LIKE TEXAS, BUT IN LA

Sherman Oaks location is fifth star in HomeState constellation

BY ANNE KALLAS

You can call the warm meals from HomeState delicious. You can call the cuisine at HomeState homestyle. But whatever you do, don’t call it Tex-Mex (no matter what Google Maps tells you), says owner and founder Briana Valdez. “It’s part of, but not the whole. When we’re training with new team members, we avoid using the term ‘Tex-Mex.’”

According to Briana, who grew up all over Texas, their food reflects different parts of the Texas story. Barbecue is part of it—“but not the whole story.” Their humanely raised brisket comes from Creekstone Farms before being seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked overnight in the oven, so that it falls apart and releases delectable juices that are folded into the meat used each day.

“It’s trying to shift people’s minds to redefine what [Tex-Mex] means. This is a new genre for me,” she says, explaining that Texas cuisine derives from a myriad of cultures that intersect in the Lone Star State, bringing their culinary traditions with them.

No matter what the terminology, the focus of HomeState is family, whether it’s Briana’s family—where she learned the generations-old art of making flour tacos, now featured daily—or the many families that come into the restaurant.

Briana is the second of triplets, who include sisters Andy and Corina. She also has two older sisters, Maribel and Naomi, who passed away.

“Food has always played an essential role in our life,” says Andy Valdez, who works at HomeState. “We kids would all be in the house, with our grandmother, mom and aunts cooking and my dad, uncles and granddad singing and playing accordion and guitar. Food has always been at the center, all integrated with family, friends and community.”

Andy says it helps her in her job, which includes maintaining the HomeState social media, public relations and all guest-facing activity, to be so close to her sister.

“We’ve always said we’re very fortunate to always be with two best friends,” says Andy, adding that the sisters share what is often called a twin bond, which also applies to triplets.

Briana worked as a host at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon, where she soaked up as much knowledge about the restaurant business as she could. “I was very aware of the food we served, the purveyors and sourcing, the quality of purveyors. Every single component of the experience was highly considered,” she says. “I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be more amazing to do that kind of intention in something that’s affordable for most people rather than just high-ticket items?’ It inspired me to take that level of consideration to HomeState.”

Briana spent four years making plans, which included finding vendors who could supply the restaurant with ingredients that met her high standards. This includes the best meat and eggs, while maintaining the highest standards for raising farm animals, sourcing and roasting coffee, hand-making corn tortillas and distilling the best tequila. All while somehow finding a price point to profitably offer affordable food and pay staff a living wage.

She says most people she talked to in the restaurant business thought she was crazy pursuing such an ambitious concept, but Briana was determined. And now HomeState has five locations around the Los Angeles area, with another under development in Oceanside.

HomeState’s success is no accident. It requires careful planning and coordinating to maintain quality at a low price. When she found egg purveyor Vital Farms, Briana was impressed by the care for the pasture-raised chickens. Such care comes with a price.

“It’s a little more expensive than what works for our bottom line. I’m very proud of working those issues out for our menu. We can feed a family good food at an affordable price,” she says.

The star of the HomeState menu (unless you count the queso) is arguably the handmade flour tortillas, which are based on Briana’s family recipes. Each tortilla is shaped and rolled out by hand.

Briana says that process led to quality-control problems as HomeState expanded. “The people who make the tortillas have been with the company for a while so they’re familiar with the dough—how it feels.” They tried to have the people at each location make the tortillas, but the results weren’t up to par. “So we moved to a larger kitchen where we have the same people who were making the dough initially make it for all of the restaurants,” she says.

There have been other problems too, Briana says. In Sherman Oaks, which recently opened, a series of burglaries have made it necessary to institute a no-cash policy to lessen the danger to employees.

It’s discouraging, but Briana has no plans to give up. She never has, and she never will.

Find HomeState at MyHomeState.com

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