‘I never imagined it’: Tlaolli on national TV
Mexican eatery on Food Network’s ‘Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives’
Carlos Hutchinson never believed his restaurant would appear on national TV — not even when Food Network reps called him to say they were considering exactly that.
“I thought it was a scam,” said Hutchinson, who has operated Mexican eatery Tlaolli in the Near Eastside since 2013.
But months after the call, Hutchinson welcomed celebrity chef Guy Fieri into his kitchen to shoot a segment for season 40 of Fieri’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” A self-proclaimed Food Network fanatic who has long admired Fieri and his contemporaries, Hutchinson is the latest Indianapolis chef to visit the ethereal haven for all things delicious that Fieri calls “Flavortown.”
Before Hutchinson shared his distinct take on Mexican cuisine with a global audience on screen, I talked to the restaurateur and sampled his food to find out what sets Tlaolli apart.
What did Guy Fieri eat at Tlaolli for ‘Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives?’
While Fieri has sampled seemingly everything edible that fits in a corn tortilla or tamale in nearly two decades of “Triple D,” new finds still awaited him in Tlaolli’s carnation-pink dining room. The dishes chosen for the episode were Tlaolli’s vegan birria tacos and cranberry salsa-topped turkey tamales.
Neither menu item is quite what Hutchinson grew up eating in Monterrey, Mexico, where he learned to cook at his mother’s side. His earliest loves were mole (a variety of Mexican sauces) and calabacitas con puerco (a stew of pork and Mexican squash).
In 2005, Hutchinson, his wife and three daughters moved to Indianapolis. His daughter Carla began