“Day of the Dead” at the Mesquite Mexican Grill in Brighton

Posted by [email protected] | Jan 24, 2020 | Cultural Life | 0 |

Last February, during the opening week of Mesquite Mexican Grill in the Topp’s Plaza in Brighton, I visited for a delicious meal of authentic Mexican cuisine. Not only were my taste buds satisfied. My eyes were also dazzled by wall-by-wall and table-by-table images of traditional Mexican cultural life.

Today, I was back. But something seemed different. Mesquite’s manager Diana explained a unique feature of the restaurant. The montage — the paintings all made in Mexico — are changed based upon the Mexican holidays, such as Cinco de Mayo.

Mesquite Mexican Grill 1900 Clinton Ave, Topp’s Plaza in Brighton [Photos by David Kramer, 1/24/20]

Beginning in November, the latest montage represents the Day of the Dead (Día de Muertos), a multi-day holiday where family and friends gather to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died, supporting them in their ongoing spiritual journey.

The Mesquite Mexican Grill is a wonderful addition to Topp’s Plaza, whether for the connoisseur or the casual fan of La comida mexicana. Moreover, it’s like an art gallery with new exhibits appearing as the seasons change.

(left) Waiter Josh Denise (right) David Kramer next to metallic frog playing the banjo [Photo: Josh Denise]

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About The Author

[email protected]

Welcome to Talker of the Town! My name is David Kramer. I have a Ph.D in English and teach at Keuka College. I am a former and still active Fellow at the Nazareth College Center for Public History and a Storyteller in Residence at the SmallMatters Institute. Over the years, I have taught at Monroe Community College, the Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher College. I have published numerous Guest Essays, Letters, Book Reviews and Opinion pieces in The New York Times, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Buffalo News, the Rochester Patriot, the Providence Journal, the Providence Business News, the Brown Alumni Magazine, the New London Day, the Boston Herald, the Messenger Post Newspapers, the Wedge, the Empty Closet, the CITY, Lake Affect Magazine and Brighton Connections. My poetry appears in The Criterion: An International Journal in English and Rundenalia and my academic writing in War, Literature and the Arts and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Starting in February 2013, I wrote for three Democratic and Chronicle blogs, "Make City Schools Better," "Unite Rochester," and the "Editorial Board." When my tenure at the D & C ended, I wanted to continue conversations first begun there. And start new ones. So we created this new space, Talker of the Town, where all are invited to join. I don’t like to say these posts are “mine.” Very few of them are the sole product of my sometimes overheated imagination. Instead, I call them partnerships and collaborations. Or as they say in education, “peer group work.” Talker of the Town might better be Talkers of the Town. The blog won’t thrive without your leads, text, pictures, ideas, facebook shares, tweets, comments and criticisms.