Photography by Stephen Buchanan
The food at Lime & Salt Taqueria relies heavily on three generations of family recipes. Owner Cesar Flores learned how to cook from his mother, Mercedes, when he grew up in the Mexico City area. His grandmother, Margarita Gonzalez, was also a great cook. “Pretty much all of our food is from their recipes,” Flores says. “The recipes are our signature. It sets us apart from all the ordinary Mexican restaurants. Without them, we would be copying someone else.”
The restaurant, located in Odenton on Piney Orchard Parkway, is a family partnership. Flores and his wife, Kristina, and her brother, Aaron Holmes, and his wife, Ashley, co-own the restaurant. There is good chemistry between the four of them.
“Before the restaurant, we would get together and cook—something we love to do,” says Cesar, who played professional soccer in Mexico before moving to the U.S. in 1991. Cesar and his wife owned another Mexican restaurant in Columbia for six years.
They opened Lime & Salt in March of 2021. It features Mexican classics like tacos, enchiladas, fajitas, quesadillas, and burritos, along with a traditional Mexican taqueria and agave bar. We recently talked to the Flores about their customer favorites, the fine quality of the food, and how they met and later got married while working at another restaurant.
Cesar, what is your top-selling item?
The lamb tacos. Most restaurants make it with brisket. We make it with lamb. It’s more traditional, but one of the best places for it is Guadalajara, where I am from, which uses goats. We buy a whole lamb. When you cook it, you have to time it perfectly. What makes it unique is the peppers. We use four different kinds of peppers. We marinate it with juices and herbs. We leave it in the marinade for two days before we cook it. And the cheeses we use are a little bit more traditional Mexican. The taste of the lamb tacos is amazing.
Mexico is large country with many regional cuisines. Do you focus on recipes from a particular region?
About 80 percent of what we cook is from the Mexico City area. It’s called Mexico City cuisine. It’s a blend of different regions of Mexico. But I can eat mole from Puebla, a state in the Mexico City area. It’s well known for its mole and we use that style of it to make our chicken enchiladas. It’s one of the most traditional Mexican dishes. It has about seven different varieties of dried chili peppers. You also have different kinds of peanuts and walnuts and chocolate. The sauce is mole. You can make it with chicken. It’s more traditional with chicken than turkey.
Tell me about how you met your wife.
I was the first manager of Pachanga Grill. My wife grew up in Odenton. She went to Arundel High School. I moved to that area because I was managing Pachanga 22 years ago. My wife was a server. We worked together and, eventually, we started going out. We have been married for almost 20 years. It’s funny now because we met at the restaurant where we worked. It’s a cool story and people love it. They are surprised at how we got together. When people come to our restaurant for the first time, they remember that story.
Is it enjoyable working with family members?
As a family, we really like to be creative with our food. We are working together well as a team in the restaurant. My brother-in-law is a really good bartender. When we found out about this space becoming available, we jumped on it. We went to see the landlord, and he knew me and trusted me. We gave him our application and business plan. Things worked out.
Photography by Stephen Buchanan
Where do you source your ingredients from?
We use vendors and distributors. We also go to a Latin market for cheeses and spices that are hard to find, and we rely on the Restaurant Depot for fresh produce, and farmers on the Eastern Shore for meat and vegetables. We emphasize not using foods with preserves or antibiotics. We have been successful at that. We buy proteins and create and assemble everything at the restaurant.
Kristina, why did you decide to open a Mexican restaurant?
We have been in the restaurant business for a long time and that’s my husband’s passion. He is an entrepreneur, and he loves the restaurant business. He loves to share real, true Mexican food. My brother and I were born and raised in Odenton. So, we know the location.
What separates your place from other Mexican restaurants?
I think what makes us special is that we make everything fresh. People love our food and I think they appreciate it, honestly. They appreciate the effort we have put into the menu. It’s labor and love. I keep saying traditional and I think that’s what sets us apart. We’re making things the real way. Our food is very labor intensive. We don’t take shortcuts. We had to make tough decisions on the menu because a lot of the items are labor intensive. We had to take some off. We had bacon-wrapped shrimp. It was supposed to be on the original menu, but we took it off because of the time and labor to make that. Now, we have it as a special. It’s very popular.
What else attracts customers to your restaurant?
We are a local place. We have been blessed with an incredible crew that has come to work for us. We know the importance of staff and being friendly and just smiling. There’s joy walking in through the door and someone saying hello and they know that person. I think that has become a big part of our success.
Lime & Salt Taqueria 8395 Piney Orchard Parkway, Odenton | 410-874-6277
