A piece of the celebrated Fonda Lupita is coming to Raleigh soon. Meet La Buena Vida.
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Inside NC’s hottest kitchen
After a food magazine ranked Sanford’s Fonda Lupita as one of the nation’s best restaurants to open in the last year, that spotlight continues to reverberate throughout North Carolina’s food scene. Learn about the “little restaurant where everything is homemade” that could change the world — and its expansion plans for Raleigh.
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When Sanford’s tiny Fonda Lupita landed on Eater’s list of the best new restaurants in the nation, the clamor was almost instant.
“When are you going to come to Raleigh?” the cries rang out.
Maybe one day. But some of Fonda Lupita is already on the way now.
La Buena Vida, a new Mexican restaurant owned by Salvador Alvarez, will open in late February in North Raleigh. Alvarez is married to Fonda Lupita owner Biridiana Frausto and also owns the popular Chido Taco in Raleigh with Joel Ibarra and other partners.
Spanish for “The Good Life,” La Buena Vida was well in the works before Fonda Lupita shot into the restaurant stratosphere. Now it will open with an already eager fan base, possibly as early as late February.
A legacy of Raleigh restaurants
Alvarez, a cousin of the larger Ibarra family, which launched Raleigh’s first El Rodeo restaurant, as well as Jose & Sons and Cortez, first started working in restaurants when he was 15, washing dishes at his family’s La Rancherita in the Crabtree Valley Mall.
Now 33, Alvarez said he plans La Buena Vida as a more authentic Mexican restaurant, separated from the tradition of Tex-Mex. For starters, that means tacos topped with onion and cilantro, with warm and soft corn tortillas, he said.
“It’s going to be a Mexican restaurant, not a Tex-Mex restaurant,” Alvarez said. “It’s going to be something very new, very different than something we’ve done before. There’s no ground beef hard shell tacos in Mexico. There’s no lettuce, tomato and cheese on the tacos.”
Alvarez and Frausto met working at Totopos in Cary, another Ibarra restaurant he managed. Frausto will be the opening general manager at La Buena Vida, in addition to running Fonda Lupita.
Located at 4516 Falls of Neuse Rd. and built in the former Tilted Kilt sports bar that closed five years ago, La Buena Vida has transformed the building. The outside walls are wrapped with a layer of artificial greenery and on one side, there’s a mural of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo with dahlias in her hair and a cigarette in her fingers. The mural looks out on an open-air patio stocked with wire Bertoia chairs and a long wooden bar for standing with a drink.
Alvarez said the Triangle’s growing Latino population gives him the confidence that Buena Vida can be a success as a more authentic Mexican restaurant. But he said the tastes of the Triangle in general have changed since he first moved to North Carolina more than 15 years ago.
“Even Americans are more willing to try new things,” Alvarez said. “People couldn’t handle spicy (years ago), but now that’s what they go for when they see it on a menu.”
Dishes from Fonda Lupita
Buena Vida’s menu is still in the works but Alvarez said it will be a more upscale concept in general. There will be tacos made with corn tortillas, barbacoa, a larger focus on seafood and some dishes from Fonda Lupita, including Tacos Dorados de Papa, a cheesy mashed potato taco topped with a limey slaw. Alvarez predicts those tacos will become a favorite.
“I’m not a vegetarian, but those potato tacos are so good,” Alvarez said. “They remind me of home.”
Like Chido Taco, Alvarez said the bar at La Buena Vida will start with fresh juices for its drinks. Alvarez said there’s no comparison between margaritas made with the bright tartness of freshly squeezed citrus and ones with the cloying sweetness of bottled mix.
“Once you try a fresh-squeezed drink, I couldn’t sell margaritas made with a mix,” Alvarez said.
The menu will include Fonda Lupita recipes for pork carnitas in salsa verde and the barbacoa that stars in quesabirria tacos. Except at La Buena Vida it will be made with lamb instead of beef, Alvarez said, for a stronger, more traditional flavor.
“Mexican food is so diverse,” Alvarez said. “There are so many things I want people to try, I’m just so glad people are willing to try new things.”
This story was originally published February 2, 2022 at 6:00 AM with the headline "A piece of the celebrated Fonda Lupita is coming to Raleigh soon. Meet La Buena Vida.."
