{"id":7139,"date":"2021-01-21T13:29:03","date_gmt":"2021-01-21T17:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/?p=7139"},"modified":"2021-06-09T00:30:21","modified_gmt":"2021-06-09T04:30:21","slug":"the-leaky-palapa-xcalak-mexico-trey-reid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/the-leaky-palapa-xcalak-mexico-trey-reid\/","title":{"rendered":"The Leaky Palapa | Xcalak, Mexico | Trey Reid"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Leaky Palapa Restaurant (leakypalaparestaurant.com<\/span><\/a>) dishes up gourmet cuisine that would earn acclaim anywhere. But when you consider that the restaurant is located in the Caribbean fishing village of Xcalak\u2014population 400, paved roads, zero\u2014the plates coming out of the Leaky Palapa\u2019s kitchen border on miraculous.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chef Marla Stiles and her wife Linda Loo have been feeding locals, expat Americans, and snowbirds at the southern end of the Mexican Yucatan since 2004. With fly fishers descending on Xcalak in growing numbers, the Leaky Palapa has gained a reputation among saltwater bug-flingers as a gastronomic attraction that\u2019s as irresistible as the area\u2019s bonefish and permit.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve lived and traveled all over the world and have eaten at some of the best restaurants in some of the foodiest cities, and the Leaky Palapa is in my global top ten,\u201d says Rob Mukai, a Utah native who runs the Acocote Eco Inn a few miles north of town. \u201cThey would be competitive in Tokyo, London, New York, Sydney\u2014you name it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Veteran restaurateurs from Canada, Stiles and Loo have crafted a menu that merges Mexican culinary traditions with French and Italian techniques, elevating customary Yucatecan ingredients and flavors from delicious to magnificent. The food remains familiar and approachable while simultaneously inspiring admiration and wonder. The portions are satisfying, the prices shockingly reasonable.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Leaky Palapa balances refined fare with a casual atmosphere. Situated on the ground floor of its owners\u2019 home, it radiates a warmth that isn\u2019t merely the result of its tropical locale. Guests rarely enter without a cheerful greeting and a hug. The cozy dining room\u2019s garnet-hued walls, dimly lit by small lights encased in gourd lampshades, create a mood that\u2019s as inviting as the proprietors.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"saltwater<\/span><\/p>\n

Loo runs the front of the house and tends the bar. Her signature cocktail is the chile-pineapple margarita, in which sweet, sour, and picante mingle in salt-rimmed glasses\u2014but she\u2019s just as deft at crafting classics like the old fashioned or recommending a bottle from the wine list.<\/span><\/p>\n

The libations are useful lubricants to help with the diner\u2019s difficulty of deciding what to order. From appetizer through dessert, everything on the menu is intriguing. Popular main dishes include pasilla chile-crusted pork tenderloin with a bourbon and ancho reduction; ravioli filled with huitlacoche, a mushroom-like corn fungus that\u2019s sometimes called Mexican truffle; and the pork ossobuco, slow-roasted with a chipotle tomato broth until it peels off the bone.<\/span><\/p>\n

Being about three or four long casts from the edge of the Caribbean Sea, the Leaky Palapa naturally excels with seafood. Besides the Campeche shrimp that\u2019s dusted with dried chiles and served atop squid-ink pasta, the restaurant\u2019s fish and lobster come from speargun-wielding Xcalak fishermen. Whether it\u2019s the local spiny lobster tails (grilled on the barbecue or poached in coconut milk) or one of Stiles\u2019 myriad fish presentations, there\u2019s a good chance the food on your plate was still swimming earlier in the day.<\/span><\/p>\n

(If there\u2019s a can\u2019t-miss appetizer on the menu, it\u2019s the caramelized ginger-seared lobster bites. The lobster is divine by itself, but the sauce that pools around it has caused diners to forsake their manners. \u201cSomebody told me I should serve a squeegee with this thing,\u201d Loo says, \u201cso you don\u2019t leave anything on the plate.\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s no wonder the Leaky Palapa is a favorite hangout of traveling fly anglers. From across the globe, they descend on Xcalak as a home base for guided and DIY trips to Chetumal Bay\u2019s flats, the area\u2019s intricate lagoon systems, and beachfront fishing inside the Mesoamerican Reef. Fly fishing travelers, Stiles says, account for about 40 percent of the Leaky Palapa\u2019s business.<\/span><\/p>\n

