Road Tips

El Fogon Tacos and Beer - Oak Creek, WI

I found myself in the south Milwaukee suburb of Oak Creek one evening as I had a training session at a nearby dealer scheduled for the next morning.  Thanks to winter hanging on deep into spring, I had been driving in a mixture of rain and sleet before it finally turned to all snow just as I got into the greater Milwaukee area.  Being a little burnt out from the drive, I just wanted to eat at some place close to the hotel, and quick to eat - preferably, a place that sold alcohol.  Driving south down Howell Ave., I passed an interesting looking restaurant with an equally interesting name called El Fogon Tacos and Beer.  "Hmmmm....", I thought to myself.  "I like tacos and I like beer!"  I decided to make a U-turn and head back toward the place.  It turned out that going north on Howell and getting into El Fogon was sort of a challenge.  But a left turn on Puetz Road, then another U-turn later down the street with a double back, I pulled into the parking of the restaurant at the corner of S. Howell and Puetz Rd. (see map) (Getting out of El Fogon to go back north on Howell was a problem, as well.  You're cut off from entering the northbound turn lane onto Howell and you have to go east on Puetz, then do a U-turn to come back to take a right on Howell.)

El Fogon - which translates into "The Chimney" in English - is owned by Filberto (Phil) Lando and his wife, Nelly.  It's been open for about two and a half years and is situated in a small strip mall - curiously, it's right next to a bank.  It's not a large place, it probably seats 40 people,  The decor wasn't fancy in the least in the well-lit dining area.  I was met by a waiter who wanted to know if I wanted to sit at a table or sit at the bar.

 
I ended up sitting at the bar that had a gas fireplace in the middle of back bar.  At least I thought it was a gas fireplace.  Hell, it probably could have been one of those fake ones, considering all the alcohol they had on shelves around the bar.  

The waiter dropped off a menu for me and for a place that touts "tacos and beer", they didn't seem to have a very good selection of beers to choose from.  But they sure did have a lot of tequilas on the shelf and their menu touted a number of specialty margaritas including a cucumber margarita served with cucumber slices and lime juice, and a pineapple/cilantro margarita.   El Fogon has some "secret ingredient" that they add to a number of their margaritas.   I wanted a beer, so I got a Dos Equis Amber.

I also got a complementary basket of chips along with two different types of sauces.  One was a spicy green sauce that was just outstanding.  The other was an even hotter red sauce that was very peppery to the taste.  My server asked me if if I wanted anything more mild like their pico de gallo or their homemade peanut salsa.  I told him the green sauce was fine and dandy with me.  It was killer! 

And don't let the name fool you - they definitely have more than just tacos on their menu.  They had Alambre, something I'd not had since our visit to Isla Mujeres off the Yucatan peninsula about 15 years ago.  Alambre is basically a skewered meat that is roasted and then mixed in with onions, peppers and topped with cheese.  El Fogon gave you the choice of chicken or steak with their Alambre.  They also had fajitas, enchiladas and something called Chicken El Fogon - a grilled chicken breast that is topped with grilled onions and jalapenos, with a side of lettuce and guacamole.  

I'm usually a sucker for fish tacos and they had them on the menu at El Fogon, as well as shrimp tacos.  Of course, they had steak, chicken, ground beef, and al pastor (spicy marinated pork) tacos, as well.  You could make a combination meal out of tacos, enchiladas, tostadas, mini chimichanagas or quesadillas.  But one thing sort of jumped out at me when I was looking through the menu.

They had flautas on the menu - basically thin-rolled tacos stuffed with your choice of meat and deep fried.  They had a choice of either shredded chicken or shredded beef for their flautas.  Those sounded really good for some reason that evening and I ended up ordering the shredded beef flautas.   

The flautas came with sides of refried beans, rice, guacamole and sour cream.  Actually, the guacamole was very interesting.  It was unlike any guacamole that I'd had before.  It had some additives that gave it a very fresh and somewhat fruity taste.  I wasn't certain that I liked it at first, but found myself liking it more with each bite on a chip.

