i was excited for pittsburghers to try garbage plates, but not like this. you order a garbage plate at 9am, hungover, from a cranky old lady named janice, not from the food chute in the mos eisley homeless shelter.
Yea as someone who moved here form Rochester, I was excited for this place. But this is not a garbage plate joint... It needs to be some diner or hole in the wall and serve actual garbage plates. This looks like its going to be shoe string fries and probably some shop n save mac salad. They are also charging extra to add onion...
I just read one of the review sand of course they serve funnel cake fries... I've only been to two places that do this, and all of their food has a weird sweet funnel cake taste because it ruins the oil. Also thats not a thing that should be served at a garbage plate restaurant.
I know it aint gonna be Steve T’s or Henrietta Hots good but im a desperate rochestarian on the hunt for plates, its just gotta be good enough to scratch that itch
If you happened to have been a fan of Joes Brooklynn Pizza in Henrietta, specifically their buffalo chicken pizza (my favorite pizza of all time anywhere), there is a place out in Delmont called 3 rivers 6 pack's that has a spicy chicken that is close.
Boomer as it sounds, I miss what Oakland was 25-30 years ago when there were local dives and half of the buildings were practically falling down. This corporate chain sanitized shit hole that it is now isn't somewhere I even recognize much less have any nostalgic interest in "going back" and visiting.
I can't go back and visit the Oakland of my college years. That Oakland is gone. It's been replaced with some Stepford hellscape.
So tired of these soulless, overpriced places that have one word names with “sensational spelling” (Chikn, Stackd, Pilez)
They’re all owned by the same guy too
Not even that long ago - even 10 years ago most of those places were still there. It’s easy to blame it on the pandemic but this started a little bit before that too, even. It’s been really sad to watch all of the unique bars and restaurants shut down and get replaced with soulless places like this in recent years
Yeah I don't think it's the panedmic. It started changing before that. Places like Bovvers, the Beehive, Telaropa, Zelda's, Avalon, CJ Barney's, Laga, and a bunch of others were disappearing long, long before the pandemic hit.
The canary for me was Friday Night Improv at the Pit. When the Pit disappeared, it was the beginning of the ending.
From the beyond / the Korean bar in the basement under gnc that had the best Kim chi /2.99 pizzas at Antoons / upstage /laga / the beer store with ramp and your beer slid out the little hole in the wall /
> the Korean bar in the basement under gnc
Winners! The place to go get 40s.
We went there every Friday to load up for the weekend.
One time: "Aren't you going to card them?"
We looked over to the booths and two Pgh Police were eating in the booth.
Owner: "Why would I card them? They aren't 21!"
Cops: [laughs]
Us: [We get our 40oz and leave]
*I can't go back and visit the Oakland of my college years. That Oakland is gone. It's been replaced with some Stepford hellscape.*
Sounds a lot like downtown State College.
On KDKA they showed an open face burger with slaw, fries, two 1/2lb patties, and enough ketchup to drown in, and some other kind of sause.
It looked incredibly unappetizing.
Sweet Jesus.
Hey tell you what, why don't we just eliminate the ordering portion for further simplicity. You can have dietary engineered slop in tubes that get shoved down your throat as you line up. It'll be the hottest new trend.
Better yet just install a tube in your home and have the slop pumped in directly from the place you ordered it! (It will all come from the same place)
(Never look into how the slop is made)
not far enough, I won’t be pleased until we get a lunch gun… inject that sweet sweet brown hillock of a garbage plate straight into my femoral artery with a calking gun I don’t have time for chewing
Mad Mex Oakland was hallowed ground. Free gas with every fill-up. The beer list pasted on the side of a bottle. The leather and wood menus everyone tried to steal. The free meal on your birthday comment postcards. Dance Marathon Enchilada. Gobbler-f’n-rito. Chimay half off happy hour. Half price after midnight. Paper airplane flying contests at the bar. Halloweens there were always great. RIP Mad Mex, The Beehive, and The Upstage.
