Open & Shut: Anchorage gets a Oaxacan restaurant, a new Serrano’s, a winery and a small-batch cannabis shop

Open & Shut is an ongoing series looking at the comings and goings of businesses in Southcentral Alaska. If you know of a business opening or closing in the area, send a note to reporter Alex DeMarban at alex@adn.com with “Open & Shut” in the subject line.

Open

Salsa Oaxaqueña: An indigenous Triqui family from Mexico opened this restaurant in Spenard last month.

They serve traditional food from their home state of Oaxaca.

Abraham Martinez Marthel, along with his wife and sister, used savings from family and friends to start Salsa Oaxaqueña, he said.

“We wanted to share our food, our culture,” said Selena Vazquez Lopez, his wife.

The menu includes beef tamales in banana leaf and chicken enchiladas covered in mole sauce.

Tlayudas are popular, Lopez said. They’re toasted tortillas covered with chicken or beef, Oaxaca cheese, lettuce and refried beans with avocado leaf. Huaraches are another hit, she said. They’re oblong-shaped tortillas covered with fried beans, meat, cheese, pico de gallo and avocado.

The salsas are hand-ground in a molcajete, a stone grinding bowl. The family also sells chapulines, the seasoned and fried grasshoppers that are a snack in Oaxaca.

The corn tortillas are handmade and available for sale.

Marthel said he came to Alaska nine years ago and worked in the restaurant industry for many years.

He slowly brought members of his family here, including his sister, Rosi Martinez Marthel.

He didn’t want to leave Oaxaca, but there were few economic opportunities there, he said.

He was also leaving the violence between two different factions of Triqui people that had cost the lives of some of his family members, he said.

The restaurant is located near Spenard Road and 36th Avenue, at 3505 Spenard Road, across the street from the offices of the Cook Inlet Housing Authority.

It’s open daily, noon to midnight.

Raw Market: Michelle Young and her husband, James Glover, have opened an organic grocery store and juice bar in Girdwood to help meet local demand for more grocery options.

Raw Market sells fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs and dairy products, smoothies, juices, acai bowls and other items, including potted plants.

It’s also a refillery designed to reduce waste, Glover said. Customers can fill reusable containers with bulk foods like oats, rice, beans and dried fruit. The store sells some household products in bulk, such as dish soap.

People say it has the feel of a small Whole Foods store, Young said.

The couple got the idea for Raw Market after visiting small stores in Hawaii towns filled with fresh foods. They own a construction company and refurbished the building at 148 Holmgren Place, near the Girdwood Town Square.

Everything is healthy and high quality, Glover said. Many of the products are Alaska-grown or Alaska-made.

“We’re just trying to be a full-service grocer that provides an ethically sourced option for groceries that are organic and procured responsibly,” Glover said.

Raw Market is a big deal for Girdwood, said Ashton Tatum, a local ski shop employee who was buying a smoothie on Tuesday.

The town’s other small grocery store, Crow Creek Mercantile, primarily sells packaged foods. It’s part of the Carrs Safeway chain and is one of 18 Alaska stores set to be sold to another corporation if Albertsons and Kroger complete their $25 billion merger.

“We’ve been needing a raw foods market in the Girdwood valley for a really long time because the Merc is really our only source of nutrition,” Tatum said. “So this is a huge answer to what we need health-wise.”

The market houses another new business. North Face and Lash is owned by esthetician Cassidy Glover, James’ daughter. She provides waxing treatments, eyelash lifts, eyebrow trimming and other services.

61 Degrees North Winery: Carla and Aaric St Michel made wine for years at home, sharing it with friends and family.

So when Carla saw that Alaska Denali Winery was going out of business a couple of years ago, she jumped at the chance to get the equipment.

“I committed to buying it before talking to my husband,” she said, laughing. “But he was great, he was on board.”

61 Degrees North Winery opened this winter in Midtown, just north of International Airport Road and Arctic Boulevard. It’s at 5001 Arctic Blvd., Suite 101.

It operates similarly to Alaska Denali Winery, she said. Customers can make their own wine and bottle labels, like some couples have recently done for weddings, Carla said.

61 Degrees also makes wines for sale, including in travel pouches, by the glass and in flights. The shop typically makes wine from juice kits from around the world, though an Alaska spruce-tip wine is in the works.

