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LENAWEE CO. · TECUMSEH, MI
Best Mexican Food in Adrian, MI
Adrian has been cooking Mexican food for ninety years, and it
has been cooking it the same way for most of them. That is not a marketing
line. It is the reason the food here tastes the way it does.
In the 1920s the Continental Sugar Company in Blissfield recruited Mexican
and Mexican American workers from south Texas to work the sugar beet fields of
Lenawee County. They came for the season and went home. Then the Depression
came, wages fell, there was no money to travel, and the company stopped
charging winter rent. Families stayed.
In 1940 Magnesium Fabricators in Adrian began hiring Mexican American
workers to make aircraft parts, and when the war came the other plants
followed. The pay was better than the fields and the work lasted all year, so
families moved into town. Landowners would not sell them property inside the
city limits, so they built on the edge of it, and that neighbourhood became
Sunnyside. By 1950 half the households there had Spanish surnames.
They opened a bakery, a taqueria and shops selling Mexican
groceries. Eighty years later Adrian has a tamale factory, two
Mexican markets and half a dozen kitchens, most of them clustered a few
streets from where Sunnyside stood. It is the same community doing the same
thing, and the line between then and now has never actually broken.
Why the food here is not what it looks like
Walk into most of these places and the menu will look familiar: combination
plates, rice and beans, things you have seen in every Mexican restaurant in
America. That reading is wrong, and it is worth saying why.
This food was not adapted for Michigan by a chain test kitchen. It was
brought here by families from Texas and Mexico, cooked for their own households
first, and then cooked for their neighbours, and it has been passed down inside
those families for three and four generations in this county. What looks like
standard American-Mexican cooking is in most cases the opposite: it is what
these particular families have always made, in a place they have lived longer
than most of the businesses on Main Street have existed.
The other thing worth being honest about: the best Mexican food in Lenawee
County is not in any restaurant. It is made at home, for family, and it always
has been. What is on this page is the part of it you can buy.
- 1920sMexican families first recruited to Lenawee County for
the sugar beet harvest - 1950half of Sunnyside’s households had Spanish
surnames - 2,113reviews on Fiesta Ranchera, the most of any
Adrian restaurant of any kind - 9Mexican kitchens and grocers in town today
East Beecher Street is the part nobody tells you about.
- La Chiquita, 136 E Beecher
- Mario’s Mexican Restaurant, 921 E Beecher
- Tamale Factory, 944 E Beecher
- Veronica’s Market, 1235 E Beecher
Four Mexican businesses on one street, two of them
a few doors apart. If you only have an hour in Adrian and you want to
understand why the food here is good, walk that stretch rather than driving to
the biggest restaurant.
Where to eat
Sit-down, out on US-223
Fiesta Ranchera Mexican Restaurant
- ★ 4.6 from 2,113 reviews
- $
1675 US-223 · (517) 263-9815
The most-reviewed restaurant in Adrian. Not the most-reviewed Mexican restaurant, the most-reviewed restaurant, ahead of every diner and burger place in town.
It is out on US-223 rather than downtown, so it is a drive, and the car park tells you how many people make it.
Sit-down, South Main
Cancun Mexican Restaurant
- ★ 4.5 from 1,020 reviews
- $
1054 S Main St · (517) 265-2400
A thousand people have rated it and it holds 4.5, which in a town this size means it has been doing the same thing well for a long time.
South Main Street, so it pairs with anything else you are doing on that side of town.
Breakfast and Mexican, East Maumee
Maria's Sunnyside Cafe
The highest rated of Adrian's Mexican kitchens alongside Fiesta Ranchera, and the one that does breakfast.
Out on East Maumee heading toward Tecumseh, which makes it the easiest one to fold into a drive between the two towns.
Sit-down, East Beecher
Mario's Mexican Restaurant
- ★ 4.4 from 715 reviews
- $
921 E Beecher St · (517) 265-1977
On East Beecher Street, in the middle of the stretch where most of Adrian's Mexican businesses sit.
Seven hundred ratings and a solid 4.4. This is the neighbourhood restaurant rather than the destination one.
Tex-Mex, cheapest in town
Brenda's Little Taste of Texas
- ★ 4.6 from 173 reviews
- $
1416 S Main St #390 · (517) 662-1268
The cheapest proper meal in Adrian, and it shares the top rating with Fiesta Ranchera and Maria's.
Small room on South Main that fills up. Closed Mondays and shut by 7, so it is an early dinner.
Sit-down, South Winter
The Grasshopper-El Chapulin
- ★ 4.4 from 510 reviews
- $
116 S Winter St · (517) 265-6670
Downtown-adjacent on South Winter Street, and the one you can walk to from Maumee Street if you are already in the centre.
Built its following on regulars rather than passing trade.
Where to shop
These are not restaurants. They are where the restaurants and the
neighbourhood buy, and they are worth a stop in their own right if you cook.
Mexican grocery
Veronica's Market
- ★ 4.5 from 228 reviews
1235 E Beecher St · (517) 263-3574
A Mexican grocery rather than a restaurant, and the kind of shop that only exists where there is a community to support it. Produce, dried chillies, the cuts of meat the chain supermarkets do not carry.
Mexican grocery
Tamale factory
- ★ 4.4 from 95 reviews
- $
944 E Beecher St · (517) 215-2510
It is called the Tamale Factory and it sells tamales. Two doors along from Mario's, which is not a coincidence.
Mexican grocery
La Chiquita
- ★ 4.6 from 70 reviews
136 E Beecher St · (517) 264-5126
The third of the East Beecher group, at the downtown end of the street.
Getting there
Adrian is about twenty minutes south of Tecumseh on M-52 and roughly fifty
minutes from Ann Arbor on US-23 then M-52. Fiesta Ranchera and Cancun are both
out on the main roads with their own parking. The East Beecher group is a
short drive from downtown and easiest done on foot once you are there.
Common questions
What is the best Mexican restaurant in Adrian?
By weight of opinion, Fiesta Ranchera: 2,113 reviews at 4.6 is not
a fluke. By rating alone, Maria’s Sunnyside Cafe and Brenda’s Little Taste of
Texas match it on fewer votes. If you want the neighbourhood answer rather than
the popular one, Mario’s on East Beecher.
Where can I buy Mexican groceries in Adrian?
Veronica’s Market at 1235 E Beecher, La Chiquita at 136 E Beecher, and the
Tamale Factory at 944 E Beecher. All three are on the same street.
Which is the cheapest?
Brenda’s Little Taste of Texas on South Main. It is also one of the highest
rated, which is an unusual combination.
Is anywhere open for Mexican breakfast?
Maria’s Sunnyside Cafe on East Maumee is the one that does breakfast.
Why does a town this size have so much Mexican
food?
Because Mexican families have lived here since the 1920s. The Continental
Sugar Company recruited workers from south Texas for the Lenawee County beet
fields, the Depression kept them here over the winters, and Adrian’s wartime
factories gave them year-round work. The Sunnyside neighbourhood grew out of
that, and the bakery, taqueria and Mexican shops its residents opened are the
direct ancestors of the businesses on this page. It is not a trend and it was
not imported. It is ninety years old.
Is Maria’s Sunnyside Cafe named after the
neighbourhood?
Sunnyside is the name of the Adrian neighbourhood where Mexican American
families settled permanently from the 1940s, after landowners refused to sell
them property inside the city limits. Worth knowing when you read the sign.
Hours change and small kitchens change them without warning. Call before
you drive.