Dining Out Bentonville

Beyond the Menu: Chef Rios of Yeyo's on Authentic Mexican Food in Bentonville

• Visit Bentonville • Season 1 • Episode 4

Share episode

Join us for a delicious conversation in Bentonville, Arkansas, with James Beard Award finalist Chef Rios of Yeyo's. Learn about his farm-to-table approach, which uses fresh ingredients from local, family-owned farms, and discover the inspiration behind his authentic Mexican cuisine. 

We also talk about the restaurant's seasonal menu, community projects, and a special grilled cheese sandwich. 

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the Bentonville food scene and authentic Mexican flavors.

Follow us on socials!

Instagram: instagram.com/visitbentonville/

Facebook: facebook.com/VisitBentonville/

TikTok: tiktok.com/@visitbentonville

To learn more about Bentonville, Arkansas go to visitbentonville.com and sign up for our enewsletter today: visitbentonville.com/email-sign-up/

Biju:

Dining Out Bentonville. Beyond the menu, behind the flavor.

Chef Rios:

Ah, chef Rios, Chef Rios, how are you? So good to see you again, buddy, so happy to have you here. Thank you for doing this.

Biju:

Please, sir, thank you.

Chef Rios:

Have a seat in your own restaurant.

Biju:

Thanks for doing this.

Chef Rios:

Thank you, it's a pleasure, it's wonderful. This is our second time together.

Biju:

It's at least Glad you're here, thank you, hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Dining Out Bentonville, brought to you by the lovely folks at Visit Bentonville and with me your host Bijou. Today we're here with Chef Rios of Yayo's, and if you're anybody who's lived here for any length of time at all, you've been to Yayo's or you've heard of Yayo's and you've tried to get in. But they're so popular, the lines sometimes you come here there's an hour wait to get in. You must wait and get in, chef Rios. Thank you so much for doing this. We're sitting in this wonderful extension of your restaurant. The whole front of it has been remodeled.

Chef Rios:

Yeah, yes, the entire restaurant has been remodeled. We have the ability to now have this extension via an event center. We have a little stage behind us. I'm going to say this. It has the all of the elements of Mexico. Through the beat lag, oaxaca is represented through mats and the floors, barro Negro, again from Oaxaca, and clay and artifacts from different parts of and regions of Mexico. We even have some benches made with the rafter pieces of the Union Station in Missouri. Really, yeah, st Louis.

Biju:

Is that one of the benches back there?

Chef Rios:

Yes, that's one of them, so we made a bunch of benches.

Biju:

That's a huge chunk of wood.

Chef Rios:

Yeah, it requires about four people to just lift it.

Biju:

What other parts of Mexico?

Chef Rios:

Well, in reality, the food represents all of Mexico. We have Mexico City represented, we have Molinegro from Oaxaca, we la paz, we have rosarito ensenada. We have seafood on the menu. We have rabbit from the southern part of mexico in in yucatan.

Biju:

Okay, did you have seafood on the menu before? Is that new?

Chef Rios:

no, that's totally new people. People wanted seafood yeah forever.

Biju:

I think of ensenada yeah I think of that whole region, I think seafood.

Chef Rios:

So we have ceviches on the menu, we have red snapper from the coast of the Pacific coast and Acapulco Bay. So all those new menu items that are seasonal, we're going to have a summer menu and a fall menu and a winter menu, all very carefully selected to represent the different regions.

Biju:

Very regional as you go. So for folks who have not been here yet, you know this is really a special restaurant. The Rios family has farms here. How long have you had your farms?

Chef Rios:

here, the first farm was established in 2006. 2006. And then we have a second farm that was established in 2006. 2006. And then we have a second farm that was established in 2020.

Biju:

Wow, and where is this? Is it also on the east side of town?

Chef Rios:

Yes, so Little Flock Road, 24th Street, and Little Flock, arkansas, which is just miles from here, and then the other one, the other second farm, Ruiz Family Farm is located in Avoca, avoca.

Biju:

So I've been to the evoca one and it feels like you're 100 miles away, but it's a five minute drive.

Chef Rios:

Yes, correct, so we literally have my dad and my mom, uh, in-laws, family members that work the farm and they deliver the produce here every morning. Um, which is really cool. It's hard to find that around here, especially when it comes to Mexican food. Mexican restaurants phone-to-table approach.

