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La Familia Restaurant & Bar
A spruced up Tio Leo's space now home to the family that brought us ¡Salud!
A street taco platter lunch special at La Familia
Video:
FEAST!: La Familia Restaurant & Bar
Count me among the many disheartened when Logan Avenue favorite ¡Salud! Tacos closed last summer, reportedly over a lease dispute. Tacos-wise, Barrio Logan will be fine—especially if Las Cuatro Milpas can keep itself open—but the colorful ¡Salud! managed to create a social atmosphere most taco joints don't even try to provide.
We're talking about a street food, after all, typically meant to be eaten quickly, which is why it thrives so well as food truck staple. ¡Salud! offered music, craft beer, and appealing atmosphere, but its near-decade of success as a place to gather and hang had much to do with the concurrent rise of Logan Avenue as one of the city's liveliest street scenes. ¡Salud! could easily re-open in another part of town, but where else could it prove such a great fit?
I wonder if that's why, when the family behind ¡Salud! launched a new Mexican restaurant concept in Grantville late last year, the aptly named La Familia Restaurant & Bar, they unleashed both a setting and a menu that invites you to sit and stay awhile. And by that I don't mean Grantville, which, despite being home to the historic Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcalá, is perhaps best known these days as a Kaiser-Permanente hub.
Vintage electronics welcome customers to the restaurant
What Grantville does have is the recently shuttered original location of Tio Leo's, an institution among full-service Mexican restaurants in San Diego since 1979. While Tio Leo's continues to operate its Morena District location, which still offers live music most days of the week, the Grantville property it left behind remains ideal for sit-down service, including copious dining room space (with a fireplace), patio seating, and a dedicated bar.
A dining room slightly less colorful than ¡Salud!, but more comfortable
Which isn't to say La Familia hasn't put its own stamp on the space. In the entry you'll find an antiquated TV and stereo rig, complete with a reel-to-reel tape machine and cabinet speakers. In the dining room, collages of vintage Mexican movie posters and calendar art cover the wide pillar at the center of the room, while framed paintings hung on the walls include religious iconography and a black velvet bullfighter. A darkened bar space features craft cocktails to go with high-back upholstered barstools to go with additional booth seating.
A dedicated cocktail bar, kept dark even during the day
I've got to say, it's a wonderful place to sit down and enjoy a menu of classic Mexican food, and that's what La Familia provides. ¡Salud! fans may relish a trio of street tacos, which runs $26 (with rice and beans), but goes on special for $10 (without) on weekdays until 2pm. Options include the house birria (ask for some consome), pollo asado, carnitas, potato, carne asada, and al pastor. It's worth noting that all tacos are made on fresh, house-made corn or flour tortillas, though the $8 a la carte tacos, and $20 tacos dorado plate feature full size tacos more common to sit down restaurants.
Chicken enchiladas in salsa verde
To that end, you'll find no shortage of typical family restaurant plates, ranging from chicken mole ($28) to chile relleno ($24) to enchiladas ($25). Per usual, you may fill your enchiladas with a choice of proteins, and have them smothered in red or green salsa, or the chocolate mole. They'll be as good as the kitchen staff any given day.
Barrio Steak Ranchero, featuring a recipe held over from ¡Salud!
If you're really jonesing for the flavors of a ¡Salud! recipe, look to the Barrio Steak Ranchero plate ($23), which features a cubed, marinated beef that used to join beans on Salud's signature Barrio Taco, always a part of my taco orders back in the day. It's different enough I won't call it a blast from the recent past, but it certainly captures the rich flavors that brought me back over the years, as many of these plates, soups, and tacos do. Grantville will never be as cool as Logan Ave., but at least it's back to being a place you can relax and take time to enjoy some Mexican food.
Here's something you might be interested in.
La Familia Restaurant & Bar
A spruced up Tio Leo's space now home to the family that brought us ¡Salud!
La Familia Restaurant & Bar
A spruced up Tio Leo's space now home to the family that brought us ¡Salud!
A street taco platter lunch special at La Familia
Video:
FEAST!: La Familia Restaurant & Bar
Count me among the many disheartened when Logan Avenue favorite ¡Salud! Tacos closed last summer, reportedly over a lease dispute. Tacos-wise, Barrio Logan will be fine—especially if Las Cuatro Milpas can keep itself open—but the colorful ¡Salud! managed to create a social atmosphere most taco joints don't even try to provide.
We're talking about a street food, after all, typically meant to be eaten quickly, which is why it thrives so well as food truck staple. ¡Salud! offered music, craft beer, and appealing atmosphere, but its near-decade of success as a place to gather and hang had much to do with the concurrent rise of Logan Avenue as one of the city's liveliest street scenes. ¡Salud! could easily re-open in another part of town, but where else could it prove such a great fit?
I wonder if that's why, when the family behind ¡Salud! launched a new Mexican restaurant concept in Grantville late last year, the aptly named La Familia Restaurant & Bar, they unleashed both a setting and a menu that invites you to sit and stay awhile. And by that I don't mean Grantville, which, despite being home to the historic Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcalá, is perhaps best known these days as a Kaiser-Permanente hub.
Vintage electronics welcome customers to the restaurant
What Grantville does have is the recently shuttered original location of Tio Leo's, an institution among full-service Mexican restaurants in San Diego since 1979. While Tio Leo's continues to operate its Morena District location, which still offers live music most days of the week, the Grantville property it left behind remains ideal for sit-down service, including copious dining room space (with a fireplace), patio seating, and a dedicated bar.
A dining room slightly less colorful than ¡Salud!, but more comfortable
Which isn't to say La Familia hasn't put its own stamp on the space. In the entry you'll find an antiquated TV and stereo rig, complete with a reel-to-reel tape machine and cabinet speakers. In the dining room, collages of vintage Mexican movie posters and calendar art cover the wide pillar at the center of the room, while framed paintings hung on the walls include religious iconography and a black velvet bullfighter. A darkened bar space features craft cocktails to go with high-back upholstered barstools to go with additional booth seating.
A dedicated cocktail bar, kept dark even during the day
I've got to say, it's a wonderful place to sit down and enjoy a menu of classic Mexican food, and that's what La Familia provides. ¡Salud! fans may relish a trio of street tacos, which runs $26 (with rice and beans), but goes on special for $10 (without) on weekdays until 2pm. Options include the house birria (ask for some consome), pollo asado, carnitas, potato, carne asada, and al pastor. It's worth noting that all tacos are made on fresh, house-made corn or flour tortillas, though the $8 a la carte tacos, and $20 tacos dorado plate feature full size tacos more common to sit down restaurants.
Chicken enchiladas in salsa verde
To that end, you'll find no shortage of typical family restaurant plates, ranging from chicken mole ($28) to chile relleno ($24) to enchiladas ($25). Per usual, you may fill your enchiladas with a choice of proteins, and have them smothered in red or green salsa, or the chocolate mole. They'll be as good as the kitchen staff any given day.
Barrio Steak Ranchero, featuring a recipe held over from ¡Salud!
If you're really jonesing for the flavors of a ¡Salud! recipe, look to the Barrio Steak Ranchero plate ($23), which features a cubed, marinated beef that used to join beans on Salud's signature Barrio Taco, always a part of my taco orders back in the day. It's different enough I won't call it a blast from the recent past, but it certainly captures the rich flavors that brought me back over the years, as many of these plates, soups, and tacos do. Grantville will never be as cool as Logan Ave., but at least it's back to being a place you can relax and take time to enjoy some Mexican food.
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