La Ingrata in Camden re-creates the chef’s memories of Mexico City

As the pandemic cut her hours at the restaurants where she and her husband worked, Karla Torres was at home feeling blue.

“I missed a lot from my home in Mexico City,” Torres said. “I missed the tacos. You see tacos on every corner. I missed the music. I missed everything.”

To cope, she turned to baking breads — cemitas, conchas, bolillos, pan dulce — giving them away to friends and relatives at first, and then selling them. Meanwhile, she and her husband, Ernesto Ventura, learned that they were expecting a baby. “When I became pregnant, I knew I wanted to start something of my own,” she said.

During a bread run in Camden, she spotted a former banquet hall across the street from an appliance store and a barbershop on Federal Street, about five minutes from the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.

“I fell in love with it,” said Torres, 33, who with Ventura opened their restaurant, La Ingrata, last year, around the time of the birth of their daughter, Alanna.

La Ingrata is named for the 1994 Café Tacvba hit song. Though its lyrics (about a heartbroken man who considers shooting his “ungrateful” lover) are controversial, Torres said her mother enjoyed playing it around the house. ”She carried me dancing with me and singing the song.”

Torres and Ventura painted the building’s façade black, with pink lettering and trim.

In the cheery main room, which has a few tables by the window, Torres hand-lettered the facing of the marble counter with Spanish idioms — “barriga llena corazon contento” (“full belly, happy heart”), “un vaso de agua no se le niega a nadie” (“a glass of water is not denied to anyone”) — as well as the menu board and the restroom walls (“aquí quedo,” or “here I stay”).

Her mom, who also has beautiful handwriting, wrote out the restaurant name in script for the logo.

They built a small side dining room decorated with poster-size portraits of Mexican film stars and singers. Video screens show movies while pop music plays. “These are memories from my father and my grandparents,” Torres said. “We watched movies every Sunday.”

Food was also a big part of her life. “I grew up in the barrio, where street food is made in Mexico: tamales, postres, quesadillas, gringas — you have no idea how much food is there,” she said.

“When we decided to open a restaurant, we didn’t just want to open a taco place. I wanted to bring a little bit more from Mexico — things that your mom made when you’re coming home or that your grandma taught you, or a dish that you enjoy on the streets late night after just coming out of work or going to a club.”

La Ingrata’s menu mixes dishes from Mexico City and Ventura’s home state of Puebla. “You can get your basics because everybody is used to them, but we run specials every day,” Torres said. Recent offerings included Yucatan-style barbecue pork (cochinita pibil), cabeza and tongue tacos, tacos de canasta, shrimp empanadas, green mole from her mom’s recipe, and for Lent, fried fish and potatoes. For dessert, she makes a rich capirotada (bread pudding) and fancy, decorated ice cream sundaes, along with her signature pan dulces.

The restaurant is also a pizzeria, as Ventura’s family is in the pizza business. They make thin-crust pizzas, specializing in one topped with beef, onion, and cilantro and served, birria-style, with a cup of consommé for dipping. La Ingrata is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily; besides the dine-in, there’s delivery through apps.

Torres said she had worked for Michael Schulson for about 10 years, first as a prep cook at Sampan and then as a cook and pastry chef throughout his company. One day in 2018, while working at Double Knot, she met the new guy in the kitchen: Ventura. They got married and started saving for her dream.

From her start, “I missed Mexico and my family,” she said. “Being alone in this new place, I always strived to succeed and learn more. I met many talented people and learned from them.”

“But I knew I had to do this,” she said. “I knew immediately that this restaurant would be a reflection of me, my family, my childhood memories of Mexican customs, and where I grew up. This is what I want people to see.”