The flautas, themselves, were all right.  It's pretty tough to screw up a flauta other than overcooking the beef.  But the shredded beef was tender, moist and very flavorful.  I poured some of the green sauce on the flautas to pep them up a bit and it helped the overall taste tremendously.  

My meal at El Fogon was above-average for Mexican food, but not on the same par as some other excellent Mexican restaurants in the greater Milwaukee area that I've eaten at in the past.  For the suburbs, it was fine.  The Mexican restaurants around the 5th and National area of Milwaukee definitely had it beat.  But if you're in the south suburbs of Milwaukee and are looking for good Mexican, I can wholeheartedly recommend El Fogon.    

 

Los Pueblos - Arnolds Park, IA

At first glance, there seemed to be a lot of Mexican restaurants in the Lake Okoboji area.  When we asked our friend, Kathy, who lives in Spirit Lake, she simply said, "Well, there's a lot of Mexicans living around here!"  That makes sense - there's a lot of good Mexican restaurants in the Quad Cities because there are a lot of Mexicans who live there.  For lunch one day on our vacation, we decided to try a Mexican restaurant, mainly because I thought a margarita would sound good.  We picked Los Pueblos on the main drag through Arnolds Park (see map).

It was well after the noon time rush when we went into Los Pueblos.  The owner, Florencia, greeted us as we came in.  She was a small woman with a big smile and bubbly personality.  Florencia asked us if we wanted to sit outside on the patio in front of the restaurant.  It was warm outside and a nice day, but we decided to take a booth along side the windows that look out onto the patio.  

The interior of Los Pueblos was brightly lit by the natural light that came in through the windows on the north and west sides.  The walls were painted in light pastels and adorned with Mexican art work.  A number of tables were in the middle part of the restaurant while booths with high walls separating them took up the wall space along the windows.  

Florencia had dropped off a couple menus for us to look through and she asked, "Can I get you something to drink?"  

I replied, "I've been dying for a margarita."

She asked, "Do you want a big one?  The grande?"

"Sure," I said.  "What the hell."

Florencia looked at Cindy and said, "And you?"

Cindy said, "Sure, a big margarita."  

That was a mistake.  Here is a picture of the grande margarita at Los Pueblos.  Cindy couldn't believe it when Florencia brought them out to us.   Cindy said, "Oh, my God.  You're going to have to wheel me out of here!"  

Florencia didn't say how big they were, but I'm guessing we were drinking 48 ounces - at least - of margaritas.  

The menu at Los Pueblos was rather interesting.  In addition to the Mexican food they had, they also had an "American Food" part of the menu that featured burgers, chicken strips, a steak sandwich, and, interestingly, fettuccine alfredo.  I thought it was sort of funny that they'd have fettuccine alfredo listed under "American Food".   

Florencia told us that because it was just before 2 p.m., we could still get something off the lunch specials list.  The lunch specials are smaller portions of normal sized dinner entrees they serve at Los Pueblos.  Cindy ordered the chicken chimichanga with rice and beans, and I ordered the Pueblos lunch special - two beef chimichangas with lettuce, tomatoes and guacamole.  

While we waited for our food to come out, we munched on the homemade chips and salsa that one of the guys brought to the table.  There were two different salsas - one mild and another one that had a roasted taste to it.  The roasted salsa looked hot and it appeared to have a lot of black pepper in it.  But it was rather mild to our tastes.  But the salsa and the chips were good, but we made sure not to over eat on those.

Here's our lunch specials that Florencia brought out to us. Cindy's chimichanga wasn't all that large, but they put a boat load of rice and refried beans on her plate.  She said, "I won't even begin to be able to eat all this." Cindy said her chicken enchiladas were "delicious".   

My chimichangas were cut into halves and placed in the corners of the plate around the lettuce, tomatoes and guacamole.  The beef was shredded and moist.  It had a pretty good flavor, too.  I added a little salsa to the chimichangas, but they probably didn't need it.  Mine, too, were very good.  

Cindy was having troubles finishing her margarita.  Florencia came by to pick up our plates and I was helping Cindy finish out her drink.  Florencia said, "Happy hour started at two.  Half price drinks.  You want another one?"

