11:52 a.m. on a Sunday at La Michoacana in Richardson.
Welcome to Snapshot, a new feature here on Central Track that aims to slow things down a bit by taking the time to appreciate and examine the overlooked slices of life that occur all around us. Through exploring an intersection, watching a neighborhood, observing a moment or taking a peek behind an oft-forgotten corner, this photo series aims to capture the sights and sounds of Dallas and the surrounding areas — things that most people might zip right past without a second glance. Here, we demand a deeper look.
11:52 p.m. on a Sunday at La Michoacana in Richardson. Just behind the Studio Movie Grill at Spring Valley and 75 sits a strip that many endearingly refer to as Mexico City. Fiesta Marts and taquerias are among the retailers that operate here. But one of these businesses — La Michoacana — has been around for two whole decades at this point.
Over that time, the areas surrounding this meat market have certainly changed. New apartment complexes have been built. Older ones have aged. There are loiterers aplenty, but most people are on the move. One constant is the children who jaywalk across the street to the grocery store for a snack. It's busy strip. But, even so, faces have a way of becoming familiar fast here — even the ones that zip past quick.
Sundays are just about the only time when things slow down into some order. That's when you'll find a steady stream of customers heading into La Michoacana. Here, you'll see more than a few mothers picking up their family dinners on the way to the 1 p.m. mass at the nearby Catholic church. Another contingent is just grabbing something small to eat from the counter — something to pass the time until that dinner, perhaps.
Sitting at school cafeteria-like tables, they eat freshly butchered and cut meats — sometimes as plates, sometimes as tacos. They seem not to care that Richardson on the whole is changing or that chic restaurants such as TEN Ramen and CibiDivino are earning rave reviews just a few blocks away. Here, the lines may be long, but the waits are not.
There's comfort in knowing that. And, at La Michoacana, you know what you're going to get.