‘TOO NEW YORKY’
THAT’S HOW THE NOW-THRIVING MAD MEX WAS DESCRIBED 25 YEARS AGO
“Mad Mex is the most talked-about restaurant in the city right now,” the PG wrote in one of its first articles about the Oakland location, which was slammed: “What’s the big attraction? Beer, for one.”
Tom Baron and Juno Yoon opened the first Mad Mex on Oct. 29, 1993: They aimed to open a place that was “moodily lit, decidedly loud and visually striking, the place for good beer, big margaritas and handcrafted Cal-Mex cuisine,” reads its newsletter announcing its 25th anniversary earlier this month.
Back in the ‘90s, Mad Mex was relatively early to the craft beer craze that’s now dominating restaurant beer lists and fueling local brewery destinations.
“Can two guys from the Bronx find happiness and money selling enchiladas and exotic beer in a town dotted with Eat ‘n Parks and pasta joints?” asked another article in the PG.
“It was too New Yorky. It was a lousy location. It was crazy to serve up yuppie beers like Sierra Nevada, Pale Ale and Blackened Voodoo without a tap of Iron City,” it read. “But the Mexican restaurant on Atwood Street is so ridiculously popular with its young clientele that they are stealing menus, cactus glasses and anything else with the Mad Mex logo stamped on it.”
At the start, things weren’t all rosy, all the time. A year after it opened, awash in craft brews and Big Azz Margaritas, the Oakland restaurant was ticking off some residents.
“You’re coming into a residential area,” said one, who went in front of the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment to complain about liquor sales and noise. “We have lived here a lifetime . ... What are we supposed to do, sell our houses and move to the suburbs?”
The zoning board ruled in favor of Mad Mex, which already had plans to open two more locations by December 1994.
“We are targeting an educated, professional person,” Mr. Baron said back then. “I’m sure we get some undergraduate students, but they’re very much the minority [because of the steep beer prices],” he told the PG.
Fast forward 25 years, (or just visit the Oakland location after midnight stacked with students) and consider how much Mad Mex has evolved. It now has 12 locations and a 13th spot on the way in Waterworks Mall near Aspinwall.
Today, Mad Mex is as likely to be a latenight student haunt as a place for families: Big Burrito president Bill Fuller notes in his Mad Mex newsletter ruminations, “There is so much going on — music, crazy art, crazy people and general chaos — that NOBODY NOTICES YOUR KIDS SCREAMING!”
Over the years food options have diversified a bit, too. Ask Pittsburghers about their Mad Mex food order and it’s as likely to be a $10 Mad Mex bestselling burrito, the increasingly popular tacos or a giant pile of nachos, whether it’s Grande or Carnitas. If it’s fall, the late favorite has been the wildly popular Gobblerito: The Thanksgiving-iscoming burrito with turkey and all the fixings wrapped in a tortilla.
To mark the 25th anniversary, food and beverage director Matt Glick — the same guy who invented the Gobblerito about a decade ago — has added several dishes to the menu that are marked by a silver fox icon: Among them, there are empanadas with a tomato black bean salsa; a crab and avocado quesadilla; and pork belly tacos with mango salsa.
The heavyweight addition is on track to become the biggest burrito on the menu, stuffed with grilled chicken and flank steak, roasted corn, fries and cheese, dressed in spicy house sauce, topped with pico de gallo, guacamole, sour cream and iceberg lettuce.
Called the Plataversary Burrito, it could become as popular as the Gobblerito: If only it had a catchier name.