Local ingredients that shine with simplicity. Westchester restaurant named among best in the US

Mariachi Mexico in Armonk is a farm-to-table Mexican restaurant, where ingredients are sourced locally from the Hudson Valley, and this week it has made national news. Along with 46 other restaurants, it was included on the 2024 USA TODAY Restaurants of the Year list.

“My parents worked very hard to open their dream restaurant 33 years ago, and now, being selected as one of USA TODAY Restaurants of the year 2024 is a huge honor,” said chef-owner Joana Herrera, who took over the restuarant with her sister Meto Herrera in 2013. They changed it from Tex-Mex to a modern farm-to-table spot. “I’m very, very grateful to be able to cook the kind of food I grew up with, honor traditions, and have strong relationships with the people who grow our food.”

How many have you been to? Check out USA TODAY’s 2024 Restaurants of the Year.

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What makes Mariachi Mexico stand out

For the inaugural list, there are 47 USA TODAY Restaurants of the Year 2024.

Herrera has passion for seasonality, which means no two meals at Mariachi Mexico are ever the same. A large blackboard in the back of the dining room is constantly being updated, listing the farmers she’s sourced from that week.

The 43-year-old Herrera likes to call her menu “back to the basics with a New York twist.” That means a respect for tradition, using fresh nixtamalized corn masa for handpressed tortillas, molcajete for salas, molinillo for frothing chocolate and seasonal Hudson Valley ingredients. Everything, from quesadillas plazeras to tetelas and memelas, are pressed to order, with many items gluten-free and vegan.

Furthermore, each dish — whether it’s shrimp tacos with salsa tatemada de molcajete and lime, tetela de hoja santa (made using an old family recipe for mole) or guacamole with market crudité and gluten-free tostada — is served like a tiny piece of art, complete with edible flowers.

The bounty of what’s available at the markets — Manhattan’s Union Square Greenmarket and the Hastings-on-Hudson and Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow TaSH farmers markets — is where Herrera gets her inspiration, often with loud music in her earpods and piping hot black coffee by her side. Her menu is tight and small and changes weekly.

That seasonality extends to the cocktails, which in the fall and winter tend to focus on classics such as Mezcal Negroni, Mexican coffee and sangria. The spring and summer feature margaritas and spritzes.

In addition to what she finds at the markets, Herrera, who grew up accompanying her grandmother to “Día de Plaza” (aka “Market Day”) in Tlaxcuapan Mexico, also grows some of her own food. Come spring, summer and early fall, her planters, in front and in back of the restaurant, are full of herbs, edible flowers, veggies and flowers she uses for table decor.

The Herrera siblings (brother Pedro Herrera is also involved in the business) are keen on a “less is more” approach, which is reflected in the restaurant’s minimalist decor and the handwritten motto etched into the rafters that reads: “Eat. Drink. Smile. Love. Cheers to Life.”

Our criteria for: USA TODAY’s Restaurants of the Year for 2024

What to order at Mariachi Mexico

Shrimp tacos with butter, sage, avocado, sunchoke, Japanese turnip, mustard green, salsa tatemada and lime at Mariachi Mexico, a farm-to-table Mexican restaurant in Armonk, Dec. 14, 2023.

Guacamole with Farm Fresh Crudités. With radish varieties, flowering broccoli, mustard greens, cuca melon and husk cherries, and garnished with flowering cilantro (and my fave sal de Tlaxcuapan, which comes from the family’s generations-old salt mines), this dish tastes like a summer garden, even in the heart of winter.

Quesadilla Plazera. Since the menu is ever-changing you’ll find these hand-pressed and stuffed with whatever’s in season. Often, it’s Oaxaca cheese, medium rare skirt steak and salsa tatemada, topped with farm-fresh baby greens, radish, extra virgin olive oil and salt. In peak season, you’ll find edible flowers and herbs grown in house.

Shrimp Tacos. Again, the veggies will change, but usually you’ll find plump shrimp nestled alongside salsa tatemada de molcajete, herbs and lime. The warm tortilla is like a hug wrapped around super fresh ingredients that shine in their simplicity.

See the full menu.

Did you know?

Even Herrera’s salt is thoughtfully sourced — from generations-old family salt mines in Tlaxcuapan, Mexico.

Details: 405 Main St., Armonk, NY, 914-273-6805, mariachimexico.biz

More great restaurants: 13 Lower Hudson restaurants that should have made USA Today’s ‘Restaurants of the Year’ list

Jeanne Muchnick covers food and dining. Click here for her most recent articles and follow her latest dining adventures on Instagram @jeannemuchnick or via the lohudfood newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Local ingredients that shine with simplicity. Westchester restaurant named among best in the US