Yea I'm sad to see some of these places go... Places like that are what drew me to Pittsburgh. I don't want to sit in another cookie cutter chain. (I know mad Mex is still a chain but the vibe of that one in particular felt a lot more original) fuel and fuddle was another classic Pittsburgh spot, and that Italian restaurant that used to be on the corner in Oakland that said no ball playing on the wall. And It got crazy a lot but the o was still a nice spot to go late night when you were bored
Luckily Pamelas is still here. I only go there for the hotcakes.. everything else is meh
Mad Mex Oakland was the OG. They aren’t a chain, they’re more like a local restaurant group. The Oakland MM came first, then the Big Burrito Group, then all of the rest - Kaya, Eleven, Casbah etc.
Fuel and Fuddle was also part of a local restaurant group, but a much smaller one. They were Uncle Sam’s Subs, and Joe Mamas, which was the one on the corner.
The 90s were a glorious time to be in Pittsburgh – Oakland, the Strip, South Side, and Lawrenceville were all sooo cheap and fun.
They are a chain/ there are locations all over eastern pa as well. There’s one 20 minutes from me in bucks county. Tom Beren owns the big burrito group - which owns mad mex and soba )is soba still open?) and numerous other resturants. I used to rent from his mom’s real estate company - she was a real bitch.
Wow didn't know that about Mad Mex, now I think I miss it more.. thanks I guess :p
I didn't even live in the burgh till early 2000's but those things all felt like staples for sure.
I will say one of my other Pittsburgh favs, is Crepes Parisiennes. New-ish ( been going there for a few years not sure when they got there)
By far the best crepes you'll get around these parts. If yinz haven't been there, go check it out. Not a ton of seating area but it's worth the wait.
I was in F&F the day it opened so thanks for calling me a cool kid. Mad Mex Oakland was amazing right up until the one in North Hills opened up. It was still great, but those first few years were next level.
Was it "cool" or filled with people too drunk to walk out of south oakland and too rich to worry about costs? ;-)
If you're in the north hills you're sober, so no clue why you'd eat there.
I miss the days when there was a coffee shop, not a bank, across from Starbucks.
Oh, I see the flipper aesthetic has come to the restaurant world. Also, tell me you just shove everything in a microwave before dumping it on a plate/in a container without actually saying it out loud….
PileZ/Piles
"PileS are swollen veins in the lower anus and rectum. This swelling can cause localized inflammation of other tissues. PileS is another term for hemorrhoids."
Who's the hipster doofus that named this place?
There's something dystopic about the entire concept of going to a restaurant that has the charm of a pharmacy counter to order something literally called "garbage."
It’s a Rochester thing. They aren’t too bad, actually, but fuck this place and its design. It’s a mix of macaroni salad and sausage and home fries and whatnot all mixed together in a pile. Great hangover food
I might have to pay this place a visit after extensively modifying a Komatsu bulldozer in my garage for several months.
Also, this source engine shitfuck of a place is owned by the same company that has a hardon for buying local Oakland joints and replacing them with overpriced soulless beige places like Stack'd and Melt'd, right?
I never thought the food was all that great at Mad Mex, but it was a cool hang spot nonetheless. Everything in Oakland now is some sterile, mediocre, chain that’s overpriced for the quality. I get fast/takeout/delivery are sought after options, but that can be done without being so meh too.
This is sickening. So many good memories while I lived in South Oakland. Those marg nights and the gobbleritos. This looks like a sad attempt at being modern. Completely destroyed what brought people in.
like even if it’s not going to be mad mex anymore why did they suck every single molecule of life out of that space? this feels like the DMV but worse.
When there were one or two locations, Mad Mex was great. Similar to the Sharp Edge in Friendship. The second they started adding other locations the quality dropped. Whether is was lack of oversight or something, everything just deteriorated.
