Behind the Dominos, next to the city DMV, is a hidden gem on West Market Street. Next to Lupita’s Hispanic & American Grocer is a black-owned salon and a halal meat restaurant. Both of these places are tucked in a corner and often driven past while on your way to purchase high priced goods from a name brand store that is out of a college students price range.
When you enter Lupitas, you’ll be greeted by dried flowers and crosses along with the sweet smell of fresh fruit. This is the first thing you may notice in the shop–the rows of fresh fruit like papaya, mango, apples, oranges, pineapple and even tamarind pods. Those tamarind pods can be eaten as a snack or blended into a mixture to make candy. Its flavor is fruity, and when blended with sugar has a fruit punch- like taste. They also have rows of fresh vegetables, and when you go through them, you’ll notice it’s hard to find anything rotten, as in many well-known grocery stores.
While you weave your way through, you’ll find yourself in front of a tiny section of baked goods called “pan dulce.” All of these are baked in the shop and each has a special flavor. Their variety stretches from strawberry conchas and jam-filled “pan dulce” with a sprinkle of coconut to fresh churros being kept warm in their own machine.
You’ll also find an aisle filled with Mexican candies and snacks. Here you’ll find tamarind candies, lollipops, chicharrones, chips and marzipan. Sometimes you’ll find students searching for some snacks late at night or mothers searching for party goodies.
If you leave the aisles of snacks and walk to the very back of the store you’ll find a butcher shop with various types and cuts of meat– all of which are used in the small restaurant that is also located in the building, it’s called Lupita’s Restaurant.
Lupita’s Restaurant is known for having good tacos, but if you were to go before 10:30 AM, you would never know it was there. In the morning, while mothers are doing their early morning grocery shopping, the door to the restaurant is closed, and any passerby would assume it was storage space. But by 11 a.m., the restaurant is up and running with bright colors.
In general, this store has lots of little goods that will make you smile. A plastic sugar skull jar will tempt you to spend $5 and small hand-painted bowls and jars catch the eyes with bright colors and intricate patterns. One small section contains basic hygiene items and another section contains some gardening supplies.
A student who recently graduated from ISU describes his experience as a frequent customer at Lupita’s. “I passed by Lupita’s by chance, but when I went in and looked around, I felt at home.” This graduate student was raised in a Mexican household, so when he saw the catholic crosses and dried flowers, he immediately felt like he was in the right place. “I love the churros and they have the pelones that remind me of when I was a kid. And being a broke college student, I always went for a cheap meal at Lupita’s. It was the best option for me financially and the food made it the easy choice,” he said.