This Time, It's Personal

Olvera also presides over Eno, which opened in 2007 as a gourmet shop for high-quality olive oil, bread, cheese and charcuterie, as well as sandwiches and salads. Four locations later (including a new one inside Museo Jumex), the laid-back mini chain will soon introduce a menu of mostly vegetarian and vegan dishes. "I wanted a restaurant where I could eat every day, and I don't love sandwiches," Olvera says. "I also love the connections you make with people at places like Eno. At Pujol, people often go once, and you never see them again."

Reygadas had similar reasons for expanding beyond Rosetta, her 2010 restaurant. Set inside a beautifully restored building in Roma, the Italian-influenced spot has become a favorite for dishes such as cloud-like ricotta-and-lemon ravioli. While the intention was to create a relaxed restaurant serving amazing food, "at some point, it became more formal than what I wanted," she says. So in 2015—after having expanded already with two small bakeries—Lardo was born. The airy, all-day café in Condesa was an instant hit, and Reygadas says diners often stay through breakfast, lunch and dinner. As for the menu? "It's whatever I want, from eggs to pizzas to moles to curries to just everything I like together," she says. "And with its bar and open kitchen, I get to be in contact with the people."

Building off of Lardo's success, last fall Reygadas transformed her bakery in up-and-coming La Juárez into the full-service Café Nin after a neighboring space came up for rent. In addition to pastries like the must-try rosemary-sugar roll, you can get everything from punched-up versions of traditional Mexican breakfasts (chilaquiles with burrata, epazote and cilantro) to a range of sandwiches served on her cult-favorite bread.

Next door is Havre 77 , a two-year-old French bistro from García of red-hot Máximo Bistrot. The transformed 19th-century mansion has a romantic blush-pink interior, a killer raw bar and a menu of classics and blackboard specials that harkens back to the food García first learned to make as a cook in the U.S. And it's his most personal project to date. "Havre is my jewel. I wish I was there every day," he says. "I couldn't do 100 percent French at Máximo, because I wanted tourists to come, and they're not going to eat that here." (And come they did; to snag a table, reserve at least a month in advance.)

When Máximo opened in 2011, on a then-quiet corner of Roma, García's goal was to have "a simple restaurant where the check average was kind of low." But his dedication to using local ingredients—in beautifully plated dishes such as roast organic chicken and tuna crudo with serrano chile, yuzu and white soy—drove up costs. "I only work with small farmers who don't use chemicals, so my ingredients are a lot more expensive," he says. García also started employing people, growing from just four employees to about 90. Some clientele weren't happy about the higher bills—or that the restaurant was getting harder and harder to get into. 

García's solution was to open Lalo! across the street in 2015. "The food still has my flavors, but it's more rustic and more affordable," he says of the lively and casual spot. But as with Havre, this decision was also partly to satisfy an inner desire. "We cooks are restless and always want more," he says. "And I wanted a place where I could make food that I would eat every day, like a burger, pizza, pasta and a really good breakfast."

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Salas is another chef who's pursued a bifocal approach in the name of satisfying his own food preferences. In 2010, he introduced the ambitious Amaranta in his hometown of Toluca, a game changer for the colonial city about 40 miles west of Mexico City. The pricy, contemporary Mexican menu comes à la carte and as a seven-course tasting, and celebrates ingredients from the State of Mexico. But after a few years, Salas was ready to spread his wings. "Mexico is more than just one state," he says. "Plus, I was kind of stuck and needed a project that would let me try different things and cook the way I like to eat."

For Téllez, it was his feelings about wine that drove him to open Amaya in 2016. "It was a very egotistical thing," he says. "I wanted a place that served wines I liked." The low-key, somewhat-whimsical spot does just that, with the city's first-ever all-natural list featuring his family's new biodynamic Bichi label, plus interesting bottles from Chile and across Europe. And the menu is no mere afterthought, with shareable dishes like roast cauliflower with avocado tahini and cherry tomatoes, and the addictive soft-shell crab "casino."

In January, Téllez began his latest passion project, a monthly dinner series called MesaB, for which he creates a multicourse meal for 20 guests based on ingredients he procures that morning. "The idea was sparked by being fed up with following a script and making the same dishes every day," he says. "There are so many things I cherish about restaurants, but I think they're very limiting." The experience is akin to a festive dinner party, with one long table set in an intimate, candlelit room next to Téllez's wine storage unit in a Juárez office building.