GUT PUNCH
San Antonio's acclaimed Carnitas Lonja and sister joint shockingly shut down
Carnitas Lonja will close after December 31.
Following this week, the San Antonio restaurant scene will be irrevocably changed. Less than 48 hours after acclaimed Filipino concept Sari Sari Supper Club announced it was shuttering, a harbinger of San Antonio's recent culinary renaissance is also throwing in the towel.
In a social media statement, Carnitas Lonja chef and owner Alex Paredes announced that his universally lauded restaurant would close on December 31. Fish Lonja, the seafood-focused offshoot of the main brand, is also calling it a day. Paredes declined to explain the reasoning behind the decision.
Carnitas Lonja opened in 2017, entirely devoting its business to its signature Michoacán dish. The humble South Side restaurant — composed of a tiny kitchen and an outdoor courtyard — was almost immediately greeted with stratospheric success.
In July 2018, Eater named the restaurant to its Best New Restaurants in America list, followed quickly by Esquire's same-titled index. The James Beard Foundation caught on in 2020, nominating Paredes for the Best Chef: Texas award.
Paredes followed up on that success with Fish Lonja in 2019. Opening on the same lot as his previous venture. The coastal Mexican concept garnered its own chorus of raves, avoiding a sophomore slump. In 2021, the New York Times named it one of its 50 favorite restaurants of the year.
The sibling concepts' closures come as a shock. Though the restaurant gave up its original space in June to make room for new tenant Lovers Pizzeria, it quickly reopened next door in a larger space.
Whether relocation costs contributed to the closure is unclear. This year's scorching summer was particularly brutal to area eateries — a climate that was surely acutely felt by the mostly outdoor restaurant.
But with dozens of franchises gobbling real estate, the Lonja family's loss serves as a reminder that the local culinary ecosystem is fragile. To truly earn its distinction of being a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy, San Antonio has to do better.
