Conveniently located in the middle of the hustle and bustle on Hillsborough Street directly across from North Campus buildings, a flashing new establishment has appeared, lighting up the sidewalk outside of it and playing the latest sounds of reggaeton music for people passing by.
Students won’t be able to miss Coco Bongo, a new Mexican restaurant that opened in late June of this year. At the very least, students should have noticed that the empty space created by the closing of La Rancherita — the previous Mexican restaurant on Hillsborough — last year has been filled.
The name that upheld Mexican cuisine on the north side of campus was gone, and students were forced to take to other places around the city to find Mexican close to campus and also to their liking.
Now a booming business with extravagant decorations, like a life-size skeleton famously known in Mexico as La Catrina and stickers on its windows that tell onlookers to come try their horchata and tamarind juice, students are visibly enjoying the new successor to the previous Mexican restaurant of Hillsborough Street.
Hailing from the Mexican state of Guadalajara, the birthing place of tequila and exquisite Mexican dishes, Coco Bongo manager and proprietor Luis Ramirez was eager to let NC State students know further about his restaurant.
“I ran a Mexican restaurant in Virginia in a college town, so I’m familiar with serving and catering to the university crowd,” Ramirez said. “I know that La Rancherita used to be here, and though we have a similarity in our plates, we still have a new and different approach that we’re trying to do.”
The restaurant boasts a full menu of known Mexican and Tex-Mex dishes like taco salads, enchiladas, chimichangas, burritos, steak and seafood. As expected, the menu offers many variations of tacos.
“In wanting to do something different, we wanted to be the first restaurant in Raleigh with this name and this theme,” Ramirez said. “We’re doing tropical decorations, antique-style furniture and traditional modern Mexican decorations. Some of them are NC State decorations too, to support the Wolfpack team.”
Along with a smorgasbord of entrees, appetizers and sides is a dessert menu serving delicious Mexican and Latin-American classics, such as churros, flan, sopapillas (a fried pastry) and chimi cheesecake, which is cheesecake wrapped in fried tortilla.
Ramirez spoke about Coco Bongo’s status as one of the only Latino restaurants close to campus:
“I feel ‘contento’; I feel happy about it,” Ramirez said. “I am proud to be part of something for students, and offer them a good time, good music, good food and good drinks.”
The drink menu specializes in margaritas, and advertises daily drink specials on the sidewalk for students to consider including in their plans while out on weekends.
“I really like that they have $4 margaritas, and that it’s right around my house,” said Blythe Carter, a graduate student studying civil engineering.
Wes Nelson, a graduate student studying math, said he enjoyed the restaurant’s vegetarian menu, as well as the complementary chips and salsa served alongside the food. A third student shared a different stance on Coco Bongo’s new tenure on Hillsborough Street as its Latino figurehead.
“In my opinion, you have to go to a different area in Raleigh to get authentic Mexican food,” said Jonatan Zaga-Viveros, a second-year studying natural resources. “The food and presentation were good, though, I just would prefer going somewhere else. I like the horchata.”
Coco Bongo offers specials on NC State football game days and plans to get involved further with the student body in different ways like offering profit shares for NC State Latinx student organizations in the future. All in all, Coco Bongo will be sure to keep students satisfied and entertained as a Mexican restaurant with its diverse menu, decorations, sound and tropical vibe.
