We like celebrating things with round numbers, and Birrieria Ocotlan has a lot of reasons to celebrate.
One hundred years ago, Tereso Reyes arrived in the town of Ocotlan in the Mexican state of Jalisco. Among his possessions was a goat, which when it was mature enough, he slaughtered and fed to his family of 13 children.
Reyes knew a relative in Mexico City was deft at making birria — a dish of stewed goat, which then gets served in a rich consommé with tortillas. Reyes improvised his own recipe, merrily fed his family, and even had leftovers for neighbors.
When those neighbors tried it, they told him: “This is really good. You should sell it.”
A century later, the Reyes family birria recipe (there are a few dozen ingredients in the spicing) is the engine powering Birrieria Ocotlan, 53 years in Chicago this year. There are two locations in the city: one in South Chicago at 8726 S. Commercial Ave. and another close to the Illinois/Indiana border at 4007 E. 106th St.
In August, the restaurant was named one of the 41 greatest Mexican restaurants in the United States by The New York Times, one of three in the Chicago area. (Disclosure: I’m a contributor to The New York Times’s food coverage.)
Incredibly for a small mom-and-pop business like Birrieria Ocotlan, it’s the second time in under two years that the restaurant was recognized in the Times. It was part of the story The 26 best dishes we ate across the U.S. in 2024.
When it was published, current owner Andres Reyes — the great-grandson of patriarch Tereso Reyes — said it skyrocketed the restaurant’s business. It was especially meaningful for the younger Reyes — his father Ramon, who opened the restaurant’s first location in South Chicago in 1973, had died months earlier.
Andres Reyes had a degree in political science, but decided to continue his father’s legacy instead. There are now two locations in Chicago—the original in South Chicago, and one on the East Side, a stone’s throw from the Indiana state line.
As for that legacy: the goat, stewed for five hours, wades in that tomato-based consommé. The lightest nudge of a fork’s tines sets the meat falling apart, which you add to a tortilla, squeeze a lime wedge, add the house chile de arbol salsa, and spoon more of that flavorful consommé over top. One hundred years later, the dish remains utterly divine.
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