Oakland's Cenaduria Elvira to Open New Spot
Cenaduria Elvira, a popular Oakland restaurant known for its Jalisco-style tostadas, is expanding with a new location. The new restaurant will be located near Jack London Square. The expansion aims to bring its regional Mexican cuisine to a wider audience, capitalizing on the area's foot traffic.
- The restaurant originated in 2020 as a home-based operation in owner Elvira Varela's backyard in Oakland's Jingletown neighborhood, where she was born and raised. - The new brick-and-mortar restaurant is located at 468 3rd Street in the historic Western Pacific Depot building near Jack London Square. - Its signature dish is the tostada raspada, a large, crispy tostada that is rarely seen in the U.S.; Varela flies them in uncooked from an aunt in Zapotlanejo, Mexico, her family's hometown. - A "cenaduria" is a style of restaurant in Mexico that serves homestyle dinner plates like tacos dorados, sopes, and pozole. - The restaurant gained national attention in 2023 when it was featured in a New York Times list of the best dishes in America. - The menu at the new location will be largely the same as the original, but will feature some new appetizers and will serve beer alongside drinks like horchata and hibiscus agua fresca. - In addition to its famed tostadas, the restaurant's torta ahogada has been called the best in the Bay Area by a San Francisco Chronicle critic.