The couple is currently marketing a sweet moscato wine in partnership with the Alaska Zoo. The proceeds will fund larger pens for the musk oxen.

“It’s called the Musk-cato,” she said.

Serrano’s Mexican Grill: This Mexican food restaurant with hand-crafted tortillas and salsas has opened its third spot, this time in downtown Anchorage.

Owner Josh Picasso said Serrano’s family recipes are key to its success after 16 years in business.

This Serrano’s menu is more taqueria-like than the others, he said.

The dinner offerings include jicama shrimp tacos, ribeye tacos on corn tortillas, battered halibut tacos, as well as sandwiches like a ribeye sandwich. Sides include cilantro Parmesan fries and choriqueso, which blends melted Mexican cheese and house-made chorizo.

A spacious bar lines the updated interior. The restaurant serves cocktails, mocktails, beers and other drinks.

The restaurant is located in the former Haute Quarter Grill that closed last year, near Fourth Avenue and F Street, at 525 W. Fourth Ave.

It’s open daily for lunch and dinner. It stays open until midnight Sunday through Wednesday, and until 2 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.

Highpothermia: Dana Giliam said she and her husband, Joe, launched this “small-batch cannabis shoppe” in Fairview to revive the art of hand-cultivated marijuana.

Their flowers are home-grown, using organic living soil to produce high-quality cannabis, concentrates and edibles, she said. They try to make the most flavorful, aromatic and therapeutic flowers possible, she said.

They started growing marijuana at home more than a decade ago, under a caregiver permit to help family and friends suffering from cancer or chronic pain, she said.

They sold their cannabis wholesale to other shops in recent years to launch Highpothermia, she said.

Signature items include the “lemon dough” flower. It’s known for its strong oils called terpenes, Dana said. Like the other flowers they grow, it can be purchased by the gram, deli-style, or bought in pre-packaged joints and blunts.

The newly renovated building is located between Gambell and Ingra streets off 13th Avenue, at 741 E. 13th Ave.

Joe Giliam said it was once a cafe where residents of Fairview, formerly the heart of Anchorage’s Black community, played cards, enjoyed music and socialized.

Highpothermia has “ice-cave hours” with moody lighting and double loyalty points for customers. Those times run from noon to 2 p.m., 5-7 p.m. and 9-10 p.m. The shop is open daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

LumaLim: A group of self-described “Star Trek nerds” opened this immersive high-tech art installation in downtown Anchorage, said Ryan Anderson, a former gamer.

Anderson started the business along with his friends, husband and wife Nick and Thea Scalise.

LumaLim uses several projectors, speakers and cameras to shoot images and sound across a 3,500-square-foot indoor space. It’s located in the blue building at 333 W. Fourth Ave., next to the yellow Sunshine Plaza. The entrance to LumaLim is accessible off Third Avenue and C Street.

The current show brings to life the natural phenomena that create the northern lights. It takes viewers through space, the atmosphere and onto earth. Moving their bodies, customers can shoot lightning bolts or alter the magnetosphere. The show also recreates solar flares and the northern lights themselves.

“It’s edu-tainment,” said Anderson, who wrote the computer code for the show.

“It’s like a planetarium meets video games,” said Thea Scalise.

LumaLim was inspired by immersive art installations that have opened in the Lower 48 in recent years, Anderson said.

The roughly 20-minute show costs $10 for teens and adults, $5 for children 6 and up. It’s free for younger kids, and during First Friday events when it stays open later than normal.

Future shows are in the works, perhaps focused on fireball-shooting wizards, Thea Scalise said.

Anderson said soon-to-come advancements in computing could allow the creation of extremely realistic shows. Groups could choose their own adventure, he said, such as students virtually going back in time to recreate historical events.

The friends met several years ago when they made an interactive haunted show for Halloween in another downtown building.

LumaLim is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It’s closed Monday and Tuesday.

Shut

Lei’s Poke Stop: Lei’s Poke Stop in the Tikahtnu Commons mall is closing July 30, the eatery said in a Facebook post.

“We are truly grateful for your love, support, and patronage over the past 10 years of us doing business in Anchorage. Mahalo, mahalo, mahalo!!!” it said.

“Be on the lookout for our food truck Da Poke Man Express or come and visit us at our Wasilla location located at 1771 E Parks Hwy,” the business said in the post.