If you are friends with Charles, you know he sends you a lot of Instagram videos and clips. He sent me a Tik Tok-style clip from @deznorcaleats that had me shook. This young man named his top 5 Mexican spots and I had not been to any of them!! Is my grasp slipping??? He seemed to have a focus on pretty cheesy stuff, including a lot of birria, but still how have I missed all these. I took screengrabs of all 5 and vowed to hit them up.
An opportunity arose yesterday, on Sunday, around lunchtime. I decided to try Birriera Chipres first, because it was about 20 minutes away from my house and closes at 2. That means it's mostly a breakfast/brunch spot so I knew I might be pushing it to go there at lunchtime.
Driving out there, I got off 80 at Marconi and I was in absolute heaven not knowing where the heck I was. I have lived in Sacramento so long and I get so sick of it sometimes, the same drives, the same bike rides, the same walks, that I fucking love it when I can feel like I stumble on a pocket that's new to me. Looking now, I see that Birriera Chipres is in Robla, which is a neighborhood that is north of North Sac and south of Rio Linda. It was somewhat of an urban/rural interface with a lot of industrial-type spaces. I passed 2 intriguing places to follow up on: Bust Down burgers and BBQ and Connie's Drive-In. Connie's is closed on Sundays but until I looked it up I would have sworn it had been closed for years. But no, looks open.
I reach Birriera Chipres at like 1230, down the end of a dead end road. It's contained within a gated compound of a house. The woman says Se acabo (it's over). I've missed it! A guy I chat with said he arrived at ten to a big line. I'm wondering if he's been hanging there for over 2 hours. This spot is only open Sat-Sun so this will be a challenge. I need to go at like 830 when it opens maybe.
So then I look at which of the 4 other spots is still open and not too far. I settle on El Rinconsito De Jalisco, which is in Rio Linda. I have more of a thrilling drive through rural areas, and I pass a taco stall called Chicharones Frescos and think about stopping but keep going. El Rinconsito is small and looks crowded. There's a tent for patrons outside. I parallel park in the small lot. I'm a little flustered when I walk in and end up ordering at the counter to dine-in even though they have servers from dine-in. The dude at the counter asks a table if I can sit with them. The guys I'm sitting with have a small parrot which is fun to watch. The crowd is super lively and diverse. Being flustered when I walked up I ordered kind of the first thing that I saw, which was a torta ahogada, a signature dish of Guadalajara and which I got there a few times when had a brief visit a few years back. Very cool city! Would recommend to anyone for a long weekend trip, and has non-stop flights from Sac.
Here it is. They specified on the menu that it's Jalisco-style, which means the bread is fried. It is carnitas filled and they said it's a homemade tomato sauce. They also brought me a bottle of hotter sauce. This sandwich was good but the carnitas were just ok, I'm pretty picky these days. I saw that Rinconsito has birria de chivo on weekends so I should have gotten that. I also saw they had a special of Carne in Su Jugo, which is a rich bean stew from Guadalajara.
Here it is. It's so cute! I love it. I'm excited to try the other places mentioned by this influencer, and to try to get some birria at Chipres.
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