Three Generations of Mexican Magic in Calgary

Mexican food in Calgary, Alberta? That’s exactly what caught Guy Fieri off guard when he rolled into the Bowness neighborhood to visit Salt and Pepper. “Mexican in Canada, are you kidding me?” he remarked before discovering what regulars already knew — this family-run spot has been delivering authentic flavors since 1988.

The operation is a grandfather-father-son trifecta: Sylvio, Alex, and Alex. Sylvio Solano brought recipes from his homeland of Oaxaca, and three generations later, they’re still cooking traditional dishes from all over Mexico. As one of the cooks put it, “To me is the most authentic Mexican food — the flavors are unmatched.”

The Real-Deal Green Chilaquiles

The star dish Guy dove into was the green chilaquiles, described by a regular as “like a corn chips casserole with some melted cheese” — though that undersells the complexity. The kitchen starts with a mirepoix, then builds the Chile Verde sauce with tomato sauce, cayenne, oregano, salt and pepper, garlic, chili powder, cumin, and cilantro. Chicken thighs and breast cook right in the sauce for 25 minutes, shredding apart naturally. They use a wooden spoon specifically because metal would cut up the chicken too soon.

The salsa verde gets its brightness from grilled onions, garlic, and jalapeño blended with a generous amount of cilantro and tomatillos that have been both grilled and boiled. All those cooking juices go right into the blend.

Here’s where it gets interesting: they make their own fresh cheese by heating milk to 100 degrees, adding lime juice and vinegar, letting it curdle, then squeezing out the liquid and adding salt. The tortilla chips get tossed directly into the warm salsa — “this is when the magic happens,” Alex explained — until they soften just right. It’s topped with mozzarella and finished under the salamander, served with beans, rice, crema, pickled onions, and that fresh queso. One crispy chip gets planted on top for contrast.

Guy’s verdict? “This is great. You get a lot of great tang, a lot of acid, the tender chicken — excellent.”

The Combination Platter: A Tour of Tradition

The combination plate showcased even more technique. The carnitas starts with pork shoulder rubbed with black pepper, oregano, cumin, garlic powder, canela (cinnamon), cloves, onion, garlic, orange and lime juice, cola, lard, and salt. It brazes for three hours, then the meat comes off the bone, gets shredded, and gets hit with some of those marinade juices.

The mole for the chicken enchilada is its own project: molet paste, cocoa powder, sugar, tomato water, paprika, garlic powder, canela, black pepper, Mexican chili powder, ground cloves, cayenne, cumin, bay leaf, chicken base, and salt — cooked down for three hours. Similar to the layered flavors you might find in dishes like Chicken Mofongo Relleno and Alcapurrias, this mole is a labor of love.

The chile relleno gets a unique treatment: poblano peppers are blistered by deep frying, then stuffed with mozzarella, dipped in flour and meringue, and finished pancake-style on the flat top. The meringue actually keeps its puffiness while cooking.

“You get the citrus and you get the clove and you get all that garlic and the onion, everything coming together,” Guy said of the carnitas. “Tons of tradition inside of this combination.”

Why the Name?

One detail that made Guy laugh: the restaurant kept its name from the previous owners. Why? “They didn’t have money to change it,” Sylvio admitted. Thirty-plus years later, Salt and Pepper is still serving up Oaxacan tradition — proof that it’s what’s on the plate that matters, not what’s on the sign.

Find Salt and Pepper and other Triple D favorites in our restaurant directory.