This morning my father-in-law and I were scheduled for bfast just down the street from Red Roof Inn at Laurel. I had been telling him of the extraordinary banano frito, popusas and homemade fruit drinks all night after a long day in Washington, D.C. Low and behold we pulled up to the Tex-Mex joint and its closed–they don’t open until 11a. We had a while to go and on a tight schedule–he’s scheduled to fly out to Oklahoma this afternoon to help his church members out. As we pulled away headed towards our next stop, a swap meet. We noticed the building directly next door without any visible awning, facade but packed w/ locals–Latinos–we hadn’t seen it. We immediately turned around and were quickly greeted, seated and served. The family friendly locale specializes in Honduran and Salvadorean dishes. This got me thinking about outside appearance and judging books by its cover. Had I checked Foursquare I probably would have seen it. The inside looked like it had previously been a mom & pop family restaurant. We often judge books and locales by its cover. Having grown up, studied and now lucky enough to be raising a family in the beautiful Pacific Northwest I’m used to hole in the walls. We certainly would have missed out on meeting the locals and a new dining experience had we just zeroed in on the outside, but instead in an instance without much thought saw Latino families inside and knew without a doubt we had found a great local place. The guys and gals running it were fluent in English & Spanish and it made the experience that much more lively. Definitely, Edith, Maya, Paloma & Citlali will love this place. Hope they won’t think its closed–I’ll just have to remind my kids not to judge a book by its cover.

Cheers from Laurel, Maryland.

Originally posted on Posterous