La Rondalla: Mexican food, margarita deals and mariachi music

In early May, the children of founders Carlos and Esperanza Barrios finally resurrected La Rondalla, and in much the same guise: families in the early evening, drinkers with an appetite for warm chips and melted cheese later in the night.

The newly remodeled restaurant's wood paneling, Christmas-light constellations and 24-hour twilight have been exorcised by peach-colored walls and flat-screen televisions.

To watch a 22-year-old with two-tone hair jump onto her stool to double down on her argument, flailing arms just missing her margarita, is to realize that La Rondalla's old spirit is being transmitted to the next generation.

The food is centered on the Mexican American food of your Midwestern grandmother's generation, though you'll find at least one big bowl of caldo de camaron or, on Thursdays, posole at the Spanish-speaking tables that tend to appear earlier in the evening.