Biju:

It's hard to do what you're doing. So, if you're starting a new restaurant, the whole idea that not only are you going to open a restaurant but you're going to have your own farm and you're going to have your own family supporting the farm, supporting the restaurant that's impossible to do unless you have generations of family here with you that have been at it for the last 20, 21 years here, which is incredible.

Chef Rios:

That's incredible. And what's most incredible, or most important, is that these same family members help us establish a brand, establish, not diluting any of the recipes. So, basically, if it's meant to be spicy, it's going to be spicy. If it requires beans, or whatever it is it requires to make sure that we can take people back to those regions of Mexico, then that's what we're gonna do.

Biju:

The food here I've had many times. Every time friends are visiting we come here, whether for brunch or in the evenings. The food here is so unlike and unexpected for any sort of Mexican restaurant in the US anywhere, but definitely for Arkansas. I think people think Arkansas, they think, oh, bentonville, arkansas, you're in the middle of nowhere, usa. How can the food be any good? But not only is the ethnic food in general really good here, but your food is unlike anything I've ever had in the country, like around the US, and I'm fortunate I get to try a lot of food. What you do here is so the flavors you get from even the very simplest of the moles that you make the really light chilies roasted and ground into it. You get that depth of flavor from very, very humble ingredients. Why are you doing that? In Arkansas People just want tacos, right.

Chef Rios:

For the most part, that's not. You know, people want everything that's tasty, that represents a country. For instance, in our case, we don't cut corners, so if it's meant to have a mulatto chili in it, we're going to go and find it and we import. We stone grind, we have equipment and tools that are made specially for us so that we can create those processes and make sure that we are presenting people with what we want, meaning a full representation of the culture in a plate. And it's not hard. We just need to make sure that we keep our roots where they need to be, and the base, you know, the foundation of the Mexican food is at home, and that's what you want to present to people?

Biju:

That's a great way to say it. Yeah, foundation of Mexican food starts at home and is at home, and that's why you want to present to people. That's a great way to say it. Yeah, foundation of Mexican food starts at home and is at home. We're fortunate to get to share that with you. If you're watching and listening, there's a lot of noise in the background, a lot of chaos. They're making 1,000 servings of food, multiple servings of different dishes, for an event tonight at Ledger, just super close to us, over here, a mile from here. A mile from here. In addition to that, you've got this restaurant. You've got your lovely restaurant in Rogers, which I also love. You've got the food truck downtown. You've got the farms and the farmer's markets. What else do you have going on? That doesn't seem like enough. You must have more going on.

Chef Rios:

Well, there's not enough. We do have a new project happening as we speak. It has to do with the manufacturing of tortillas and tortilla products. That is, we used to make those tortillas here at the restaurant, so now we're venturing out into the wholesale part, so you'll see Yeyo's tortillas in the shelves sometime soon. But most important, we are a giving family, so we have Yayos Gives Back in our website, so there's an X amount of money that goes out to single moms, art programs, music programs.

Biju:

All in the Northwest Arkansas region. Yes, that's wonderful.

Chef Rios:

Yes, and then we have partnered up with Two Friends Bookstores. Okay, it's a community bookstore that is a non-for-profit arm. We have Casa Magnolia Project. It's literally one of the historical homes in downtown Springdale.

Biju:

Yeah.

Chef Rios:

And this house hosts the bookstore, the ice cream shop, sweet Dream Creamery we craft our own ice cream. We have a coffee shop, a bakery, and in Yeo's, the Blue Demon, there's a big, beautiful truck that's called the Blue Demon. That's yours, yeah, blue Demon. Okay, yeah, so Yeo's has a presence there as well, and you know, this is more like community driven, so incentivized programs to have multilingual families come and read books. Yeah, and we have a piano that is 125 years old, fully tuned. People can go in there and play it Dungeons and Dragons Club, chess clubs, book clubs and all of that stuff.

Biju:

So the piano, the dungeon, this is all part of the truck, or it's.

Chef Rios:

It's part of the house Part of the house.

Biju:

okay, this house. Where's the house I?

Chef Rios:

didn't. This is. This house is located at 414 Holcomb Street in downtown Springdale, in downtown Springdale, so that's the latest project you can also see have reference to it as the Blue House on Holcomb.

Biju:

So I mean, there's so much land to cover on everything that you're doing. Is all this on your website, somewhere on the Yeyos website?

