My favorite restaurant.

I used to live in an old well worn neighborhood that had not yet gone through any urban renewal. My side of the road consisted of fairly well kept older homes and the other side looked like crack alley. I don't know what causes a dichotomy like that.

There are quite a few family owned Mexican restaurants in the area and all are pretty decent.It's really hard to get bad food in a place where someones 90 year old Mexican grandma is back in the kitchen chained up to the stove.

Someone told me about a place called Las Brazas that was just a few blocks from my house. I had probably driven by it hundreds of times and never noticed it. One day a friend and I stopped in after a trip to the range.

I immediately knew why I had not noticed this place. It was a squat, squalid little building with badly tinted windows. The place was really run down. A closer look revealed that this was eatery was an old shack with a mobile home attached to the back then covered in cheap siding to make it look fancy.

I stepped inside and there were exactly six tables. One of them was 2 long folding tables like those in a school cafeteria with similar seating.

The chairs were badly stained with grease and food and the place was decorated like Sanford and Son meets Hiroshima.

We were hungry and I had a reliable source telling me this place was good. So I just went ahead and decided to suspend my fear of food poisoning for the time being.

The waitress had a gigantic rear end that barely fit between the already cramped tables. I was hoping it was because the place had good food.

I was hungry so I ordered the Guacamole Chalupas and the Cheese Enchiladas. The food came out quickly and at first I thought they had messed up my order.

They gave me a plate heaping at least six inches high mounded with lettuce, tomatoes, grated cheddar, about 2 pounds of fresh guacamole, home made green salsa, refried beans and melted cheese all on a crisp corn tortilla . Actually, 2 of these came in an order.

I can honestly say it was the freshest tastiest Mexican food I had had in my life up to that point.

I devoured every bite. the Enchiladas were more traditional but the sauce they used was out of this world.

My friend was served a giant bowl of Caldo, loaded with green chiles, two whole ears of corn, huge chunks of potato and about half a chicken. It was the soup you had to eat with a knife and fork.

Stuffed to the gills we waddled up to the cash register, My food came to just over $5.

I couldn't believe how good this place was. The best part was, it was the only place for miles open 24 hours. Later I noticed when the bars closed at 2AM people lined up around the building to get some of this food in their drunken faces.

I could never remember the name of the place so I just dubbed it "hole in the wall" everybody in the neighborhood new what I was talking about anyway.

I ended up eating at this place every day for months I finally had to slow down when my pants wouldn't button anymore.

Now when I have out of town guests, this is the first place I take them. They usually think I've lost my mind.

When people come to visit they usually want to go eat down town or on the River Walk.

Screw that. Why would I go pay big bucks for shitty tasteless tourist food when I could take my friends to the hole in the wall...