Our Purpose
República is the best Mexico-Forward restaurant in the country.
What does that mean, really?
It means that when our young Chef Jose “Lalo” Camarena dreams up a plate, he does it understanding the intentionality of the restaurant. There are a number of rules in place to assure that our offerings pay respect to the food from the country that is now Mexico.
We ask ourselves...
Is there a meaningful historical connection between this dish and the culture?
Are the components of the dish currently in season? Can we source them locally?
Is it beautiful when plated?
Does the taste match the beautiful aesthetics of the plating?
Essentially what we aim to do is create original dishes and present them with historical roots in an etymology which oftentimes has very little to do with what we now call Mexico. That is a lot to ask of a Chef.
It means that, in order for us to hold our culture and our cuisine in high regard, we first have to acknowledge that much of it did not belong to us in the first place. Everything from the foundational dishes with maiz – first created by the Olmecs, Toltecs, Mayas, Aztecs – to the mole recipes that feature ingredients originally from Asia and Africa, were another culture's to begin with.
It is with these acknowledgements, this level of intentionality in mind, we call our cuisine,
“Mexico-Forward."
Mexico-Forward
This is not Mexican cuisine.
This is geography, geology, migration
This is inevitable evolution
Where ingredients meet necessity and play
Where history is honored
A recognition of people and place
Of seeds and plants and cultures carried over seas
We are not here to define what is Mexican
We are here to create anew, like those before us and those who will come after.