WHY For 40 years, Jesse Gomez’s family has been turning out ‘careful-the-plate-is-hot’ Mexican food at El Arco Iris, an old-school hub of Highland Park life. Now Gomez has created a new-school, loft-like place serving regional Mexican dishes, as well as twenty-some tequilas and what may well be the best margarita Downtown.

WHAT This is not Jesse’s father’s Cal-Mex cooking—the reasonably priced menu is filled with things like squash blossoms with Oaxacan cheese, an artfully composed and delicious tostada with sashimi-grade ahi, and camarones with garlic and cilantro-lime rice. But it also has the comfort-food standards we Angelenos sometimes require to make it through another day: enchiladas suizas, carnitas (juicy and tender) and, of course, tacos.

WHO Youngish after-work folks drinking margaritas and sharing tastes of the food.