La Catedral

The sign out front has been there longer than most of the block. Maria opened the kitchen in 2008, took over the lease when it was still a corner bodega, and kept the molcajete her mother ground salsa in for forty years. The walls are still the same shade of yellow they were the day she painted them.

La Catedral is a small place. Thirty-four seats, two cooks on a good night, a bell that rings when the tortillas are ready off the comal. People come in from the neighborhood. People come in after church. People come in because their abuela told them to, and then they bring their kids.

Nothing here is dressed up. The corn is ground that morning. The salsas are made by hand. The menu changes when something runs out and it doesn't come back until the next week. That's the whole idea.