Welcome back to Five Things, Racket’s recurring rundown of new, new-to-us, or otherwise notable Twin Cities restaurants.
Today we’re taking you inside LomaBonita Market in Richfield. Open since November, this sixth location in the locally owned LomaBonita chain is by far the biggest for brothers and co-owners Fernando, Gregorio, and Porfirio Castillo—a 52,000-square foot emporium with fresh paletas and juices, house-made tortillas, and a restaurant cooking up meats you can smell from across the parking lot. (It’s also just a pretty great place to grocery shop.) Here are five things to know before you go.
1. It’s Like a Theme Park for Mexican Food
The three brothers Castillo crammed so many neat things inside the 52,000-square-foot former Rainbow Foods. It was a long time coming for the address that sat dormant for almost a decade. “Seven years ago, when Rainbow store closed down, we stopped here. We look around and we say, we dream to put one store here,” Porfirio Castillo tells MPR News.
There’s a paleteria kiosk for sweet treats (aguas frescas, paletas, ice cream, horchata), a cremeria for specialty cheeses, a tortilleria churning out fresh-pressed tortillas, a jumbo carniceria with oft-overlooked meat products like sheets of pork skin (more on that later), and a pasteleria featuring glass cases overflowing with baked goods (more on that, too). Plus a bargain-loaded hot deli! Also a freaking taqueria! Oh yeah, also a complete grocery store that happens to have surplus floor space devoted to piñatas—aka the Piñata Station…