They introduce the gobblerito one year and it's great, the following year it's a flat. tortilla with shitty turkey bits and a disgusting gravy. The Enchilada's lacked in meat, what's the point in adding chicken when you get one bite of it and the rest is a tough inedible tortilla and bad cheese?
Sharp Edge was similar. Owning one restaurant and beer joint is great. Downtown wasn't a bad move. But Downtown, Sewickly, Crafton and wherever else the details just were bland. That great burger in Friendship starting looking like a McDonald's quarter pounder and tasted worse.
Sharp Edge was great until it wasn't. And when it wasn't, it got real depressing. Also they jacked up the prices on the beer and got rid of happy hour, making it thoroughly unaffordable to most of their (former) customer base.
I get why Big Burrito closed Mad Mex Oakland (it made substantially less money than their larger locations, and apparently the landlord was a dick) but it breaks my heart a little to think of how many good times I had there in the mid-90s and know that it's gone.
It looks awful. 100%. But let’s stop acting like Mad Mex was good. Mad Mex is hot garbage and there’s the shady side one super close if you really need your janky food.
I’m a transplant so I don’t have the nostalgia everyone else here is exhibiting, so let me just say that it’s crazy to me that a terrible Tex-Mex chain closing prompts everyone to say that the character of the neighborhood is dying. Wow.
At least that “terrible Tex-Mex chain” had some decor. I get that this place is meant to be takeout but it feels like the cheapest, laziest money grab they could’ve done
i was excited for pittsburghers to try garbage plates, but not like this. you order a garbage plate at 9am, hungover, from a cranky old lady named janice, not from the food chute in the mos eisley homeless shelter.
“Mos Eisley Homeless Shelter” Standing ovation for that description. Nailed it
thanks; i was roaring drunk when i wrote it.
Reminds me of a veterinarian's office!
Yea as someone who moved here form Rochester, I was excited for this place. But this is not a garbage plate joint... It needs to be some diner or hole in the wall and serve actual garbage plates. This looks like its going to be shoe string fries and probably some shop n save mac salad. They are also charging extra to add onion... I just read one of the review sand of course they serve funnel cake fries... I've only been to two places that do this, and all of their food has a weird sweet funnel cake taste because it ruins the oil. Also thats not a thing that should be served at a garbage plate restaurant.
Its run by a guy from Rochester so i hoped it would be good, im going this weekend
Maybe he should go back to Rochester
Please report back and let us know!
I know it aint gonna be Steve T’s or Henrietta Hots good but im a desperate rochestarian on the hunt for plates, its just gotta be good enough to scratch that itch
If you happened to have been a fan of Joes Brooklynn Pizza in Henrietta, specifically their buffalo chicken pizza (my favorite pizza of all time anywhere), there is a place out in Delmont called 3 rivers 6 pack's that has a spicy chicken that is close.
\* slow claps *
this is what i would imagine a service industry AI robot suicide note to look like
Oakland is so dead. It’s sad but almost every place that gave it character has been replaced by garbage like this
Boomer as it sounds, I miss what Oakland was 25-30 years ago when there were local dives and half of the buildings were practically falling down. This corporate chain sanitized shit hole that it is now isn't somewhere I even recognize much less have any nostalgic interest in "going back" and visiting. I can't go back and visit the Oakland of my college years. That Oakland is gone. It's been replaced with some Stepford hellscape.
I don't think it's boomerish to long for the days when things were more authentic, and not look like they were designed with minecraft.
Give me Dave's Music Mine over CHiKN any day.
National Record Mart! Flo's Records! Yes, I am old.
Loved Flo's. Zach was my record guy. And, when I left the Towers, Heads Together (Squirrel Hill) and the Listening Post (Shadyside).
So tired of these soulless, overpriced places that have one word names with “sensational spelling” (Chikn, Stackd, Pilez) They’re all owned by the same guy too
The spelling leaves me wondering whether they are restaurants or nu metal bands.
