La Mision and Pico De Gallo: Two Restaurants Share A Pair Of Chefs And An Inspired Menu

Chefs Moises Ortiz and Carlos Josue Gomez are bringing a unique blend of their Mexican and Guatemalan roots to the menu at their two Columbia County restaurants. La Mision, at the corner of the 7th Street Park in Hudson, and Pico De Gallo, overlooking the Hudson River in Stuyvesant, offer very different settings but the same emphasis on building authentic flavor by hand.

“I wanted to make something special,” Ortiz said. “The first thing to me is flavor. It’s very important to me to make everything from scratch. When you do that the flavor and the consistency are very different.”

Pico has been open in Stuyvesant since 2018, and while La Mision was in the works before then it didn’t open until 2020, right in the midst of pandemic lockdown. Despite COVID setbacks, both restaurants have quietly built an avid fan base that’s kept them busy, even in remote Stuyvesant, and in Hudson, where dining options are more plentiful than ever.

Tacos at La Mision

In 1997, both Ortiz and Gomez came to America. They met in New York City that year and have been cooking together so long their styles and flavors have become one in each dish. They worked in many fine-dining kitchens in the city over the next decade, including Windows on the World, coming up to visit friends in Stuyvesant almost every weekend. In 2008 they moved upstate full time and Ortiz worked at Mexican Radio in Hudson before they ran the kitchen at Destino’s in Chatham together.

“At Destinos they let us do what we wanted and it was popular. We learned a lot from them, too,” said Gomez. “They let us play and bring our backgrounds to it.”

Both men come from historically colonial cities and, they say, the current culinary capitals of their respective home countries. Gomez is from Antigua,, Guatemala and Ortiz hails from Puebla, Mexico. Gomez says there was a lot of a European influence on food culture in both cities and that is reflected in their numerous sauces that define the dishes at the pair of restaurants. For instance, while the zuisa sauce in most Mexican restaurants is made with cream, because of the French influence in Puebla, Gomez says, they reach the same smooth texture with just how they process the poblano peppers.

The restaurateurs make no bones about the fact that their dishes look like Americanized idea of Mexican and South American food – the bulk of the menu at both restaurants is filled with their spin on tacos, burritos and enchiladas — but they are executing these familiar form factors with a deft touch that speaks to more traditional influences. On their frequent trips back to Mexico and Guatemala they say they always take time to learn more about the techneques of their community and family. The “Favoritas De La Casa” section of the menu and the daily specials are where the chefs’ inventiveness and their love of regional specificity shines through.

Everything is scratch-made at La Mission and Pico and they use fresh local ingredients as much as possible. They are pressing their own tortillas (even for chips!) and undertaking a three-day process that goes into making their signature mole (uniquely, their version is vegan). All the extra effort Gomez and Ortiz are putting into their menu and the welcoming atmosphere of their restaurants adds up to a delicious and familial experience whether dining in or taking out.  

“Growing up with our parents and grandparents, everything is recorded in our senses,” said Gomez. “We want to share our culture, our family, through the food.”

La Mision
621 Warren Street, Hudson, NY
(518) 697-6220
Open Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Closed Sunday

Pico De Gallo
(Reopening from winter break February 19)
48 Riverview Street, Stuyvesant, NY 
(518) 758-1317
Open for dinner Wednesday through Saturday 4 - 9 p.m.