Cindy laughed and said, "Oh, goodness, no!  I really wouldn't be able to walk out of here!"

Here's a picture of Cindy with her new friend, Florencia.  Yeah, I know it looks like Florencia is holding Cindy up, but she may have had a little buzz going.  Me, on the otherhand, well, I needed a nap after having lunch and more than one huge margarita at Los Pueblos.  

We liked the food at Los Pueblos.  Our friends told us later in the week that Los Pueblos was probably their favorite Mexican restaurant in the area.  We were happy with our meals.  I wish I would have asked how big the "grande" margarita was, however. They were $11.95 each, once again making our liquor bill higher than our food bill.  But we were on vacation and we were having fun.  The food was your typical Mexican fare, Florencia was fun to deal with, and it was a comfortable place to eat.  I can't say anything bad about our experience at Los Pueblos.  

Cocina del Barrio - Edina, MN

At the tail end of our vacation this summer, we ended up in Minneapolis for the weekend.  Cindy wanted to do some shopping and I took her over to the 50th and France shopping and entertainment district in suburban Edina on the west side of Minneapolis.  As we exited the parking garage, it began to sprinkle.  After visiting a couple stores, the rain had turned into a steady shower.  I took a look at the weather radar on my smart phone and determined the line of rain wasn't going to last too long, so I suggested we go get lunch and wait out the rain.  On France Ave. just before 51st street is Cocina del Barrio (see map).  I asked Cindy if she wanted to go in and get something to eat (even though I had taken her to one of my favorite Mexican restaurants in Minneapolis - El Tejaban - for a great meal the night before).  She said Cocina del Barrio would be fine.

I had eaten at the Cocina del Barrio's sister restaurant - Barrio - earlier this year.  (Click here to see that entry.)  The meal was fabulous with a number of great "tapas"-style tacos on the menu.  And, like their sister restaurant in downtown Minneapolis, Cocina del Barrio features over 150 different tequilas to choose from.  We were staying downtown at The Marquette and we walked by Barrio the day before.  I couldn't quit telling Cindy how good the food was at the place.  

Cocina del Barrio is actually the third of the "Barrio" restaurants owned by partners Tim Rooney and Ryan Burnet.   Rooney and Burnet opened the original Barrio on Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis in 2008, a location in St. Paul a year later, then they did the reverse of what many Mexican restaurants have done - they opened a food truck that features catering or sets up at different venues or locations around the Twin Cities.  Then in late 2010, the partnership opened Cocina del Barrio in Edina.  

The first two Barrios are billed as "Tequila Bars" while the Barrio in Edina features the Spanish word for kitchen in its name emphasizing an expanded food menu over the other two locations, as well as a children's menu designed to make the restaurant more family friendly.  It's mainly because Edina has an ordinance that says that restaurants which sell alcohol must have a 60%-40% ratio of food vs. alcohol sales.  And it's strictly enforced.  Cocina del Barrio has already been cited by the city for a violation of the 60-40 rule when they were audited in early 2012 and it was found they sold just over 51% food vs. alcohol.  They had to pay a $500 fine and were put on probation.  A second audit earlier this summer found that they had grown their food to alcohol ratio to just over 58%, but still under the minimum.  Coupled with an infraction for selling a beer to a minor working for the local police department, Cocina del Barrio had to pay a $1000 fine and their license to sell liquor was suspended for one day.   

One of the reasons they're having trouble with the 60-40 food vs. alcohol ratio is that the cheapest margarita on their drink menu is $9 bucks.  The drinks are not big and as I found at the dinner we had at Barrio in downtown Minneapolis earlier this year, the liquor bill gets inflated rather quickly if a person is having two or three margaritas.  You have three tacos at $4.50 to $6.00 each along with two or three margaritas, it's easy to see that you'd have a much larger alcohol bill over the food bill.  

With that all said, Cocina del Barrio features a brunch menu, a number of small plate entrees, and a handful of larger plate entrees including grilled mahi-mahi, lamb chops and a natural farm-raised rib eye steak.  Oh, they still have the tapas style tacos at Cocina del Barrio that made them famous.  But the expanded menu is designed to steer people away from the tacos and into higher priced plates.