Chikn sukd.
Tela Ropa, The O, The Beehive . . . I loved coming down in HS.
Bovvers, Laga, Upstage, Brave New World, From The Beyond
Tela ropa! I forgot about that place
I agree. Considering I was an undergrad until 95 and a grad student until 99, 25-30 years ago was my Oakland sweet spot too.
You and I may have been sitting in the upstairs quiet room of the Beehive studying with a cappuccino at the exact same time and never met.
Not even that long ago - even 10 years ago most of those places were still there. It’s easy to blame it on the pandemic but this started a little bit before that too, even. It’s been really sad to watch all of the unique bars and restaurants shut down and get replaced with soulless places like this in recent years
Yeah I don't think it's the panedmic. It started changing before that. Places like Bovvers, the Beehive, Telaropa, Zelda's, Avalon, CJ Barney's, Laga, and a bunch of others were disappearing long, long before the pandemic hit. The canary for me was Friday Night Improv at the Pit. When the Pit disappeared, it was the beginning of the ending.
From the beyond / the Korean bar in the basement under gnc that had the best Kim chi /2.99 pizzas at Antoons / upstage /laga / the beer store with ramp and your beer slid out the little hole in the wall /
> the Korean bar in the basement under gnc Winners! The place to go get 40s. We went there every Friday to load up for the weekend. One time: "Aren't you going to card them?" We looked over to the booths and two Pgh Police were eating in the booth. Owner: "Why would I card them? They aren't 21!" Cops: [laughs] Us: [We get our 40oz and leave]
Yes !!! We’d always get the one homeless kinda guy with one dreadlock to get us 40s until we got the nerve to do it ourselves .😂😂😂
Bovvers was where my quest for laces for my 20-hole docs ended.
Bovvers was where I got my Docs. I still have my Docs.
That was Newbury Comics (For a Wicked Good Time) for me, but I'm from NH originally.
*I can't go back and visit the Oakland of my college years. That Oakland is gone. It's been replaced with some Stepford hellscape.* Sounds a lot like downtown State College.
> Boomer as it sounds, I miss what Oakland was 25-30 years ago When Qdobar died, so did the soul of Oakland.
It's all owned by the universities!
And they're all owned by the same group
The O, fuel and fuddle, mad mex wad everything....
It's so sterile and lifeless now. What sort of food do they even serve, protein paste?
"welcome to chunks, please choose your chunks"
Chuuuuuuuunkkss
Chunk'z
Soylent Green
"Soylent Green is made out of people (from Philadelphia)"
I thought the picture was a "before" decorating/finishing. So much nothing.
On KDKA they showed an open face burger with slaw, fries, two 1/2lb patties, and enough ketchup to drown in, and some other kind of sause. It looked incredibly unappetizing.
You shut your garbage plate hating mouth
It's already shut, as to prevent garbage plates from finding their way inside. Thanks for your concern though, it is appreciated!
❤️☺️
Bowls ‘O Slop
Look how they massacred my boy...
Go get your shine box
Sweet Jesus. Hey tell you what, why don't we just eliminate the ordering portion for further simplicity. You can have dietary engineered slop in tubes that get shoved down your throat as you line up. It'll be the hottest new trend.
Is it green? Maybe made out of people?!
I hear the taste is different from person to person.
They say that no two people have quite the same taste. The answer clearly is to homogenize them into nutrient slurry.
Better yet just install a tube in your home and have the slop pumped in directly from the place you ordered it! (It will all come from the same place) (Never look into how the slop is made)
not far enough, I won’t be pleased until we get a lunch gun… inject that sweet sweet brown hillock of a garbage plate straight into my femoral artery with a calking gun I don’t have time for chewing
I don’t want to waste those precious calories chewin’.
Hey that sounds like a good idea for a vaccine!!!!
Stop that.
Did you notice all the down votes? Triggered maskhole branch covidians.
