuisine and culture beyond what they may be familiar with.

Being on Granville Island gives the restaurant and café a unique atmosphere. “In a regular day, we get people from the U.S., Mexico, France, Poland, the Ukraine, parents, kids, students, tour groups. We have a big rainbow of clientele here.” This has allowed the company to expand into other areas.

“Our goal has always been to create a culture that allows us to reach to the local community,” Vargas adds. “Even though we are on Granville Island, we have always targeted this project to be for Vancouver.”

El Cafecito at Alimentaria Mexicana
1596 Johnston St, Vancouver
alimentariamexicana.com | @alimentariamexicana