El Rancherito Meat Market meets its Maker

For years at every #carne asada, before and after every Dallas Cowboys game, El Rancherito Meat Market was my go to place for carne, beer, and chips. I first started shopping there around 1992, but by then it was already 15 years old.

Located in one of Laredo's best neighborhoods, #santobaby, El Rancherito was a southside institution for thousands of people that depended on them Sunday after carne asada Sunday. They were located across the street from another, now defunct, venerable southside landmark, The Movie Palace. These two stores were my go to places for cigs and R Rated fun. Now they are both gone, up in smoke. 

I was unaware of Rancherito's demise until I drove by just last week. I stopped to pay my respects and to bid adieu to the neighborhood store of my youth. This Sunday, when I splash open my can of Schlitz and poke my ribs on the grill, I'll get smoke in my eyes and tear up for that store that is no more.
#GoodbyeElRancherito
You will be missed.

Aguacates at El Rancherito

My sister was making some tostadas so we dashed over to "El Rancherito" for some avocados. We headed over to their "fresh" produce section and were less than thrilled with their selection.

At $1.39 per aguacate, it's a WTF moment. Not only are they expensive, they don't look too good tampoco.

Chilitos Restaurant

Hilarious but true, about 7 blocks away from "El H-Evito", the subject of my previous post, there is a small dingy restaurant on Zapata Hwy that bills itself as "Chilitos". It sits right across the street from "El Rancherito Meatmarket" ("pasale pa'dentro primo") and next to the now faded Movie Palace Video. What caught my attention about Chilitos though, was the play on the name as a semi-parody of Chilis, only this is a small or Chilitos version. Only in the Laredo southside. I haven't eaten there, but maybe one of these days I will. Who knows maybe this restaurant is better than its corparate giant chain counterpart. Mmm, maybe not, but still the name is genius.