The Cocina del Barrio location on France Ave. used to house the Coldwell Banker Burnet realty offices.  Ryan Burnet's father owns the realty firm and the younger Burnet also dabbles in real estate and developing boutique hotels in downtown Minneapolis.  When the Edina office moved down the road on France Ave. early in 2010, the building became available for Cocina del Barrio to move in.  The addition of Cocina del Barrio is a welcome one, not only in my book, but for a number of diners who have been coming to the 50th and France area for years.  One of my all-time favorite Tex-Mex restaurants - the very popular Tejas - was just around the corner.  It wasn't far from the hotel I like to stay at down the road in Bloomington and I was upset when they closed their doors almost three years ago.  Finally, there's a good Mexican restaurant back in the 50th and France district.  

We walked into Cocina del Barrio around 12:30 p.m. and there was a growing lunch crowd in the place.  We were greeted by a hostess who wanted to know if we would like to eat in the bar area up front or in the long dining room looking into the open kitchen toward the back.  We decided to sit in the bar area with Cindy seated in a banquette seat along the south wall and I took a chair at the high table.  It's much larger at Cocina del Barrio compared to the cramped conditions that I found on my first visit to the Barrio location in Minneapolis.  With a lot of wooden walls and a hard wood floor, even with the place half-full, it was pretty loud in there.  I can almost imagine the sound level when it's packed at night.  

Since we were going to eat at the famous Manny's Steakhouse that evening (look for that entry in a couple three weeks), we decided that we were probably just going to have drinks and tacos.  Our server for the afternoon, John, came over to greet us and I immediately ordered a Trinity margarita for both of us - Milagro silver label tequila, Cointreau and lime juice over ice - and a bowl of their wonderful guacamole.  Although we've had margaritas like that at home (the recipe taught to me by a former colleague), Cindy said that she didn't care for the taste of it.  I ended up drinking both mine and hers, then I ordered a Skinny Mommi margarita for her - it's basically a traditional margarita.  She seemed to like that better.  

John brought out the guacamole and it was fresh and flavorful as I remembered it to be from my previous visit to Barrio.  A small bowl of very fresh corn chips, crisp and warm, were brought out along with a small dish of a smoky sauce. The guacamole at Cocina del Barrio has large chunks of fresh avocado, cilantro, radish slices and chopped tomatoes.  It would be stupidly easy to make at home and the Barrio restaurants are extremely proud of it - it costs $8.50.  Hey, anything to get that food vs. alcohol ratio up!  

We took a look through the menu and I was telling Cindy of some of the tacos I'd had at the Barrio in downtown Minneapolis.  They didn't have as many tacos on the menu in Edina as they did downtown.  They didn't have the beef tongue or pork belly tacos in Edina, not that I would have gotten either one of those.  They also didn't have the chorizo enchilada on the menu in Edina.  That was very good on my original visit.  

I noticed that they had a fried mahi mahi taco on the menu, but noticed elsewhere that they had a grilled mahi mahi entree.  I asked him if we could get the grilled mahi mahi on a taco instead.  He said, "Oh, yeah.  Sure!  We can do that."  Cindy ordered up a chicken enchilada and a grilled mahi mahi taco.  I got one taco each of the grilled mahi mahi, skirt steak and pork carnitas.  I ordered up another Trinity margarita to have with my lunch. 

Our food came out and from just the smell of the tacos, I was ready to eat.  From left to right in the picture at the left are Cindy's chicken enchilada with a salsa verde sauce on top, the grilled mahi mahi taco we both ordered topped with a couple slices of fresh jalapeno and chopped tomatoes, the pulled-pork carnitas which had a green sauce on top, and the skirt steak taco with cilantro and sliced radish strings (they're big on radish at the Barrio restaurants).  

And just like the original Barrio, the tacos were all very good.  The mahi mahi taco had a great seafood flavor to it and the jalapeno slices added a little bite to the taste.  The pork carnitas were moist and flavorful with sort of a citrus taste to the meat.  The skirt steak was tender and had a great grilled taste to the meat.  Cindy was also very happy with her chicken enchilada and her mahi mahi steak.  She said, "Now I understand why you were raving about this place." 

