Don’t ask Corey Jones for an order of fajitas or nachos at his new Loco Pollo restaurant in Portland’s East End, because there’s nothing of the sort on the menu. Rather than serving up the ubiquitous Tex-Mex style Mexican, Jones is aiming for the real deal. His menu is simple, consisting only of tamales, stews and tortilla meals.

The tamales are made each morning with the help of tamale expert Marisol Hernandez. On any given day, the shop offers up to six different varieties, which will change seasonally. Recent offerings include green chili beef, red chili chicken mushroom and green chili chicken goat cheese. A single tamale sells for $2.25 and you can get 12 for $20. Any tamales remaining at the end of the day are donated to local nonprofits.

Stews include such concoctions as the traditional pozole and green chili pork ($4/$6). Two tortilla dinners are offered: chicken in a blood orange molido marinade and beef in an ancho cinnamon honey marinade. Each is served with fresh corn tortillas, beans and rice and priced between $5-$16, depending on how much you want.

Drinks include a cooler full of soft drinks and smoothies ($5). Right now, the city’s zoning laws prohibit Jones from obtaining a liquor license, but he’s hoping for a variance. Come summer, he’ll have seating on the sidewalk.

Jones, who lives in Cape Elizabeth, is working on creating a lobster tamale, but he’s having a tough time figuring out how to make sure the meat doesn’t turn rubbery after steaming for an hour and a half. Due to demand, he also says he aims to create a vegetarian offering, possibly a vegetable packet steamed in a banana leaf. But right now he’s focused on tracking down the best ingredients.

He is constantly on the hunt for things like blood oranges and specialty chile peppers, having them shipped overnight from Mexico if necessary.

“I’ll do just about anything for fresh rendered pork lard,” Jones says of a key ingredient in the tamales, and repeats a similar refrain about corn meal, joking that the limited availability in Portland makes him feel like he’s trying to score an illegal substance.

“To me a tamale should be a little packet of air,” Jones says, as he recalls the gold standard tamales he used to wait in line to buy when he lived in Colorado. He says someday he hopes to replicate those pastry-puff like tamales.

But it’s in Mexico where he finds his deepest inspiration. During his frequent visits, Jones does his best to steer clear of tourist towns and businesses that cater to Americans. Instead he seeks to live like the locals do.

“We’ve been travelling to Mexico for 10 years, at least,” says Jones, 35.

His favorite destination is Tulum on the Yucatan Peninsula, where he and his two sons prefer to rent a house or a condo, rather than a hotel room. This means cooking their own meals and shopping at the multiple open air markets for the freshest vegetables, fish and meats.

“I’m a cook and a huge foodie,” Jones admits. When he’s back in the states and not at his own restaurant, you can find him at places like Miyake, Local 188 and Five Fifty-Five.

“I will go ridiculously out of my way for good food,” Jones says.
Thanks to Jones you no longer have to go far for authentic Mexican cuisine.

— Avery Yale Kamila