Welcome back to Five Things, Racket’s recurring rundown of new, new-to-us, or otherwise notable Twin Cities restaurants.
Today we’re taking you inside LomaBonita Market in Richfield. Open since November, this sixth location in the locally owned LomaBonita chain is by far the biggest for brothers and co-owners Fernando, Gregorio, and Porfirio Castillo—a 52,000-square foot emporium with fresh paletas and juices, house-made tortillas, and a restaurant cooking up meats you can smell from across the parking lot. (It’s also just a pretty great place to grocery shop.) Here are five things to know before you go.
1. It’s Like a Theme Park for Mexican Food
The three brothers Castillo crammed so many neat things inside the 52,000-square-foot former Rainbow Foods. It was a long time coming for the address that sat dormant for almost a decade. “Seven years ago, when Rainbow store closed down, we stopped here. We look around and we say, we dream to put one store here,” Porfirio Castillo tells MPR News.
There's a paleteria kiosk for sweet treats (aguas frescas, paletas, ice cream, horchata), a cremeria for specialty cheeses, a tortilleria churning out fresh-pressed tortillas, a jumbo carniceria with oft-overlooked meat products like sheets of pork skin (more on that later), and a pasteleria featuring glass cases overflowing with baked goods (more on that, too). Plus a bargain-loaded hot deli! Also a freaking taqueria! Oh yeah, also a complete grocery store that happens to have surplus floor space devoted to piñatas—aka the Piñata Station.
“We have all the dairy, all the products from all over the world. We got from Ecuador, Mexico, Venezuela, United States,” Porfirio boasts. Toward the front of the store, near the checkouts, you can even wire money internationally or purchase a large-scale framed painting of Jesus Christ.
2. The Deli Rocks
The tamales? They’re not to be slept on, as you may have read recently in The Heavy Table. Though we had a hard time finding anything less than exceptional at the cafeteria-style hot deli, which serves up full meals—one menu item, rice, beans, and fresh tortillas—for $14. The fall-apart-tender ribs in verde sauce was a highlight, while the spicy barbacoa and cheesy shrimp both arrived generously heaped and at restaurant quality. We also scored a quarter roast chicken (a tad dry but wonderfully spiced) served grab-’n’-go style with tender, plump roasted potatoes and an intimidatingly long grilled leek for $4. FOUR. DOLLARS. That’s the going rate for two fuckin’ hardboiled eggs at the co-op. A staggering deal, one that instantly shot to the top of our quick-dinner list.
3. So Does the In-House Taqueria
That old adage about how you should never grocery shop hungry in no way applies to LomaBonita. If anything, this is a place where you should show up hungry, because if you aren’t already peckish upon parking, the smell of savory, slow-cooked meats that blankets the parking lot will have you salivating before you step inside the store’s sliding glass doors.
That’s in part thanks to the in-house taqueria, which is slingin’ a selection of tacos, tortas, burritos, and other staples with your choice of meat. Looking for something shareable, we opted for the nachos con todos with pastor pork ($14.99), which arrived piled with meat, veggies, crema, and crumbly cheese, and included a pickleball-sized scoop of guac to boot, at no extra charge. Hit up the little salsa cart for any other accoutrements you might want (we were partial to the orange salsa, LomaBonita’s hottest), and head back to your table, where you can prepare to be peppered with questions about what you’ve ordered from other grocery store patrons. (No seriously, this happened more than once during our visit; everything looks and smells that good.)
4. Hit Up the Looooong Pastry Case
Most grocery stores set aside a few cases for fresh-baked pastries. Meanwhile, Loma Bonita offers an entire aisle fully stocked with a variety of colorful wonders to try. There are flakey orejas, a finely spun pastry similar to a palmier; cuernos, a buttery croissant (try the cheese-filled ones); and dense, spiced conchas. There are cookies, cinnamon rolls, churros, and both sweet and savory empanadas. There’s big loaves of bread to get you through the week and smaller rolls for sandwich making.
During our day at the market we bought four pastries to share, several of which were scarfed down immediately (none made it to the end of the day). Amazingly, this sugar indulgence only set us back about $6. The next time you’re on office donut duty, load up on treats from here and blow your colleagues’ minds.
5. Cheap Meat!
Perhaps you’d rather do the cooking yourself? LomaBonita has a sprawling, fully stocked meat counter, with just about every edible bit (tripe, reams of pork skin for chicharrón) from each of the major human-sustaining animals (chicken, pig, cow). And for prepped meats there’s chorizo, asada, carnitas and more.
The prices are more than competitive. We picked up a pair of fresh chicken breasts from the carniceria for just $2.49/lb. That’s not only considerably cheaper than Cub, the last time we checked, but the meat itself looks more chicken-like. (How will they taste? We imagine a lot like chicken.)
LomaBonita Market Richfield
Address: 140 W. 66th St., Richfield
Hours: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Friday; 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
