Eat It, Virginia!

Chef Danny Mena and Beverage Director Lauren Spain recently opened Big Kitchen Hospitality's newest restaurant Conejo in Richmond, Virginia. For Mena, a native of Mexico City, Conejo is a chance for him to show off a side of his hometown he finds under-represented at many Mexican restaurants in the U.S. "Mexico City is very cosmopolitan. It's not the typical idea that a lot of people have of Mexican food. It's a big city with a lot going on. And that's my influence," he said. "I'm a city boy, born and raised. And so that's what we're trying to bring [here], a modern take on traditional food." Mena cooked in some big-name New York City restaurants and opened two of his own (Hecho en Dumbo and La Loncheria) before he was tapped to lead the Conejo kitchen. And in that kitchen, Mena said he and his team lean on quality ingredients. "The quality of meat that we use, the quality of ingredients that we do is far superior [to many other Mexican restaurants]," he said. "We luckily have the time, the effort, the k