If you had the chance to try Elvira Varela’s cooking while she was still serving it from her home kitchen in East Oakland, consider yourself lucky. Now that her restaurant, Cenaduria Elvira, is a permanent space just north of Jack London Square, the rest of us finally have a chance to catch up. Central to the menu are the tostadas raspadas. In Zapotlanejo, a town widely considered the ingredient’s birthplace, these hand-scraped and sun-dried masa tiles are light as air. Varela does something akin to moving mountains and jumping through hoops to get such a rare regional item up to Oakland at such a high level of quality.
Speaking of, the micheladas here are S-tier. They’re massive. Just as you can choose what meat (or not) to top your tostada with, you get a choice of beer in your michelada. I opted for Modelo Negro, and quenched my thirst with each gulp from the Tajin-rimmed, chilled mug as if my life depended on it.
After lunch at Elvira’s place, my brother and I hit an Oakland Ballers game not ten minutes down the road. I highly recommend this bang bang before the season ends.