Chef Rios:

Yes, so Yeyos has got all the four locations in there, including the Springdale location, and Casa Magnolia is totally a different project. Okay, are again incentivizing the community with a better cost coffee at an affordable cost, ice cream at an affordable cost and we're working with our vendors to take a smaller profit margin so we can transfer this to the community and make it a little bit more affordable. Yeah, including pay what you can bookstore, so if you don't have money, you can still get book if you read. Yeah, so get some. So, yeah, that is wonderful. So for folks that have been fortunate bookstore.

Biju:

So if you don't have money, you can still get a book, you can still read. Yeah, that is wonderful. So for folks that have been fortunate to come and check out the places, obviously a lot of us started with the food truck downtown. We know the trucks, we know the burritos that are bigger than my head. They're wonderful. You sit there, you wait. It's right in the middle of downtown Bentonville. Is that what started for you? Was that the first one?

Chef Rios:

that's correct. I started this food truck, uh, in 2012, um, and that's the first one of its kind in Bentonville. Yeah, groundbreaking opportunity for us to showcase Mexican food, you know, with higher quality, and making sure that we were paying attention to the craftsmanship, how it's being prepared, the process of making the rice and having standardized recipes so that there's continuity, and stuff like that. So that's what we started in 2012. This restaurant where we are now started in 2017, and then 2019, right before COVID, we opened this restaurant in this Mezcal bar in Rogers that is a beautiful space, by the way which we then closed. Yeah, it's a beautiful place. It's like a museum of masks. Yeah, wait, did you close it?

Biju:

No, we closed.

Chef Rios:

When we opened this restaurant, we closed because of COVID Got it, got it.

Biju:

And then we reopened two years later because that's how long it took for us to get back in our feet. So the Yayo's in Rogers with the Mezcal bar, it's behind Onyx, it's right in the main drag. There you go. If you're looking at the Onyx building, just walk to the left behind it. It's beautiful. You go up some stairs. It's a gorgeous, intimate space. I love that space so much. We have so much more to talk about and we could go on for hours. But also the folks watching and listening know that every time we do this, we get to make a great grilled cheese with the chef, his interpretation of whatever a grilled cheese would be, with their ingredients, seasonal, fresh, his favorite, it doesn't matter. We get to share something that is in the format, remotely, of a grilled cheese, which also makes me think of two things.

Chef Rios:

One. I like the remotely part. That's what we're going to do today.

Biju:

You're up for another James Beard Award.

Chef Rios:

Yes.

Biju:

When is that happening?

Chef Rios:

this week, that happens on June 16th, at the Opera in Chicago. Yeah, and we have been invited. We're, for the first time in five nominations, a nominee like an actual finalist. We've been finalists but we're in the shortlist and I get to wear my bow tie and be a formal dressed attendee and hopefully we can bring that home.

Biju:

So I know most folks watching know how important and how prestigious a James Beard Award is, not only for the restaurant itself but for the whole community.

Biju:

Anybody prestigious a James Beard Award is for not only for the restaurant itself but for the whole community. Anybody getting a James Beard nod, anybody winning a James Beard Award really elevates everyone in the community and brings more eyeballs and more attention to us and more interest in the culinary scene here. And I can't imagine anybody better than you to receive it and to carry the torch. And because you're already doing so much for the community and the food here is so wonderful and so lovely and it just you know. You can tell that it comes from the heart, which then also brings me back to you know the way that you speak about standardizing recipes, standardizing menus, the way that you look when you walk Every single time I've seen you in the last couple of years you look exactly like this. You know you're like, you're always sharp on point, ready to go. There's got to be a military background in there somewhere there is, there is a military background.

Chef Rios:

I try not to bring this to work so much, because then I will militarize this place and that's scary. But there's certain things you know, like making sure that the tables are neat, making sure that people are doing the right thing, making sure that we have continuity, that we follow rules and recipes and that we don't just do things to do them and you served in the US Army.

Biju:

They have a purpose. Yes, when you were a younger man and for folks that didn't grow up in military families or strict families. When you're a kid it sucks when you're going through it, but later in life you realize it actually makes life easier. Yeah, when you have a certain set of parameters and guides for everybody, we're all working off the same notes. It makes everyone's life simpler.

Chef Rios:

It makes the whole experience better. It's a lot about teamwork and creating teams that are capable of overcoming obstacles that are commonly coming to us. So it allows you to do mentorship. It allows you to do a lot of things that normally and everyone can do this, but when you have a military background, there's this pronounced way of doing things. It has to do with like, hey, you know, don't do that because you know that's not right. You don't do that because that's not right. Or hey, come, let me teach you a thing, or let me teach you a couple of things, so that you can, let me show you a better way.