Unfortunately for Cocina del Barrio that day, we spent much more on alcohol ($36.50) versus food ($32.50).  With a nice tip for John who did a fine job of taking care of us, well, it wasn't a cheap lunch.  But, hey, we're on vacation, right?  We splurged a lot over the course of our vacation and Cocina del Barrio was no exception.  But the food is always fresh and tastes wonderful.  Barrio isn't the kind of place that I'd go to all the time for a quick fix of Mexican food, but it will still be on my radar on my trips to the Twin Cities.  

La Perla - Milwaukee

When my cousin was living in Milwaukee a number of years ago, he turned us on to a number of very good restaurants in the area - the places where the locals went to eat.  Not being very big on national chains, it was always fun to go try out some of the places he recommended.  In 1995, a Mexican restaurant by the name of La Perla had opened and he had tried it a few times.  On a visit to Milwaukee in 1996, we tried La Perla for the first time and fell in love with the place.  In doing some cleaning up of the blog earlier this summer, I was amazed to find that I had never posted an entry on La Perla.  On a recent visit to Milwaukee I decided to have dinner at La Perla. 

La Perla has been owned and operated for the past 17 years by Nick and JoAnne Anton.  The Anton's have either fully owned or were partners in a handful of other restaurants over the years including Crabby Al's and Vucciria Pizzeria, but La Perla has been their main claim to fame.  JoAnne Anton is also known in political circles around Milwaukee and the state of Wisconsin as being Senator Herb Kohl's state director running his office in Milwaukee. Restaurants are in her family's blood as the highly acclaimed Ouzo Greek Cafe in downtown Milwaukee is run by her sister, Nickey Pappas.  

La Perla is located at the corner of S. 5th and W. National (see map) in a highly visible building in the Walker's Point neighborhood.  The Walker's Point area has been home to a number of bars and restaurants over the years, but it is probably most famous for having a number of very good Mexican restaurants in the area.  In the mid-2000's, a number of businesses in the area around 6th and National got together to promote the neighborhood as Milwaukee's Latin Quarter.  A number of businesses spruced up their facades and money was used to paint buildings and generally clean up the area.  Even as the notion of the neighborhood being named the Milwaukee's Latin Quarter was being discussed, the Anton's went ahead and put up a large heart-shaped sign on the corner of La Perla that said, "The Heart of Milwaukee's Latin Quarter."    

JoAnne Anton pictured at right in front of La Perla and the sign she put up to tout the Latin Quarter.  Picture courtesy Milwaukee Business Journal. 

JoAnne Anton was also responsible for helping to set up the long-time chef at La Perla, Jaime Hernandez, in his own business down the street - Botanas.  (Click here to see my entry on Botanas.)  I'd heard and read over the years from people around Milwaukee that the food at La Perla suffered after Hernandez left.  I will say that Botana's is probably my favorite Mexican restaurant in Milwaukee.  

It had been a LONG time since I was last in La Perla.  I figured it was probably six years since my last meal on what I remember being a very cold winter evening.  La Perla has long been known for their festive and colorful outdoor patio.  For years, a large red pepper hovered above the tables on the patio.  It was difficult not to miss it as you were driving along on National.  The big pepper is long gone, but the festive nature of the back patio is still there.  When I went to La Perla that evening, it was turning into a beautiful late summer night.  The man who greeted me as I came in gave me the option of sitting in the dining room or outside.  Hardly anyone was inside eating, I would have had peace and quiet to eat.  But it was too nice an evening.  I couldn't say no when he said, "Come on, it's beautiful out.  Sit outside."  He took me to a small table just outside the door to the patio and dropped off a menu for me to look over.

Another waiter brought me a basket of homemade chips and a bowl of La Perla's excellent salsa.  The chips, however, were sort of stale and lifeless.  Even the great salsa that they have at La Perla couldn't save the  somewhat soggy taste of the chips.  That was highly disappointing.

