Rio Burritos reopens in Cedar Rapids with full service Mexican restaurant

CEDAR RAPIDS — Since 2002, various chapters of Phoebe Rios’ Mexican restaurants have been good places to eat. But the reopening of Rio Burritos in a new location this month feels like something more.

The first Rios opened in 2002 in Marion. Then came Salsa del Rio in downtown Cedar Rapids in 2010 — at the spot where Taco Gato stands today. Rio Burritos, the next iteration, ran a food truck from 2015 to 2020, shifting to a ghost kitchen in 2022 after a big hit from the derecho.

After meandering down a winding river, the family business’ first full-service restaurant opening in more than a decade feels like a destination.

This time around, a menu more intricately authentic than ever before has been redesigned for taste buds in Cedar Rapids that have grown over the past 20 years alongside their restaurants.

What’s on the menu?

With familiar favorites carried over from their old ghost kitchen menu at 4444 First Ave. NE, Rio Burritos’ new menu is decidedly much more than its legacy burritos now.

With street food focused through a northern Mexico lens, they hope to offer a distinction that sets their food apart from dozens of other Mexican options in Cedar Rapids, which primarily are oriented around Mexico City and southern Mexico.

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“We wanted to bring in the street drinks and food, and what’s trending,” Rios said. “Back in the day, Cedar Rapids wasn’t very open to a lot of change. They had one perspective in their mind on what Mexican food is, when really it’s so diverse.”

In short, this isn’t the same copy and paste of hundreds of similar options you’ll find at other restaurants.

“The northern side of Mexico has a lot of European influences,” the owner explained. “But we also love our fast food. For us, a whole meal would be something that (others) would consider a snack.”

For example, ramen noodles are embellished with enough details to make it more than a cheap cup of noodles.

A full page and a half of tacos, burritos and quesadillas is joined by a well-edited selection of specialties like their torta sandwich, arroz con pollo (chicken with rice) and the traditional asada steak.

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Then, there’s the birria options — the one item they advertise on their front door.

At Rio Burritos’ old location, the restaurant competed in a hot kitchen against several other birria options around the city. There, Rios developed her signature tacos oiled with double corn tortillas, and christened with a signature, red guajillo sauce.

Now home of the “fire birria,” you can order the popular birria, served with a savory consomme dipping broth, in many other forms: grilled cheese on Texas toast, nachos with melted queso, pizza slices, ramen and quesadillas.

There’s also a new star in the birria lineup: a massive baked potato loaded with marinated shredded beef, birria sauce, mozzarella cheese, sour cream, onion and cilantro in a generous pool of consomme — if the rest of it wasn’t enough flavor for you.

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“I think that’s really going to satisfy our Midwestern folks,” Rios said.

Other Midwestern favorites, like corn, find common ground with Mexico through sides like their elote preparado — a Mexican signature they coat with cotija cheese and a tangy Tajin seasoning.

Drinks and desserts

Rio Burritos’ small curation of alcoholic beverages turn down-home favorites — like the common Jarritos Mexican sodas popular at taquerias — into something more.

Jarritos Preparado can be ordered with tequila, lime, tajin seasoning, mixed fruit and a chamoy rim.

Watermelon Dream and Strawberry Pineapple offer spinoffs of favorite Mexican candies combined with spicy tamarind vodka.

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Signature margaritas — a category Rio Burritos is getting a start on with stiff competition around the city — are available in lime, strawberry, coronita and mangorita varieties.

Pina coladas are available in several twists, including passion fruit, rose wine or cognac.

Desserts aren’t neglected, either. Churro bites and fried ice cream join several tres leches options — vanilla and strawberry to start, with plans for a more adventurous pina colada and alcohol-infused varieties in the future.

Entering new territory

As Cedar Rapids’ diners grow more tolerant of authentic Mexican food that isn’t watered down for Midwestern palates, the restaurant hopes to eventually expand the menu into new territory.

In addition to honing its popular birria, it plans to bring in chivo (goat) — a popular meat used for all types of dishes in northern Mexico. With rising popularity in the United States, other trendy cuts like ox tail have begun to appear in more Caribbean and Latin American restaurants.

“(Here) we tend to think of beef, pork and chicken. We don’t venture into different types of meats that Mexicans venture into,” Rios said. “(Mexicans) don’t waste anything.”

Other items, like tueteno, will add a Mexican twist to a delicacy American diners know as beef bone marrow.

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Feeling at home

Now with more widespread acceptance of Mexican authenticity, Rios said the restaurant’s various growths and chapters over 20 years have been supported by deeper relationships built with a loyal following.

As she opened with managing daughter Delilah on Aug. 17, the new location felt “like home.”

“Food really unites people from all different backgrounds. It’s amazing for me to be able to give somebody from a different nationality a little piece of my family, a little piece of my heritage, and have them enjoy it,” she said. “That really amazes me.”

With time, the heritage they’ve exchanged with diners for 20 years will continue with the next generation in their family, too.

Comments: (319) 398-8340; elijah.decious@thegazette.com