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Luis Martinez is taking time off from UNT and a future film directing career to serve up some scrumptious Mexican street food in Bishop Arts.
Hank Vaughn
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Martinez has opened up shop near the corner of Tyler and W. Seventh streets in Oak Cliff.
Hank Vaughn
“Do you want me to get you your own order?”
“No, no… I don’t really want any,” followed by their greedy little fingers swiping yet another fry.
So, we get it and applaud Martinez’s creativity in this regard. That creativity might come in handy in his future film career.
The menu offers elotes, nachos, burritos and several fruit-based beverages such as fresas con crema, which is what really brought us to Mentiiras in the first place after seeing them on social media.
The fresas con crema was prepared with yogurt and more strawberries than one would think could fit in the cup topped with whipped cream and a maraschino cherry. It was really good but it was also a lot; a smaller size (call it “medium,” even) would have been a nice option, but this was a holdover from Valentine’s Day so we were glad to have it.
The elotes can have a Cheeto or Taki topping for an additional buck and come in either medium or large size if you want the corn in a cup as opposed to the ear. We have a pet peeve about size-naming strategies employed by most places, where you often find “large, Mega, and Super Duper Colossal” instead of small, medium and large, but the medium elotes here for $4.50 was really big. Martinez begins the process by slicing off the kernels from a roasted ear of corn and adding the requisite mayo, sour cream, lime juice, cilantro, garlic and chili powder, then topping it all off with some cotija cheese. He has some salsa that you can add yourself as well. We did. It was wonderful.
Finally, we tried one of his sausage, egg, cheese and pepper burritos. This was a smallish bite that hit the spot, complete with some salsa rojo on the side. A bean, egg and potato version was also available.
Martinez has been working hard by himself seven days a week for about 12 hours a day since he opened Feb. 6; clearly, this is a labor of love. His filmmaking career may be temporarily on hold, but this most recent production seems to be hitting all the marks. He’s clearly an auteur in control of his culinary direction. Film school will have to wait, thankfully for us.
Fade to black.
418 N. Tyler St.; Monday – Friday, 7:30 a.m. – 6 p.m.; Saturday – Sunday, 7:30 a.m. – 7:30 pm.