Chef Rios:

Yeah, and become good citizens. People. You know, we mentors, uh, in this industry period, um and we, I love to see success stories within my teams and that's that's really what I focus on when I think military, you know yeah, and it's a good point.

Biju:

Whether you want to or not, at some point in your life, at some age, you are mentoring people. Good or bad, you're mentoring people. Other people are looking to you for inspiration, for advice, for direction, and you know I personally, I know you do we do the best we can to be a good influence on people and it definitely shows here. Looking at the new menu, there's a lot of new items, more seasonal I saw rabbit on there, seafood which I hadn't seen before. Tell me about that Is the whole new menu. Is it regularly changing? Is it a set menu for the year? What do you think?

Chef Rios:

Yeah, it's just another step of showcasing Mexican cuisine by the regions. So very pronounced places. You know we have the, you know the peninsula, the Yucatan Peninsula. We have the Pacific, fully represented through our seafood, Acapulco Bay. So very, very, very much things that remind me of something that I had in the past, that kind of stuck with me and I said, man, this, everyone should know this and have this. So the idea behind the seasonal menu is not only to offer the staples that people like and know, but also enrich people and the bounty that Mexico has in terms of food. Mexico is a big country.

Chef Rios:

Yeah, and it's one of the big countries in the world that has for history With massive culinary history and the ingredients and everything changes so much.

Chef Rios:

And I want to showcase this to people. There's more than tacos, there's more than carnitas, there's more than al pastor tacos, which are staples. I mean, no one can live without those anymore, you know. But I think there's so much more for people to see and know. Yeah, so, um, the processes, the ingredients. You know. Rabbit is on the menu. We eat it in mexico. We eat feta cheese in mexico. We come feed in mexico. We do all this great stuff.

Biju:

Uh wait, you eat feta cheese yeah, like like goat cheese, goat cheese, yeah, and you do a dry aging on it, so it's kind of rumbly.

Chef Rios:

Yes, yeah, so all of those things. It's like we do have cotija, you know, the Romano cheese version of you know, or Parmesan cheese. Asadero is from the northern part in Chihuahua, the northern part of Mexico, from Zacatecas to the borderlines. But we have all of those things and people need to know that. Yeah.

Biju:

And what better place to experience it than here? That being said, I think it's time for us to go in the kitchen and make it real cheese. Let's go. Let's go and see what we can do.

Chef Rios:

I love this. I'm going to show you how to do a grilled cheese sandwich. The real grilled cheese sandwich. Oh, the real grilled cheese From Mexico. So, rather than using the traditional, you know, sourdough or something like that, we're going to use the Toledo bread, which is very much a French bread. It will have a little bit of the crust on the top, nice, and it's kind of hard, but it's gonna get really beautifully done here. So we're gonna start with a little bit of butter, nice, we like this already and we're gonna place it face down first. We're gonna be using a different kind of cheeses. Normally you would use Gruyere cheese or something like that, but we don't carry that here, so I'm going to make it with what we have. Okay, a little bit of Monterey Jack, some sharp cheddar, a little bit of sautéed vegetables, grilled onions, tomatoes, and then a version of the tartar sauce from Baja California.

Biju:

Okay, I'm going to stay out of the way so you can do this. Yeah, my hands are out of the tartar sauce from Baja California. Okay, I'm gonna stay out of the way so you can do this. Yeah, my hands are out of the way. Yes, that looks incredible.

Chef Rios:

Yes, I wanna eat this cheese. It's gonna be super refreshing, sharp. The cheese is gonna be a little bit on the sharp side, almost pungent. It'll take a little bit of time to get this done. Okay, I love it. I have a. It'll take a little bit of time to get this done okay.

Biju:

I love it. I have a feeling, whatever happens here, it's going to be good.

Chef Rios:

Well, we're going to use a little bit of the vegetables again.

Biju:

Nice, nice.

Chef Rios:

We could use this with pork chook, which is our grilled pork, and it could be an al pastor seasoning, it could be carnitas, more like on the side of the cubano, you know, oh, yeah, yeah. So we can make it in so many different ways, but for this occasion we're gonna make it with, just like, the blistered tomatoes, caramelized onions, the sauce, ah.