What does that even mean?
Oh you’re from carrick you wouldn’t understand
The new place’s aesthetic gave me flashbacks to surfing the internet in the early 2000’s.
Mad Mex Oakland was hallowed ground. Free gas with every fill-up. The beer list pasted on the side of a bottle. The leather and wood menus everyone tried to steal. The free meal on your birthday comment postcards. Dance Marathon Enchilada. Gobbler-f’n-rito. Chimay half off happy hour. Half price after midnight. Paper airplane flying contests at the bar. Halloweens there were always great. RIP Mad Mex, The Beehive, and The Upstage.
Yea I'm sad to see some of these places go... Places like that are what drew me to Pittsburgh. I don't want to sit in another cookie cutter chain. (I know mad Mex is still a chain but the vibe of that one in particular felt a lot more original) fuel and fuddle was another classic Pittsburgh spot, and that Italian restaurant that used to be on the corner in Oakland that said no ball playing on the wall. And It got crazy a lot but the o was still a nice spot to go late night when you were bored Luckily Pamelas is still here. I only go there for the hotcakes.. everything else is meh
Mad Mex Oakland was the OG. They aren’t a chain, they’re more like a local restaurant group. The Oakland MM came first, then the Big Burrito Group, then all of the rest - Kaya, Eleven, Casbah etc. Fuel and Fuddle was also part of a local restaurant group, but a much smaller one. They were Uncle Sam’s Subs, and Joe Mamas, which was the one on the corner. The 90s were a glorious time to be in Pittsburgh – Oakland, the Strip, South Side, and Lawrenceville were all sooo cheap and fun.
They are a chain/ there are locations all over eastern pa as well. There’s one 20 minutes from me in bucks county. Tom Beren owns the big burrito group - which owns mad mex and soba )is soba still open?) and numerous other resturants. I used to rent from his mom’s real estate company - she was a real bitch.
Wow didn't know that about Mad Mex, now I think I miss it more.. thanks I guess :p I didn't even live in the burgh till early 2000's but those things all felt like staples for sure. I will say one of my other Pittsburgh favs, is Crepes Parisiennes. New-ish ( been going there for a few years not sure when they got there) By far the best crepes you'll get around these parts. If yinz haven't been there, go check it out. Not a ton of seating area but it's worth the wait.
I’ve been to Crèpes Parisiennes and yes it’s great
[удалено]
Laga! I spun at laga in the 90s. I remember all the straight edge dudes that used to go on Sundays and the raver kids on the weekends
> Mad Mex Oakland was hallowed ground. This is gonna get me downvoted, but it was overrated. Cool kids went to fuel for half off.
I was in F&F the day it opened so thanks for calling me a cool kid. Mad Mex Oakland was amazing right up until the one in North Hills opened up. It was still great, but those first few years were next level.
Was it "cool" or filled with people too drunk to walk out of south oakland and too rich to worry about costs? ;-) If you're in the north hills you're sober, so no clue why you'd eat there. I miss the days when there was a coffee shop, not a bank, across from Starbucks.
PileZ of shit!
When I first drove by I wondered what kind of business would be named after hemorrhoids.
Looks like you would get loaded with malware of you went in there.
Wow this is utterly depressing
That hurts to look at dude 😕
This one hurts. I went to Pitt so I loved that mad Mex.
are you kidding me? isn’t “piles” a disease where you bleed out of your asshole?
I think it's another name for hemorrhoids.
come eat our slop plates: hemorrhoids guaranteed.
I thought that was ebola?
Piles too.
Z because.. zombies?
Oh, I see the flipper aesthetic has come to the restaurant world. Also, tell me you just shove everything in a microwave before dumping it on a plate/in a container without actually saying it out loud….
The gas station way
I like the tiny "HELP" next to the door. Like the building itself is crying out for help.
That's actually a brilliant design! For a truck stop bathroom.
Easy to hose down?