The original waiter who seated me came back to take my order.  I wasn't ready to order food yet, but I did order a margarita which I pounded in probably five minutes.  As I was looking over the menu, he came back and saw that the margarita consisted of a bunch of ice and a lime wedge at the bottom of the glass.  He said, "That didn't take long, amigo!"  No, it did not.  When he asked if I wanted another one, I instead opted for a Dos Equis Amber.  

The menu at La Perla is extensive and almost reads like a book of nearly every Mexican food item that you can think of.  The menu features about a half dozen appetizer plates, a dozen combination plates, enchiladas, nearly a dozen different types of tacos, a number of seafood specialties, and over 20 house specialties including chimichangas, pork chops in a green chile sauce, beef or chicken tamales, and La Perla's signature dish, the Chicken Ole Poblano - a sauteed chicken breast covered in La Perla's homemade poblano mole sauce.  

I wasn't all that hungry so I didn't want to order something big like the chimichanga (which I remember the pork chimichanga as being superb) or fajitas.  The shrimp tacos jumped out at me, screaming, "Pick me!  Pick me!"  Oooo... I do like shrimp tacos.  When the waiter came back to take my order, that's exactly what I told him to bring me.  And then something inside me said, "Hey, get a chunky beef taco, ala carte."  The next thing I knew I was asking him to bring me one of those, as well.

The shrimp tacos at La Perla are a little different than what you'll find at other Mexican restaurants.  The shrimp are grilled, but then they also put in Spanish rice and a warm tomato/onion/cilantro sauce.  Sour cream, guacamole, and chopped lettuce and tomatoes come on the side.  The shrimp had that wonderful grilled taste to them and the sauce was a nice compliment to the taste.  With the Spanish rice, they were filling.

The chunky beef taco was good, but it almost had too much shredded cheese on top.  The chunky beef had been slow cooked in a sauce and was tender.  It wasn't as good as the shrimp tacos, but it was good enough. Quite actually, the three shrimp tacos were almost more than enough for what I wanted to eat.  I was kicking myself for ordering the fourth taco as they are not small at La Perla.  

After paying the waiter, I got up to take a look around at the inside of La Perla.  The bar area and the main dining room haven't changed all that much over the years.  I believe the bar area was initially also the dining area at La Perla, but I honestly can't remember if that's correct.  I want to say they added the dining room on after they had opened.  But I may be wrong on that.  Either way, both areas were colorful with the dining room sort of having a somewhat Mexican art-deco look to it.  When the back patio isn't open, La Perla can fill up quickly.

One of the more fun things they have in the bar area at La Perla is the "bucking pepper" ride.  They took an old mechanical horse that you used to see outside grocery stores for little kids to ride on and fashioned a large red pepper with a saddle on it.  Little kids, like the ones pictured at the right, can ride it, but the bulk of the riders are usually gassed up women who have had a couple too many margaritas.  The ride costs 25 cents and the money goes to charity.  It's highly popular and they even have their own "Pepper Cam" link on the Internet showing the pepper live. 

(As a somewhat strange aside regarding the picture to the right - I had stopped to take the picture of the two little boys playing on the pepper and evidently the kids' mother was seated at the table next to the pepper.  She shrieked at me, "Hey, what in the hell are you doing taking a picture of my boys!?"  

This caused her husband to turn around and look at me, then he turned back around at his wife and said, "What's going on?"

As I walked into the main dining room, I heard her say, "That man just took a picture of the boys!"

I heard her husband say, "Yeah! So?"  That's kind of what I thought.  That is, unless she thought I was a pedophile and was taking pictures of little boys.  But, hey, I probably wouldn't have won either way if a 20-something young lady was propped up on the saddle and I'd taken her picture.  I would have probably been called a pervert.  I just wanted a picture of the pepper.)  

One thing that I did notice was that La Perla had added on to their north side with their tequila bar.  They basically bought the building to the north of their building and put in a couple garage doors that would open on warm nights.  The only thing was that it looked closed that particular evening.  I didn't see any activity going on as I looked in the doors when I walked by to go into La Perla when I first arrived. 

