Cafe Rio

Cafe Rio, a fast-fresh Mexican restaurant chain from Utah, has finally made it to the DC area. Cafe Rio has mostly expanded to states bordering Utah, but they made the jump out here probably because there's a pretty decent population of transplants from Utah. A lot of Utah mormons come out here to work for the government, or to attend one of the many universities here.

Cafe Rio is affectionately referred to as Mormon crack (the pork salads with the creamy tomatillo dressing are considered the most addictive). And, speaking from experience, you don't actually have to be Mormon to enjoy the food (I swear it!!). Every time we would go back to visit family in Utah, Cafe Rio would be on the list of places we had to go. When we moved away from Utah, we found copycat recipes so that we could enjoy Cafe Rio-esque food when the craving called. Now Cafe Rio has finally joined us here! And we couldn't have been more ecstatic. It's a bit out in the middle of nowhere (i.e., nowhere near a metro line), but luckily it's only a 25-30 minute drive from where we live. That could be a lot worse.

We heard about the new Cafe Rio location here during its first week of business. We heard the news on a Friday and went on a Saturday. So we went when it was still fairly new. We wondered if it would be very busy yet. Cafe Rios in Utah always have a line. It's just expected that if you want Cafe Rio, you're going to have to wait for it. We wondered how busy it would be at this one -- obviously Utahns in the area would definitely go, but how many would that be and how long would it take for them to hear that a Cafe Rio was in town? I should have known the power of Cafe Rio and its cult status... We pull into the new Cafe Rio and the parking lot was packed. We saw a shitload of minivans and SUVs -- the automobile of choice for many a mormon family. We also saw a decent amount of Virginia license plates (when Utah mormons move to the DC area, they end up living all over...but, there does seem to be a larger proportion that choose to live in Virginia. I guess DC and Maryland are just way too liberal for them...). Coming from Virginia means they were willing to drive quite the distance to get themselves some Cafe Rio. (Oh and there was even a Idaho license plate in the parking lot. They probably were relieved a Cafe Rio opened up while they were in town or when they just barely moved to town).

Walking into the Cafe Rio I experienced two things I don't see much of in the DC area: Tons of little kids and all the customers were white. Walking through those doors, I stepped into a portal that transported me to Utah. It really felt like we were in Utah. That could be the Utah embassy. There were so many young couples with children. There were also a decent amount of young pregnant women. I heard Utah accents. The outfits were Utah-mormon (including girls wearing tank tops under not-that-revealing shirts and dresses, men in khaki cargo shorts with brown leather flip flops. I also saw plenty of undergarment lines). The hair was Utah-mormon. It's hard to describe exactly what Utah-mormon hair or clothing looks like, it's just one of those things you know when you see it. Only people that grew up in Utah really know what I'm talking about. Just know that it looked like Utah exploded all over the place.

Eagan is posing with my salad and his. He didn't actually order two salads...

You could tell which people were the Utah transplants and which people were just visiting this new restaurant called Cafe Rio. The Utahns were the ones that didn't need to look at a menu at all, and they ordered their meals and all the fixings really quickly. I even saw people pulling out Cafe Rio stamp cards. You can always count on Utah mormons to be thrifty. Cafe Rio has a card where you get a stamp for each entree you purchase, and when you get 10, you get a free meal (and when this happens, the workers shout out "FREE MEAL!" They also shout out "EXTRA MEAT" when someone orders that). This Cafe Rio is in its first week, so the odds are this is the customers' first time coming to this particular Cafe Rio. Which means these customers have collected Cafe Rio stamps at other Cafe Rio locations and they keep the card with them, ready for any chance visit to a Cafe Rio. I myself do the exact same. I have a Cafe Rio card in my wallet that I keep for when I go to Utah, and I'm glad that I can now use it here. One person even got a free meal at Cafe Rio the night we were there (I bet the owners didn't think they'd be giving out a free meal that early in their tenure). That's another way you could tell the Utahns from the non-Utahns, when the workers would shout out "FREE MEAL!" or "EXTRA MEAT!", the Utahns didn't flinch at all. The other customers looked very confused.

One thing that kind of weirded me out is that the line/prep line went left to right at this location. Every Cafe Rio I have ever been to the line goes right to left...with the ladies making tortillas to the right and the person that puts your completed meal on the tray is to the left. It was the opposite here. It just felt wrong...

Halfway through our meal, we noticed a couple of young kids playing on the patio out front by the parking lot, unattended, while their parents ate inside. The kids were walking/balancing on a raised railing, with a cement patch down below. Like I said, I felt like I was actually in Utah.

But guess what?! This Cafe Rio is actually open on Sunday! That's definitely the time to go. I bet the place will be nearly empty. A Cafe Rio open on Sunday -- I never thought I'd see the day! I will revel in this rare opportunity.