Cocina Chiwas

Hernandez only knew he wanted to create a restaurant that reflected his experience as a person who felt deeply Mexican and deeply American at the same time, in a space that reflected his assimilation. He spent his early childhood in Chihuahua, Mexico — where people from Chihuahua are called chihuas or, phonetically, “chiwas” — before moving to Phoenix with his family when he was 8.
He knew he wanted to make food that was unique but familiar, modern yet traditional — regional Mexican with a bit of Arizona in it.

Cocina Chiwas is the classy but comfortable embodiment of that long-held dream. The menu reflects hearty, meat-centric Chihuahuan cooking in dozens of subtle ways. There are heirloom blue corn empanadas stuffed with beef cheek barbacoa; wood-fired quesadillas filled with beef birria and melting Chihuahuan cheeses; grilled octopus set in a burnished, mole-like pipian sauce; and Ibérico pork spareribs smothered in chile colorado.

Of course, none of this would be remotely possible without Hernandez’s talented chef and wife, Nadia Holguin, a culinary school graduate whose previous work at high-end restaurants is obvious here. Her elegant plates, sometimes strewn with flowers, reflect a modern sensibility. The couple, who buy local, also import
600 pounds of dehydrated chiles from Chihuahua every six months. They straddle both worlds. 

Hernandez met Holguin in 2012. As they talked that first night, he shared his dream. Coincidentally, she was also from Chihuahua and, because her family had been in the restaurant business, envisioned owning her own restaurant. 

They joked about opening one together, but it was no joke when they married a year or so later, then scrimped and saved to open their first restaurant, Tacos Chiwas, in 2016. They were sprouts — “blissfully ignorant to the realities of the restaurant world,” Hernandez says with a laugh — but their tiny taco shop was a hit.  

Since those early days, they’ve opened two more Tacos Chiwas locations and partnered with their friend Roberto Centeno at Espiritu in Mesa and Santo Arcadia in Phoenix. They’re building a local empire and reinvigorating the Mexican restaurant scene in the process. 

USA Today recently named Cocina Chiwas one of the best new restaurants of 2024. But if these super-talented chihuas never do another blessed thing, they’ve accomplished something remarkable: creating a wonderful restaurant that reflects exactly who they are.