Introducing Ursa: Fine desert-themed dining comes to the Imperial Valley
EL CENTRO – Diners came out in dozens to sample the finest regional cuisine the desert can offer, indoors yet still under the hidden stars of the constellations Ursa.
“It’s really savory and then sweet...it’s almost like candy,” Ocotillo resident and artist, Mark Silva, said of the specialized squash, acorn, desert willow and sage appetizer, the first of a six-course meal. “It’s crunchy on the outside but still soft in the middle,” El Centro resident, Gloria Pritchard, said.
As the table of six patrons sampled the modern culinary creations of local Chef Aaron Lopez and the Ursa restaurant team, the conversation kept flowing as much as their accompanying locally brewed beverages
Before each course at the budding restaurant, Chef Lopez gave patrons short, spoken presentations about his desert-themed culinary creations before they dug in with forks and wooden spoons.
“I kind of see what he means, like ... with the herbs and stuff,” Brawley resident and musician, Obanaru “Slim” Ratliff, said. “It almost feels like chewing the desert or something.” “Stuff that you walk by while you’re hiking out in the desert,” Silva added.
“Imagine our ancestors...,” El Centro resident and tattoo artist, Erik Landeros, said. “They were probably like, ‘Ok, enough people died trying to figure out which ones you can eat.’” “Shout out to them,” Pritchard said, making some of the patrons chuckle.
This was the scene throughout the night as Chef Aaron and wife June Lopez’s desert-inspired dream continues to come to fruition as their Ursa restaurant completed its sixth Pop-Up Dinners, spanning from October 2023 to Saturday, January 28, 2024 in El Centro.
Ursa is a restaurant of the Lopez’s creation, fusing modern dining with “forged ingredients from the native American deserts … showing what monsoon, pre-colonial and local crops are capable of doing,” Chef and co-owner Aaron Lopez told IVP in an interview.
Aaron Lopez said Ursa is not a hyper-local restaurant but a “regional restaurant,” in that its desert ingredients come from four deserts which make up the Southwest: the Grand Basin, Mohave, Chihuahua and Sonora.
Lopez – who grew up in Calexico before studying the culinary arts in Los Angeles’ La Cordon Bleu and moved to Honolulu, Hawaii and Austin, Texas before settling back in the Valley – said “we wanted to open a restaurant that advocated for the Southwest deserts.”
“Right now what is happening [in the modern culinary world] is a lot of people are advocating where they’re from,” Lopez told the diners.
“They’re pulling a lot of the grassroots right now and no one’s really stood up for the desert in a very modern and progressive way,” Lopez said, “and I think the reason behind that is, as humans, we naturally gravitate to the color green because it equals life, and we don’t have too much of that (green) here
(in the desert).”
Aaron Lopez said as he continued to study the culinary arts, meeting his wife June (now-co-owner of Ursa restaurant) along the way, the couple made a month-long desert road trip from Austin through the deserts of the Southwest via New Mexico, Imperial Valley and ending at Joshua Tree National Park.
“We were out camping under the stars and saw Ursa Major and Ursa Minor and we were just like, ‘ That’s what we should name our restaurant,’” June Lopez said in an interview.
“We went up into caves and down into dunes and just saw so many different things in that time,” she said. “We just got so much inspiration from being in the desert. That all just happened this past summer.”
“So from that came the question: How do we manipulate that and still make it feel organic in transporting people to the desert?” Aaron Lopez said, “and through that became research in “seed savers, monsoon crop developers, pre-colonial diets, how and what to forage and what not to forage. It was just so eye opening to experience that.”
“We came back here (to the Imperial Valley) and he’s just continued to progress as he’s meeting more local purveyors and local farmers,” June Lopez said.
“I think on a personal level I never really felt attracted to lush, green areas and I think what it was is it was in my DNA being from the desert,” Aaron Lopez said, “so that’s kind of how it started, the conversation of: What does the desert look like on a plate?”
“For us it was taking a modern approach and substituting ancient techniques ... it’s limitless what you can pull from,” the chef said, “... and what we’re doing is plugging in our ingredients (from the desert), and that’s what really makes Ursa.”
“The desert is very adaptable ... and that’s what we want our food to be about: adapting to other techniques, adapting throughout time,” he said.
As the courses continued to brought out by the polite wait staff, the chef’s creations of Nopal Ceviche (with wolfberries, purslane and prickly pear cactus), Tepary Bean Porridge (with carob, saltbush and chia), smokey yet sweet Agave bites precariously positioned atop a piece of palm (including bee pollen), and the final courses of marshmallow-crème topped short rib with variations of corn, and a desert dessert custard made entirely from the mesquite tree.
“A lot of the things we’re using aren’t a secret – they’re used as decorations, shrubs, all sorts of things,” Chef Lopez said. “By pulling from all these different parts of the desert, if you look in terms of altitudes, it kind of makes the sandbox that we’re playing in a lot larger.”
“And so I want people to see they can do much more than what they thought it could do,” he said. “All of them are extremely sustainable and have been in alive long before any of us have been around.”
“Aaron’s background is modern dining and he’s work on pastry a lot, and I think because of the ingredients and produce that’s found in the desert it’s not this obvious thing,” June Lopez said, “so I think his cooking style and the ingredients found in the desert really complement each other because you kind of have to look a bit deeper.”
“His techniques of fermenting, preserving and layering of flavors works really well with this concept,” she said.
While the Ursa “Major” location, located at 612 W. Main Street in El Centro, is still in the process of opening, the Lopez owners said the next door location (at the same address) – known as “Ursa Minor” – will be open while the main location is still getting situated.
Aaron Lopez said the Ursa Minor location, which will also be a fine, modern dining style, will feature Japanese-type “small bite” portions but still desert-themed cuisine throughout, including beer and wine.
Ursa “Major” will fully open in late spring/early summer this year, June Lopez said.
Regardless of which side of the dividing wall patrons dine on, Chef Lopez said he wants locals to walk out of their Ursa dining experience feeling a sense of ownership over the restaurant as its ‘our desert.’
“This is place that we want to build for the community and we want to be a pillar into the community,” Aaron Lopez said.
“You have to be hard growing up here, it’s not easy: its 120 degrees, everything is on offense – even plants fight back,” Lopez said. “There’s this toughness you need here and I think we all share in that somewhat-struggle and celebration.”
“We want people to know that all of this is for them, so just kind of stay tuned,” he said.
The desert-themed, delightfully delectable and delicate culinary art creations continued to hit well with Ursa’s patrons throughout the final Pop-Up Dinner night on January 27.
“I’ve never had custard I’ve liked until now,” Ratliff said. “I really liked it.”
“That better be on the final menu,” Silva said a few times throughout the night after his favorite menu items.
“I’m just so happy that there’s going to be a place like this,” he said.
“I just want to take off my shoes and walk through the desert,” Landeros said.
Ursa can be reached on their social media page, @ursa_desert on Instagram.