DJ Flores, a native Las Vegan, has been cooking in kitchens since he was 16 years old. He worked his way up the ranks, learning from the best on the Strip: José Andrés, Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, Wolfgang Puck and Bobby Flay. Flores was at Chica when the pandemic hit, and, like a lot of his food-industry peers, he found himself without a job.
Flores used it as motivation to pursue his dream of running his own restaurant. “I gathered a lot of people that were unemployed, especially my family and friends, and I was like, ‘Let’s do something together.’ Luckily they were on board; they saw my vision.”
The result is Milpa, a modest eatery in the southwest Valley offering a fresh, healthy take on Mexican cuisine. When Flores visited Mexico City, he was inspired by the small cafés offering good salads, homemade tortillas, breakfast items and a coffee program. His menu at Milpa consists of bowls, salads, build-your-own tacos and sides.
The foundation of it all is the in-house stone-ground masa program. Flores brings in corn from Mexico and grinds it using a molino. “We cook it and grind it here, so you get these wonderful colors—blue and shades of red and yellow—of fresh corn tortillas every day.”
The tortillas are a wonderful accompaniment to the compact menu. The build-your-own tacos ($9-$13) come with four pieces, more than enough to house the proteins (chicken, short rib barbacoa) and accompaniments (cabbage, pickled onions, radishes, cilantro and lime). There’s also a vegetarian cauliflower tinga.
Come for breakfast and try a tetela ($9.25), a triangle masa pocket. The black bean version combines scrambled eggs, cheese, avocado, jalapeño and salsa verde, while the mushroom and squash option brings a sunny-
side up egg, roasted cauliflower, shemeji mushrooms and salsa macha. And don’t forget to take home some tortillas, available in fours ($2.50) or by the dozen ($7).
MILPA 4226 S. Durango Drive, 702-247-4147. Monday-Saturday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sunday, 8 a.m.-3 p.m.
