What's on the mind of Carlos Mencia these days? It depends on which Mencia you ask - the comedian or the boss.

Since walking away from Comedy Central's Mind of Mencia after four seasons, the Latino comedy bad boy has appeared in a feature film and is back on the road working on material for a one-hour comedy special.

He's also launched Maggie Rita's Tex-Mex Grill & Bar, which has locations in Houston, Galveston and New Orleans.

Onstage, he's thinking "about comedy that's really needed right now." In the kitchen, it's all about the charro beans.

His favorite meal at his restaurants is an off-the-menu item - for now. Mencia calls it the "Carlos Special."

"It's something that I invented not too long ago. I was really, really hungry," said Mencia, who performs two shows Wednesday night at Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club at Park North Plaza.

Mencia, 42, says he dropped in at his Houston restaurant craving something different.

"I said, 'How about this? How about you get some steak fajitas and instead of cutting them long, just cube up the meat, basically, and put a lot of meat in the charro beans.' I'm telling you, it was so good, bro."

It's a dish not far removed from late-night realities.

"Exactly, bro. It's that, 'What do you guys have left?' 'We've got steak and beans.' 'Put 'em together, bro.' "

What the boss wants, the boss gets. And he is the boss.

"It's really bizarre," Mencia said about his first visit to Maggie Rita's near the Galleria in Houston.

"Everybody perked up. I'm not used to that. I'm used to people smiling when I come in or, 'Can I take a picture?' When everybody perked up, like, 'Oh, my God, the boss is here,' I was like, uh, chill out."

Forty minutes later, though, he found himself taking charge.

"I tasted the charro beans, and I'm, like, 'Hey guys? Seriously, what's up? This is not the recipe.'

"And all of a sudden it was, 'Oh, my God! I'm that guy!' "

Mencia is also that other guy - the edgy, sometimes controversial comedian who relentlessly and hilariously toys with racial stereotypes with a mix of barrio silliness, bravado, nationalism and soapbox sanctimony.

A lot is riding on the upcoming special.

"This is the most important special I'm going to come out with," said Mencia, perhaps with an eye toward detractors - most famously comic Joe Rogan - who claim he steals jokes.

Mencia said he considered the sarcastic title Stop Me If You've Heard This One. More than likely the special will be called Carlos Mencia: Live in 3-D.

The self-proclaimed equal opportunity offender says he's not interested in being divisive onstage.

"Comedians aren't even funny anymore. They just talk about how the other guy sucks," he said.

"Be funny, entertain, tell me the news. If I'm gonna talk about an issue, then I'm gonna talk about it in a way that I deem to be funny, that I deem to resonate with everyone.

"Somebody asked me the other day, 'Are you a Democrat or a Republican?' I said I'm neither. He said, 'Why not?' 'Because I really don't enjoy being half wrong all the time.'

"I want to find that one statement that makes everybody go, 'OK, that's funny, and I can't argue the point because it's so right.' That's where I try to go."