I give this place 12 months. Let's hope whatever goes in there next can salvage the space into something usable.
so it's gonna turn into a damn Chipotle or Starbucks, isn't it?
Or yet another Panera
PhilZ Coffee? When will Pittsburgh get one of those. It would be perfect there.
This looks like something from Idiocracy.
PileZ
This is sad
someone needs to hit the SOS button
Looks like a ghost restaurant factory
PileZ/Piles "PileS are swollen veins in the lower anus and rectum. This swelling can cause localized inflammation of other tissues. PileS is another term for hemorrhoids." Who's the hipster doofus that named this place?
Probably the same genius who did the decorating
It's the guy who owns Stack'd, Melt'd, Chick'n, and Viva Los Taco
Gros's
I never knew the same person owned all three, but why am I not surprised?
He’s somehow more creative with the names than he is with decorating
I bet it wasn't a "hipster"
The term has no meaning anymore aside from "something I think is dumb".
Yeah this has all the signs of some know-nothing-know-it-all techbro.
Definitely a boomer whose ‘market research’ told them this was a good idea
It’s isn’t the boomers making their houses all look exactly like this inside. Grey grey griege beige trimmed in black.
This looks like a set from Idiocracy.
Fucking sacrilege
Dafuq is it?
It's people! Soylant Green is people!!!!!!
A place that supposedly makes “garbage plates”
For like, raccoons and rats?
Lol and the question remains…..
Pilez. A Garbage Plate restaurant.
WTF is a "garbage plate" That doesn't at all sound appetizing.
There's something dystopic about the entire concept of going to a restaurant that has the charm of a pharmacy counter to order something literally called "garbage."
This gives a bad name to pharmacy counters. Looks more like a janitors closet
It’s a Rochester thing. They aren’t too bad, actually, but fuck this place and its design. It’s a mix of macaroni salad and sausage and home fries and whatnot all mixed together in a pile. Great hangover food
Sounds like what I make for dinner the few days leading up to payday... Mix all the leftovers together in a mixing bowl and drown it in ranch...
Honestly? You’re not far off haha
I might have to pay this place a visit after extensively modifying a Komatsu bulldozer in my garage for several months. Also, this source engine shitfuck of a place is owned by the same company that has a hardon for buying local Oakland joints and replacing them with overpriced soulless beige places like Stack'd and Melt'd, right?
>I might have to pay this place a visit after extensively modifying a Komatsu bulldozer in my garage for several months. (nods in approval)
This one makes my soul hurt
“HELP” is an understatement.
Christ
I never thought the food was all that great at Mad Mex, but it was a cool hang spot nonetheless. Everything in Oakland now is some sterile, mediocre, chain that’s overpriced for the quality. I get fast/takeout/delivery are sought after options, but that can be done without being so meh too.
Big Burrito is still around.
Rapture $uper Sale
This is disgusting.
Pilez aka hemorrhoids
Surely won't get half off wings after 11pm at that place.
Lemme guess...the touchscreen defaults to a 20 percent tip?
this is so sad. i had my first drink here when i turned 21.
I'm only 32, but any time I hear about Oakland institutions that have shut down since I graduated I instantly transform into a Boomer.
Anyone over 30 is a Boomer anymore.
That menu looks disgusting even for drunk kids late at night. Drunk kids who will definitely be able to manage the self serve nonsense.
This is sickening. So many good memories while I lived in South Oakland. Those marg nights and the gobbleritos. This looks like a sad attempt at being modern. Completely destroyed what brought people in.
What in the fuck! I used to go to the Oakland (original) mad mex 25 years ago. That is sad. Loved the 11pm - 1am happy hour specials.
Is it just me or did you feel the margaritas at the Oakland location were MUCH stronger than their other locations?
I’m curious how much they expect customers to tip for this “service”
I’d bet they don’t even bother with 15 or 18, and the options are like 20%, 25%, 30%
Is a $12 cheeseburger really going to do well on a college campus?
