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What's cooking?

I'm in a glum valedictory mood this week — a kind of mourning, really.

I was jarred by yesterday's news from my colleague Bao Ong that Nippon, the longtime Japanese staple, would close after 38 years. It wasn't on my dining rotation, but the restaurant seemed an immutable fixture in its Montrose neighborhood.

Sonia Garcia's list of recent closings was on my mind, too. Molihua, PS-21, Wild Oats, HiWay Cantina…the roster was long, and I found it depressing.

But my own personal heartbreak came this past Monday, when I felt the urge to eat my very, very favorite enchiladas in Houston at Saltillo in Bellaire. I prepped for it (or so I thought) by consulting the website to check the hours.

I made a detour that should have given me pause by clicking on a delivery service "order now" link that made my eyebrows shoot up: it looked as if Saltillo, a proudly Norteño offshoot of owner and executive chef Carlos Abedrop's Casa del Caballo in Saltillo, Coahuila, had gone partially Tex-Mex. My jaw slackened as I scanned items like fajitas, nachos and a distinctly Tex-Mex version of enchiladas. My favorite potato enchiladas were nowhere on the list.

Okay, I thought. Times are tough. I had only visited the restaurant once since I got a splendid birthday dinner to go there during the pandemic. My meal was a bit rocky that day — a first for me there — and I put the restaurant on a mental time-out, certain things would resolve themselves with time.

When Monday evening arrived, I drove to Bellaire full of anticipation for exemplars of what I've half-jokingly termed my Enchilada Hall of Fame. I couldn't wait to taste the five remarkable salsas that came with the totopos, to say hello to host and manager extraordinaire Francisco Cervantes, and to have the courtly longtime bartender, Lázaro Villalobos, mix me a straight up margarita customized to my taste, which runs tart.

You know where this is going, right?

When I pulled into the parking lot, alarm bells clanged in my heart. No cars were pulled up in front of Saltillo. Twin paper notices were taped to the door. I jumped out to see them, and I was filled with a kind of despair. "Saltillo Mexican Kitchen is permanently closed for business," read the printout. "Thank you for years of support."

I felt like crying. I hated myself for staying away too long in a business climate that has so many restaurants struggling. I couldn't quite grasp that those salsas, those enchiladas, those remarkable cubes of fried panela were lost to me now, unless I took a trip to Coahuila.

Days later, I'm still not over it. I'll never be over it, in the same way I'll never be over the closure of my ancient cheese-enchilada mecca, Spanish Village.

All of this is to say, treasure your restaurant favorites while you can.

The Chronicle's Top 100 Houston Restaurants list publishes tomorrow evening, at a celebratory tasting event featuring dozens of our favorite chefs and restaurants. There are still some tickets available here, and I'd urge you to come find some new favorites and sample the wares of some old ones, while they are around to feed us. And to nourish us with something well beyond the realm of calories.

Restaurants are one of our city's great natural resources. I'm more determined than ever not to take them for granted.

Alison Cook, Restaurant Critic

Alison.Cook@houstonchronicle.com

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