Biju:

Yeah, okay, I love this very much. I know you're going out for a James Beard Award. How many times have you been nominated?

Chef Rios:

This is my fifth nomination and the very first time ever that I'm actually making as the nominee. Okay, got it, got it so finalist. Fifth time as a finalist, one time this year as the nominee, and you were Along with Chef Cooper and Wright Wright.

Biju:

Wright's Barbecue. Yeah, wright's Barbecue. So you were definitely one of the first, if not the first, chef in the state of Arkansas many years ago to get nominated or to get a nod from James Beard.

Chef Rios:

Yes, this shows consistency, basically. So we were the first chefs, the first chef in the state of Arkansas, along with Matt McClure I don't know if you recall, matt McClure is now in Vermont, I believe. Oh, nice, if I recall, hi chef, hey Matt, he's doing great things. He's actually one of the Iron Chef or one of those big shows. So just say thank you for all his mentorship, because he was one of the first ambassadors of the culinary scene here as well, along with Mike Robbershaw and Matt Cooper. Oh, wow.

Biju:

So it's pretty cool to think that going from having one chef from the entire state years ago to having three chefs from right here getting nominated this year from James Beard, that's pretty special. Let's see how a whole, a whole community and the whole you know community of chefs and restaurants has really come up a long way in the last few years.

Chef Rios:

I agree. Well, it shows again. It shows consistency. It shows that we're doing something right here in Northwest Arkansas and talent is coming in. It's pouring in from all parts of the world. So I believe that there's a lot of talent here in the Northwest Arkansas region and more and more coming every day.

Biju:

So we need more of you coming this way so you can work with fine gentlemen like this, you know, and help us yes, help us continue to grow. All right, I'm going to be really quiet and really still, what do you?

Chef Rios:

got. So we got the crema sauce. It has some capers, it has tarragon, oh man. It has more caramelized onions and some peppers.

Biju:

So it's like a really extra tartar sauce. Yes, it's a. Yes, I like it Touches happening.

Chef Rios:

Yeah, nice and very good cheese. And I put this right on top Beautiful. Yeah, it has an extra sharp cheddar. We're gonna put some extra in there because I love it so much. And then we finalize with a little bit of Monterey and cheddar, just regular cheddar. Put this in here.

Biju:

What are the chances this is gonna make the menu at some point, maybe a special menu, maybe a brunch special.

Chef Rios:

I think this is good for when, after a bike ride, like you normally do, and then just a snack, great, wonderful, and we can make different versions. Like I said, we got some chicken, we can do chicken, we can do pork, we can do alfalfa.

Biju:

You got shrimp, you got lobster, you got all kinds of stuff.

Chef Rios:

Yeah, but this is more like family meals. We normally do this for like family meals, and we actually have a italian day. We have a chinese day.

Biju:

Yeah, we make chinese food near daniels for for our employees, the staff for the family meals, and if you, if you, if you've never worked at a restaurant, the family meal is usually the best meal happening, but you can only get it if you work in the kitchen.

Chef Rios:

So we're gonna turn the temperature down just a bit so it becomes crispy and beautiful. We don't want it to smoke too much. Look at this, hey Chef. All right, ready, we're gonna get this out. Nice grill marks on there.

Biju:

Nice grill marks.

Chef Rios:

Nice and crispy, look at that Feel that I'm gonna share this.

Biju:

This Beautiful All right Lots of cheese. I did not touch yours by the way oh that's good Chef. Thank you, buddy Cheers. This is beautiful Look at this Enjoy. Huh, mmm, nice and crispy yeah.

Chef Rios:

That bread is crunchier than it is crisp.

Biju:

It's a. The texture is really good and the good thing about Toledo bread it's versatile.

Chef Rios:

You can make tortas out of this. Yeah, you can make grilled cheese sandwiches like this, because the nice thing about Toledo bread, it's versatile. You can make tortas out of this. You can make grilled cheese sandwiches like this.

Biju:

Because it's nice and dense but it's crunchy without being hard.

Chef Rios:

Yes, oh man, that's good. So you will hear the crunch in every bite, but it's not hard.

Biju:

That's what makes tortas so special too. You get every bite, you get a little, and the onions are nice and sweet, the cheese has a little bit of heat, or the blend it's beautiful. Well, thank you, chef. One more time, thank you, thank you. Come to Yayo's. Say hi to this guy.