El Carnicero

Excitement pumps through the room as the new team of servers, food runners, bartenders and managers gathers at El Carnicero in Lakewood. They should be jazzed. Everyone's here for a first tasting of the restaurant's debut menu, and chef-restaurateur Eric Williams is firing on all cylinders. Williams is known for high-energy, big-flavor food. Any fans of his Ohio City landmark restaurant, Momocho, will tell you so. And as he gets down to the wire before opening his latest restaurant on Thursday, July 18, the guy's food is over-the-top, flavorwise. Familiar categories fill El Carnicero's menu – bocaditos or appetizers; taquitos or a spectrum of savory toppings to heap onto tiny, warm corn tortillas; and antojitos, all sorts of side dishes to round out a meal – but it's one staple of Mexican cuisine that gets the spotlight here. Williams is making a huge deal of tamales