Oakland’s Only Zacatecan Restaurant Is Moving to Larger Digs on Bancroft Avenue | Eater SF

"One of the enduring charms of Mi Zacatecas, apart from the restaurant’s destination-worthy handmade gorditas, is its out-of-the-way deep East Oakland location and the tininess of its tented side-patio dining area. The two-year-old restaurant never got much foot traffic and its current kitchen was too small for owner Cecilia Chairez to expand the menu, but about a month from now it will relocate a few miles north to a larger 800-square-foot spot at 6633 Bancroft Avenue. Chairez began looking after her landlord nearly doubled her rent when her lease expired; the new Bancroft space sits near Lena’s Soul Food in a busier neighborhood, so she plans to add breakfast service (fresh juices, atole, champurrado, chilaquiles, and egg dishes, including a family scramble with red or green salsa served with beans, queso fresco, and the restaurant’s huge handmade tortillas—“wow, it’s the bomb,” she says), extend hours later into the evening turning the space into an acenaduría with a short menu of crunchy tacos, enchiladas, and tostadas, and continue serving Zacatecan specialties such as weekend barbacoa and menudo and, of course, the griddled (not deep-fried) gorditas that are the restaurant’s biggest selling point. At roughly 800 square feet the new space will provide indoor seating for about 20 diners for the first time, requires a full kitchen build-out (the building owner is covering most of the cost while Chairez is fundraising for the rest), and Mi Zacatecas remains open at its original MacArthur Boulevard location until the move, probably in January." - Luke Tsai