As far as it is from Cancun, Xcalak attracts a different kind of traveler than the all-inclusive resorts on the northern Yucatan beaches or the full-service fly fishing lodges around Ascension Bay to the north or Belize\u2019s Ambergris Caye to the south. People visit Xcalak to get away from crowds. If they\u2019re not in search of bonefish, permit, tarpon, and snook, they\u2019re likely looking for solitude on the Costa Maya\u2019s sparsely populated beaches, or seeking underwater adventure via snorkeling or scuba diving. That\u2019s how Loo and Stiles stumbled onto Xcalak while escaping the Canadian winter in January of 2004.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were camped on the beach in a motorhome we picked up in Texas,\u201d Stiles says. \u201cWe had been traveling through Mexico, camping on beaches and diving. We had all our equipment plus a compressor, as well as an inflatable diveyak. An American couple whose daughter owned a place in town came by our campsite to ask if we would be interested in renting the space and operating a restaurant.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Stiles and Loo returned to the Great White North, sold their house and restaurant in London, Ontario, and went back to the tropics on a somewhat impulsive, unplanned adventure to open a restaurant in a tiny Mexican fishing village on the edge of the Caribbean. \u201cOnce we made the decision, it was easy,\u201d Loo says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Starting a new restaurant in remote Xcalak wasn\u2019t as easy as the decision to do it. The restaurant\u2019s first space consisted of a small building with a tiny apartment, a cramped kitchen, and a larger open area for the restaurant covered by a palapa, a classic Mexican shelter with a palm-leaf thatched roof.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe had rented this building without looking at it very carefully,\u201d Stiles says. \u201cWhile sitting inside the palapa making our plans, we looked and realized we had a large problem: The palapa needed replacing, and we didn\u2019t have the cash to do it. So we thought for a minute and we decided, no problem: We would buy a bunch of umbrellas and put them over each table and call it the Leaky Palapa.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At the time, Xcalak\u2019s electricity was supplied by a generator that ran for three or four hours a night and rarely at full power. Fate intervened in the form of CFE, Mexico\u2019s state-owned electric utility, which installed transformers and put Xcalak on the electrical grid just as Stiles and Loo were set to open in October 2004.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"saltwater<\/span><\/p>\n

There also were problems stocking the restaurant\u2019s larder. Xcalak has no grocery stores, too small even for the type of central <\/span>mercado<\/i><\/span> that\u2019s ubiquitous in many Mexican cities. Local fishermen kept the restaurant stocked with fish and lobster, but other ingredients were hard to get. Grocery trucks came in from bigger towns a couple times a week, but supplies were limited and their schedules unreliable. Stiles and Loo had to make weekly trips to Chetumal, a five-hour round trip drive\u2014with no guarantee vendors would have needed ingredients.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was crazy some days,\u201d Loo says. \u201cWe\u2019d get to Chetumal, and there wouldn\u2019t be any lettuce.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Leaky Palapa staggered forward nine years in its original space. Loo and Stiles found relief for their stress by kayaking back in the bay, fishing and camping and watching roseate spoonbills, crocodiles, and wood storks. Being accepted and welcomed by the local community, and seeing their customers\u2019 reactions to their restaurant, made it worth the frequent hassles.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2013 they finished construction on a new home and restaurant, where they serve customers Thursday through Sunday between US Thanksgiving and late April. The restaurant closes during the low season while Loo and Stiles return to Canada.<\/span><\/p>\n

They still face hardships operating a restaurant of the Leaky Palapa\u2019s caliber in a remote corner of the Mexican Caribbean, but it\u2019s easier than it used to be. They built the new digs with a dining room and kitchen closer to their specifications. They still make weekly five-hour round-trip drives to Chetumal for ingredients, but Quintana Roo\u2019s capital city now has a Walmart, a Sam\u2019s Club, and the large Mexican grocery chain Chedraui. Electricity is more reliable these days, although Stiles and Loo still turn to a backup generator at times. The salt and humidity are hell on kitchen equipment. But the force that propels the Leaky Palapa and its owners forward is the same thing that makes the restaurant so remarkable: It\u2019s the challenge of creating something extraordinary where you least expect it. When people respond to that, it\u2019s the stuff of dreams.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe best thing about running a restaurant here is the people,\u201d Stiles says. \u201cOur customers come from all over the world. They have worked all year for their\u00a0holiday, and now they are on it. They are in the best frame of mind, as they are here doing what they love and what gives them joy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For many Xcalak visitors, that includes dining at the Leaky Palapa.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bio: <\/b>Trey Reid has written for numerous newspapers, magazines, and websites, and is a former field reporter for ESPN. He works in public and media relations for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, producing and hosting the agency\u2019s television show <\/span>Arkansas Wildlife.<\/span><\/i> He also hosts the outdoor radio show <\/span>The Wild Side<\/span><\/i> on 103.7 FM The Buzz in Little Rock, which can also be heard as a podcast.<\/span><\/p>\n

Photos: Trey Reid, Michael DeJarnette, Bob Haines, Lee Reddmann, and Kaettie Wenger<\/span><\/p>\n

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