Native American & Mexican-American & women-owned small business
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The Heat Goes On By Betsy Bruce
Headquartered in a new location, La Indita still brings the spicy flavors and family recipes patrons have come to expect.
That Tucson is neither too big, nor too small, is one of the reasons the legendary restaurant La Indita lives on. In 2020, after three decades of serving their famed chicken enchiladas and Indian tacos on Fourth Avenue, the madre and padre operation was cut loose of its lease. Survival meant a GoFundMe campaign for moving costs, and with the community camaraderie that thrives in a city our size, the segue was made to a beautiful stand-alone building at 722 N. Stone. The little-restaurant-that-could is one of a kind, offering plates from Michoacán, Mexico, honoring Tarascan culture with a side of Tohono O’odham. Ninety-two-year-old Owner/Founder Maria Garcia still graces the kitchen twice a week to make her delicious tamales. Her delicate fingers are deceptively strong from the weekly ritual of pulling off corn husk and silk, slicing row after row of kernels into golden piles, then taking the bounty down the street to be ground into masa. Grandson Josh, La Indita’s manager, cheekily calls his grandmother a “cradle robber,” in that her husband José is a mere 85 years old. “My grandparents met in 1972 at an Indian center that was on 29th Street and 10th Avenue. She was cooking there, and my grandfather was a counselor at the center at that time.
“My grandmother has always loved cooking; when she grew up in Michoacán, Mexico, she was taught that the way to keep your family and loved ones happy was to fill their belly with delicious food.” Upon arriving in Tucson, Maria secured a job with the extended family business at Mi Niditio, the acclaimed Mexican restaurant in South Tucson. Her talents immediately were recognized and Maria was encouraged to open her own restaurant, eventfully doing so on Scott Avenue downtown in 1983. She named it La Indita, or “The Little Indian,” to honor her Indigenous Mexican culture. Says Josh, “Her fondest desire was to make La Indita a community gathering spot for love to be shown by enjoying good company and good food.”
La Indita now inhabits the space that once housed “The Tasteful Kitchen,” which has transitioned into a catering business. “The owner of the building reached out to us at just the right time … it was such blessing,” says Josh. The brick building is made eyecatching by a mural of a flower-crowned goddess of abundance punctuated with butterflies. The inside is high-ceilinged and filled with colorful art. “We did not have to do too much,” indicates Josh. “We brought in our booths because they were made by my uncle Freddy Sandoval.”
Inside dining accommodates 50 guests. Thirty or so diners may enjoy an alfresco repast under a saguaro rib ramada in dappled sunlight by day, or strings of opera lights by night. It feels like the Garcias’ backyard — ivy climbs the exposed brick wall, cacti tumble from earthen pots and Lola the restaurant dog patrols, think of a dachshundshaped golden retriever. Lola welcomes fellow well-mannered canines to her patio. By next spring, Josh hopes to have a small stage and full bar in place outside.
It’s difficult not to overeat when delivered chips and salsa at La Indita. Freshly fried corn tortilla wedges are served with carafe of red/pink salsa … tomatoes and jalapeños simmered together, their heat tempered and flavor fortified with onion and garlic.
Chicken enchiladas in green sauce arrive two to a platter — pulled chicken simmered in spices and rolled in fresh tortillas are blanketed in a velvety rich green sauce unique to La Indita. The plate is sided by rice and beans, each elevated, toothsome and rich, and pungent with spices.
Tarascan tacos are direct from Michoacán: fresh corn masa is patted into thick rounds, then stuffed and sealed pierogi-like, with a choice of beans and cheese, spinach and nuts, carne seca, beef or pulled chicken. A quick turn in the sauté pan results in the desired contrast — browned and crispy outside, soft and savory inside.
The often-ordered Indian taco was added to the original menu by Maria to satisfy and honor husband José and his Tohono O’odham culture. Fresh rounds of airy dough are sizzled in deep fat and topped with beans, beef and red chiles, shredded cabbage and cheese.
Restaurants often will argue over who makes the best mole sauce. La Indita’s mole poblano, made fresh daily, starts with traditional cacao (ground seeds from the pod that is the foundation of chocolate) and poblano peppers simmered with garlic, cumin and ingredients known only to the Garcia family.
La Indita’s mole hits first with dense, earthy cacao, then smoky poblano, finally unveiling the rich notes of spice. Ladled over one of Doña Maria’s tamales, the complex mole highlights the pristine simplicity of corn or chicken.
For first timers to La Indita, Josh says guests should feel free to build their own plate. À la carte means tacos, tostadas, tamales and rellenos — “Everything is delicious and we want guests to taste as many things as they like,” Josh notes. However, leave enough room for something sweet, as a trio of desserts entice. Traditional flan, popovers with honey and powdered sugar, or the La Indita-invented Pop-Churro with eggy dough deep-fried and rolled in cinnamon and sugar. “It has a little Mexican and Native American twist.”
The next generation already is in the kitchen at La Indita. Nine-year-old Izabella, Josh’s daughter, will sizzle up her own fry bread — taught the techniques by her abuelita Maria. Josh is anticipating that she and cousin Tai eventfully will take over the family business. It’s impossible not to contemplate the decades that already have passed and ask the secrets of Maria’s longevity — she’s been on the planet more than nine decades, after all. “She does a lot with people in Mexico,” says Josh. “She loves to give back, she and José built a free clinic in Magdalena for Indigenous people with the money that she made from the restaurant,” Josh explains. “She works politically to get native people their due recognition and respect. That fuels her.”
