Mapping North Carolina's Mexican restaurants
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While Mexican restaurants had exploded in North Carolina's urban cities, they now can be found in high numbers all throughout the state, including in rural N.C.
Why it matters: The proliferation of Mexican restaurants — once staples only of the Southwest and parts of the Midwest — highlights the growing influence of Mexican Americans on U.S. culture and the effects of increased migration from Mexico over the last 30 years, Axios' Russell Contreras reports.
- North Carolina's hispanic population is the fastest growing demographic in the state, ABC11 reported last year.
Driving the news: About 99% of Americans live near at least one Mexican restaurant, a Pew Research Center analysis of data from SafeGraph has found.
By the numbers: There were 256 Mexican restaurants in Mecklenburg County as of March 2023, the most of any county in the state.
- Wake County had the second most with 234. Durham County had the fifth most with 81.
- Dare County, a popular tourist destination in the Outer Banks, and Lee County, a rural county in the Sandhills where 20% of the population is Latino, had the highest concentration of Mexican restaurants in the state.
Of note: Tex-Mex restaurants counted as Mexican restaurants in the study, as did eateries, food trucks and restaurants serving multiple types of cuisine along with Mexican food.
- The analysis found that 22% of Mexican restaurants nationwide are fast food restaurants, 12% serve tacos as their specialty, 8% are categorized as food trucks or carts, and 6% dish up Tex-Mex food.
Zoom in: Mexican restaurants and chefs have become more celebrated in the Triangle in recent years.
- Oscar Diaz was nominated for a James Beard award for his Raleigh restaurant Cortez, and his Durham outpost Little Bull has become a highly regarded favorite.
- Sanford's Fonda Lupita, named one of Eater's best new restaurants in 2021, just opened its much-anticipated expansion to Durham last week.