Carolina’s Mexican Food is opening a restaurant in Glendale

Carolina’s Mexican Food, a decades-old Phoenix staple, is set to make its Glendale debut later this year.

The family-owned restaurant is tentatively scheduled to open in July 2022 near the northwest corner of 59th Avenue and Greenway Road, Claudio Lopez, a supervisor at one of the restaurants, confirmed.

Before opening their first Carolina’s in 1968 in south Phoenix, Carolina and Manuel Valenzuela sold homemade tortillas, burritos and tamales out of the back of a car at wrestling matches and to migrant farmworkers. Their children and grandchildren now oversee the restaurant.

The Mexican restaurant is known for its flour tortillas, which are made in-house and won Phoenix New Times’ best tortillas in multiple years. Popular menu items include shredded machaca chimichangas, green chile corn tamales and the Oaxaca Special, a burrito with ground beef chorizo, potatoes, beans and cheese.

Carolina’s has five locations in the Valley. Victoria Tiedens, who owns and operates the north Phoenix, Peoria and Mesa restaurants, will open the Glendale location, Lopez said. Her sisters run the central Phoenix and Avondale restaurants.

Details: 5930 W. Greenway Road, Glendale. carolinasmexicanfood.com.

More Mexican food: Taco truck serves tender carnitas and a taste of Michoacán

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