Saratoga News

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Ignacio Flores, head chef and co-owner of Andale Taqueria, grills vegetables for use in the restaurant's many fresh-mex dishes.

Andale serves fresh food in Mexican style-and fast

By Suzanne Cristallo

Andale! It's an appropriate name in this hurry-up world, but Ignacio Flores takes the time to make it healthier. He is co-owner and head chef of the taqueria that offers lard-free, preservative-free, fresh ingredients in its Mexican dishes.

Since it opened in 1988 in a former juice bar at 6 N. Santa Cruz Ave. in Los Gatos, Andale has moved to additional locations: Palo Alto in 1991, across the street at 21 N. Santa Cruz in 1992 and San Francisco in 1994.

Flores can usually be found in Los Gatos, where he oversees the management of the two locations and their 30 employees. He uses the kitchen at No. 6 (on the east side of the street) to test new recipes and prepare catered meals for up to 400 guests of fiestas, parties and weddings. He also handles major takeout trade from the small location. The larger No. 21 location across the street features a Mexican breakfast on weekends and caters to more sit-down dining, both indoors and in a walled garden in the rear.

Flores shares a partnership in the four restaurants with childhood friends Luis Sanchez and Pedro Alvarez, and with Pedro's nephew, Sergio Alvarez. Each man oversees or shares the management of a specific location and contributes a particular talent to the overall operation, such as Sanchez's ability to scout and develop locations and Pedro Alvarez's expertise in insurance.

Flores developed his penchant for cooking as a boy growing up in the town of San José in Jalisco, Mexico. His father ran a restaurant there--a tradition passed down from his great-great-grandfather, who also passed along ancient Aztec recipes that were indigenous to the state of Jalisco. These recipes included pozole soup rich in lean pork, chicken and hominy and a variety of enchiladas made distinct in color and taste through the subtle--or not so subtle--use of chili peppers.

Flores, the older Sanchez and Pedro Alvarez, a distant cousin, grew up together. Their adult relationship continued after Sanchez and Alvarez emigrated to the Bay Area. Flores followed, settling in Half Moon Bay, where he did groundskeeping for a golf course and ran a catering business on the side.

The opportunity for Flores to be a restaurant chef came when Sanchez asked Flores to join him at the El Dorado Cafe he was managing in Palo Alto. In 1988, they started the No. 6 Andale location together, later bringing in Pedro and Sergio Alvarez as they expanded.

From the start, Andale was a success. Flores says the food and healthful cooking methods they use, along with their staff, good prices, attention to customers and the location, are what contribute to this. He realized the importance of location when a second Andale, opening a year later in downtown San Jose's Pavilion shops, failed. "The location was a big problem," Flores notes.

Flores enjoys inventing menu specials such as the Mayan Burrito, which harks back to the ancient culture by using achote seasoning on roasted chicken with garlic and spices. Perhaps more unusual for a Mexican restaurant is Flores' use of fish: salmon, halibut, red snapper or mahi mahi roasted over a mesquite fire and drenched with a garlic chili butter. "It's fantastic--not because I say so, but because my customers say it," Flores says.

Andale Taqueria, 6 N. Santa Cruz Ave. and 21 N. Santa Cruz Ave., Los Gatos. No. 6 open daily, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. No. 21 open Mon.-Sat., 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Sun., 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

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