When Texas-born chef Rocky Coronado moved to Detroit in 2017, they brought something new to our food scene with Rocky’s Road Brew — a Southwest Detroit coffee truck with vegan tacos — and, later, Nepantla Cafe, another food truck and now soon-to-be brick-and-mortar.
The Nepantla menu features vegan Mexican food that focuses on Coronado’s Indigenous roots, earning them recognition as an emerging chef semifinalist at the 2024 James Beard Awards. In June, we spoke with the chef-owner about their plans to open their first brick-and-mortar sometime in 2025 at 5410 W. Vernor Highway.
Congratulations on the James Beard recognition. Did it take you by surprise?
It totally did. I didn’t know I was even in consideration for it! A couple of chefs from around town tagged me in some posts, and I thought their accounts had been hacked and if I clicked on the link, my account would get hacked, too. I clicked on it, and it was for real.
The idea of vegan Mexican food is quite unique. What inspired this idea?
I started as a coffee truck in Austin, Texas, but I moved [to Detroit] with a partner and I no longer had a taco lady bring me tacos in the morning [to sell at my truck]. So I decided to do [my own] vegan tacos to hand out with coffee. I went vegan because I had high blood pressure and I was having heart problems. I saw a difference [in my health], so once I knew better, I had to do better.
Does this help you reconnect with your roots?
I was in the process of decolonization. Before the Spaniards brought over pigs and cows [to the American continents], a lot of vegetables were being eaten [by the Indigenous peoples], and I looked towards that and wanted to be healthier.
I’m also Buddhist — right livelihood [the principle of earning a living ethically] is one of the [religion’s] eightfold paths.
Has the U.S. built up a wrong idea of what “traditional” Mexican food is?
Exactly! Being from Texas, I grew up on Tex-Mex, and there’s lots of cheese. … Every dish ends up tasting like the same thing. … In Mexico, it’s not like that.
How have things changed for you and Detroit’s food scene since you moved here?
I’ve been more “in the scene,” and I’ve been getting to know more food people. It’s incredible, and I’m impressed. The Mexican food could be more inventive, … but I guess if it’s not broken, then don’t fix it. A lot of the places serve the same stuff, just a little differently, and that’s good for me because we are trying to do really different things.
What will you do differently at your brick-and-mortar restaurant?
There are going to be totally different menu items. … I bought a building [in Southwest Detroit] and a lot next to it, which used to be a parking lot, but I don’t want to see a bunch of cars out here. So I bought a bunch of soil, and now I have a nice grassy area where I’ll be putting in greenhouses [and growing] a lot of products from Mexico that I can’t get [in Detroit].
What else should we know?
I’m six years sober, so I want to create a safe space for sober adults at night. We will have vegan mocktails and elixirs. When I first had the idea in 2018, I was telling my brother and he said, “Wait, you’re not going to have meat or alcohol?” Over the years, I’ve been hearing lots of people are wanting that, so I’m not as scared as I was in 2018 and I’m actually really confident that it’ll be something that people are into.
This story originally appeared in the October 2024 issue of Hour Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of Hour Detroit at a local retail outlet. Our digital edition will be available on Oct. 7.
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