Jugueria, Tortas, Mercadito & El Chente

Wandered past this small storefront with the waving colored flags celebrating a recently past grand opening last Saturday night while on Washington Avenue. A very friendly woman came out of the door and down the steps to engage us in some salesmanship about why we should come inside for dinner and/​or a cool fresh fruit smoothie.
She was direct and sincere, and I was easily won over by her, even though a Mexican meal had not been on my radar. Going inside, it was apparent that this was a pretty new operation as it appeared not everything was put away yet. There were only four tables for dining in, with the smoothie operation happening up front, and the more serious cooking going on in the back. The term «Hole in the Wall,» comes to mind, but that has become overused lately, so I will just describe this casa as small, with signs that the family running the place lives on site. The little kids were cute, and the Disney Channel was playing on the TV.
I ordered Tacos de Carnitas and a Multi-​Fruit Smoothie, my friend the Al Pastor dinner with Pork. The Tacos were very good with hot fresh tortillas loaded with well grilled BBQ Pork, Lettuce, Tomato, Fresh Cheese, Red Onion, and Homemade pink Salsa. After pouring the salsa into the filling, I rolled up each taco into a tight super joint and bit into the open end with relish. All the flavors jousted for dominance, but none took charge. They played very well together. I may have overdone the Smoothie by ordering the recommendation of our hostess and server that all the fruit be part of the mix. They seemed to cancel each other out to some extent, leaving the predominant taste of Red Beet. Cool and smooth, but not the citrus taste I expected.
The Al Pastor plate was okay, but not standout. The meat was cooked and kept hot in a steam table behind the counter. The Rice was very good and the foundation of fresh Pineapple under the meat was novel and tasty. Yet, the meat flavor was a little off, perhaps from sitting in pineapple too long, or from something else in the steam table vessel. We did not eat most of that pork for that reason.
There are a large number of Mexican joints along this strip of Washington, and they compete with the many Vietnamese and Chinese houses in the area. Eventually, there will be a Vietnamese/​Mexican place just like the Mexican Chinese joints that are around. I will try them when they appear.
The Mercadito needs some fine tuning to really succeed at capturing the local trade, but for now I recommend sticking with their version of traditional Mexican dishes if you want something authentic and tasty.