Enchiladas, pozole and land surrounded by water
March 3, 2026
EAST BAY EXPRESS — This year’s State of the Union address suggested, among many things, that the American Dream belongs exclusively to technocrats and their cronies. Jose Rodriguez has another story to tell. For his family, the American Dream is alive and well on Solano Avenue.
In the late 2000s his mother, Maricela Pedroza, moved to the Bay Area to start a new life as a chef. She serendipitously arrived in town when Juan Romo was about to open La Mission on University Avenue. After a stint there, Pedroza went on to serve as general manager at Talavera Cocina Mexicana. Working as a single mom, she bought the restaurant outright after a decade, and just before the pandemic.
Rodriguez told me, “She has her own house now, the whole American Dream, and it’s just crazy from where she came from.” Pedroza is the oldest of nine children. “When her parents went to work, she would always cook for everybody at home in Mexico,” he said. “Cooking has always been her passion, and it’s just super nice to see where she’s at now.”
At the end of January, Pedroza and Rodriguez opened Anahuac, their second restaurant on Solano. Rodriguez and his sister, Esmeralda, manage the front of house together while their mom oversees both kitchens. Anahuac is located in Fonda’s old address, a restaurant that was once part of the Krikorians’ restaurant group. A decade ago it seemed as if their businesses would always be fixed in place, like Chez Panisse and The Smokehouse. But Jimmy Bean’s—home to my favorite silver dollar pancakes—Paisan, Sea Salt, T-Rex and Lalime’s have all shut their doors.
At Talavera, Rodriguez noticed that on special occasions such as Mother’s Day, the taqueria didn’t get a lot of traffic. “But I understand people want to take their loved ones to a more upscale place,” he said. The more formal dining room was the main idea behind Anahuac, with dishes made to be eaten in-house. During the process of looking for a new space, a Talavera customer found out that Fonda’s was available for a long-term lease.
“Me and my mom would go eat at Fonda all the time and we would say, ‘One day we’ll have a place like this,’” Rodriguez recalled. Because the Talavera taqueria is two blocks away, they came up with an entirely new menu for Anahuac—with one overlap. “The only thing we kept from Talavera was the mole poblano,” Rodriguez said.
They also hired chef Jorge Reyes from Guerrero, Mexico, who regularly makes his own specials. Recently Reyes made octopus tacos on handmade yellow corn tortillas that Rodriguez’s aunt makes. “He used calamari ink so it was a black tortilla, coleslaw, octopus marinated with pastor adobo—and then he put fried onions on top,” Rodriguez said.
A bowl of red or green pozole ($24), green with chicken for my order, arrived in a very large bowl with shredded cabbage, hominy, chopped onions and lime. It proved to be an extremely comforting and satisfying dish. In the future, Rodriguez said, they’re planning to offer the option of two small bowls per order so customers can try both versions at the same time. Our table also shared a delicious plate of chile verde pork slow-cooked in a tomatillo sauce ($20) and some enchiladas covered in a bright-red sauce. We finished everything in sight, including stacks of crisp tortilla chips and fresh salsa.
After an initial round of refurbishments, Anahuac was ready to open last September. But the health department was aware of significant structural damage in the space, so Rodriguez and his family spent the last few months bringing everything up to code before the 2026 opening.
Anahuac’s table service includes bar seating, music and a TV screen hovering in the background. One of the murals inside features an open-mouthed, snake-like creature with leafy, feathery scales in bright shades of pink, green, orange and blue. Rodriguez hired San Enrique, an artist from Oakland, who worked on the signage and installed the murals.
Anahuac, 1501 Solano Ave., Berkeley. Open 4-10pm every day; Sundays till 9pm. IG: @official.anahuac