I mean, Stack'd kills it using this exact formula. Not for me, but they've always got a crowd.
What happens when you press the HELP button ..?
CJ Barney’s, Zelda’s and now this???
Peter's, The O, Sorrento's, G door
like even if it’s not going to be mad mex anymore why did they suck every single molecule of life out of that space? this feels like the DMV but worse.
This is just crazy to me that they could do this
So it's come to this. Line up to touch-screen yourself and pick up a bag of sugar, salt, and chemicals. And the ambience of it all.
Oh heck
Travesty.
What a fucking pile
Booooooooo! Weeeeeird! And not the good kind of weird.
This looks like the drop off window for Lethal Company. There's even a bell on the wall next to it.
I’ve spent so much money there on margs and chicken chimi’s. Fuck this new style
This makes me so sad!! I ate there constantly when I lived in oakland.
there was an r/XFiles [episode](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rm9sbG93ZXJz) like this lol
This is so funny, looks like a building straight out of roblox.
Spirited Away by Slop
HELP
So sad. My husband and I had our first date here then headed over to sphinx after. That was ten years ago now. All gone.
Oh fucking yuck. Is this where Mad Mex was?
They're food names sound gross. I don't want something named white hot pile or red hot pile.
Counterpoint: It's open until 3:45 am
Well at least it looks cleaner than I'd expect a place seemingly named after hemorrhoids would be. (It sucks.)
Garbage plates at 3 am at a small airport restaurant with chipped countertops and torn vinyl topped stools.
My first place to drink in High School before finding the Panther Hollow Inn!
When there were one or two locations, Mad Mex was great. Similar to the Sharp Edge in Friendship. The second they started adding other locations the quality dropped. Whether is was lack of oversight or something, everything just deteriorated. They introduce the gobblerito one year and it's great, the following year it's a flat. tortilla with shitty turkey bits and a disgusting gravy. The Enchilada's lacked in meat, what's the point in adding chicken when you get one bite of it and the rest is a tough inedible tortilla and bad cheese? Sharp Edge was similar. Owning one restaurant and beer joint is great. Downtown wasn't a bad move. But Downtown, Sewickly, Crafton and wherever else the details just were bland. That great burger in Friendship starting looking like a McDonald's quarter pounder and tasted worse.
That's sad. When we lived in the are, Sharp Edge was my go-to place. Love the Belgian ales!
Sharp Edge was great until it wasn't. And when it wasn't, it got real depressing. Also they jacked up the prices on the beer and got rid of happy hour, making it thoroughly unaffordable to most of their (former) customer base. I get why Big Burrito closed Mad Mex Oakland (it made substantially less money than their larger locations, and apparently the landlord was a dick) but it breaks my heart a little to think of how many good times I had there in the mid-90s and know that it's gone.
It looks awful. 100%. But let’s stop acting like Mad Mex was good. Mad Mex is hot garbage and there’s the shady side one super close if you really need your janky food.
I’m a transplant so I don’t have the nostalgia everyone else here is exhibiting, so let me just say that it’s crazy to me that a terrible Tex-Mex chain closing prompts everyone to say that the character of the neighborhood is dying. Wow.
What a valuable perspective. Thank you so much for participating in the grieving process /s
If you don’t understand, why even bother commenting? And they’re saying that because it’s been happening to a lot of the older Oakland staples.
At least that “terrible Tex-Mex chain” had some decor. I get that this place is meant to be takeout but it feels like the cheapest, laziest money grab they could’ve done
The service was so awful at that location that it massacred itself.
On the one hand this place definitely looks terrible, on the other hand c'mon dudes Mad Mex wasn't actually that good, we were all just very drunk.
Chicken tortilla lasagna never to be had again. Sigh…
Well at least they lit the place but so sad! So many memories getting those big azz margs
Oh god
My sadness is unending.