Portland’s only sit-down Guatemalan restaurant is hiding in plain sight right on Alberta Street. By day, the space is home to RJ Skillets, a popular Mexican and Oaxacan brunch spot that serves stellar chilaquiles and all manner of brunch cocktails. At dinner time, it transforms into Cocina de Mary, serving Guatemalan dishes like pepián de pollo—chicken in a pumpkin seed and chile sauce, often referred to as Guatemala’s national dish.
Maria Ramos Guarcas is one of the three owners of RJ Skillets, but Cocina de Mary, which opened in February, is really her domain. After leaving her rural hometown in Guatemala for Portland at age 19, she couldn’t find many of the ingredients she missed from back home, and Guatemalan restaurants in Portland were unheard of. Now, she wants to create a place for other Guatemalans to enjoy the dishes they miss most, as well as introduce newcomers to Guatemalan cuisine.
Pepián de pollo isn’t just one of Guatemala’s most well-known dishes—it’s also one of the first dishes Guarcas learned to cook from her mother when she was just seven years old. She says making pepián is an all-day process, so her family only ate it on special occasions, like the Holy Week leading up to Easter. Her mother taught her how to treat each ingredient and bring out its full flavor, from the tomatoes to the garlic to the chiles to the sesame seeds.
“She was strict. If you make it wrong, you’re gonna hear about it,” Guarcas told the Mercury via a translator.
And it’s clear that the pepián here is made with pride from a carefully honed recipe. It’s served in a handmade red clay bowl that nearly matches the color of the orange-reddish sauce, toasty and silky and thick enough to coat each piece of chicken, and sprinkled with a generous scattering of sesame seeds. Chunks of carrot and chayote offer interludes of sweetness between bites of chicken. It’s sided by fluffy rice and handmade blue corn tortillas, ideal for soaking up every bit of sauce.
Other standouts include the churrasco—a grilled meat lover’s dream with grilled steak and chorizo, sided by fudgy black beans, rice, guacamole, charred green onions, and a surprisingly fiery tomato salsa. The costillas de cerdo, or pork ribs, fall off the bone, served in a tart tomato sauce. The tamales are wrapped in banana leaves, not unlike their Oaxacan counterparts—but instead of corn masa, soft risotto-like rice blankets the meat inside.
It’s clear that there’s a devoted audience for the Guatemalan dishes here. During one visit, a nearby table ordered the restaurant’s entire supply of chuchitos to go—small, firm corn tamales wrapped in corn husks. Guarcas goes through enough Guatemalan staples, including Guatemalan ketchup and bright green Picamas hot sauce, that she imports much of it herself. Guatemalan marimba music is a constant here. On chilly evenings, customers sip on warm Guatemalan-style arroz con leche, a thinner version of the rice pudding that’s served in a mug for drinking, much like a Mexican atole.
And Cocina de Mary is part of a growing group of Guatemalan eateries in Portland. While this is the only sit-down Guatemalan restaurant we know of within city limits, there are two stands serving Guatemalan food inside the Hollywood Q food hall—Shucos, serving giant loaded Guatemalan hot dogs, and Doña Carmen’s Pupuseria, which also sells pepián and several types of Guatemalan tamales—and there’s a new Guatemalan food cart on N Williams, Las Delicias de Mama Rosi.
“That was one of the reasons I started Cocina de Mary—to fulfill the need that is in Portland cuisine right now,” Guarcas said.
Cocina de Mary, 2529 NE Alberta, open Tues-Sun 5 pm-9 pm, @cocinademarypdx