My first visit back to La Perla in quite sometime was all right, really nothing special.  10 years ago, I would have told anyone who was looking for great Mexican in Milwaukee to head to La Perla.  I don't think I can say that any longer.  While it's still very good, there are other places in the immediate area that I think are better than La Perla.  It's still a fun place to go and the food is still better than most Mexican restaurants you'll find.  But La Perla has always been one of those places that has a spot in my heart since it was one of the first truly authentic Mexican restaurants we'd ever eaten at.  It's still worthy of a visit from time to time.

Su Casa Restaurante- South Haven, MI

About 10 years ago, we spent about five days in the Western Michigan resort community of South Haven.  We had wanted to go back for a number of years and we finally decided to take a long weekend earlier this year to visit again.  The hotel we wanted to get into was booked for a couple of the nights we planned to be there, so we ended up staying up in Holland, MI - 30 miles to the north - instead.  We did get back to South Haven for a good portion of a day while we were there and ended up having lunch at a Mexican restaurant by the name of Su Casa Restaurante.  

South Haven seemed to have changed over the past 10 years.  Some of the shops that we remembered from before were out of business.  It seemed sort of run down and sleepy compared to nearby resort/tourist destinations such as Saugatuck, Holland and Grand Haven.  If decompression is what you're looking for, South Haven is sleepy enough that you could easily achieve total relaxation.  But if you're like us who likes to go and do and see, there's not much in the town to satisfy that desire.  

We seem to remember more restaurants in town, as well.  We remember a great bed and breakfast/restaurant that had wonderful breakfasts, but that was closed.  A steakhouse on the outskirts of town we had eaten at in the past seemed to be closed, as well.  And there were only a couple three restaurants open in the downtown area.  We walked around for quite a bit on a warm afternoon before we decided to go get something for lunch.  We had been to a place called Clementine's in the past and while we remembered it as being just "OK", it seemed to be the only place open in downtown South Haven that had a full lunch menu.  But even in the middle of the afternoon the wait to get into the place was approaching a half hour.  We decided to go down the street to Su Casa and get some Mexican food.  (See map) 

The original Su Casa opened in 1986 in nearby Fennville, MI.  Edgardo and Maria Suarez came from Mexico to Michigan with a dream of opening their own restaurant.  Over the years, their son, Edgar, and his wife, Constance, became involved in the business.  The restaurant did so well in Fennville that it expanded into a three-story, 9,000 square foot facility.  It was the summer of 2009 that Edgar and Constance opened the South Haven location.  

It was after 3 p.m. when we walked into Su Casa and it, too, was packed.  We thought it was sort of interesting that most restaurants we went to for lunch around Western Michigan were very busy deep into the afternoon.  We figured that a lot of people had the same idea as we did.  Su Casa was so busy that there were very few tables available.  We walked through the long narrow dining room, past the bar and into a back dining room.  There was one table available, but it was next to a family with a fussy kid and a baby in a carrier that was crying.  We noticed a table clear back up front that was opening up and we decided to take that one instead.  

As we waited for someone to come by to greet us and drop off some menus, we noticed the bleached brick walls next to us.  The bar area was bright and lively.  All the seats were occupied when we got in the place, but it began to thin out as the afternoon went on.  A lot of the restaurant looked very contemporary, but the bleached bricks on the wall opposite the bar area gave away any hint of the restaurant being in a modern building.  

It was about 10 minutes before a waitress, Lili, came over and said, "Did you guys just sit down here?"  We told her we did.  She replied, "Sorry about that.  My boss usually is out here to greet and seat people, but we've been so busy today that he's had to help out in the kitchen."   She gave us each a menu and asked if we wanted something to drink.  Cindy ordered a margarita and I got a Dos Equis Amber on draft.  Another waitress dropped off a basket of homemade chips along with three different salsas - a pico de gallo salsa, a green salsa and a hot pickled carrot salsa.

Actually, the carrot salsa was the most interesting of the three.  The taste of the pickled carrots had a little bite to them and they were actually pretty good.  I joked to Cindy that if I had these available, I'd probably eat more carrots.  She said, "I see jars of them up on the bar.  Maybe they do sell them."  Turned out that they did, but we didn't buy any.  More on that later on.  

As we looked through the menu, we found it to be somewhat interesting with some of the foods they offered at Su Casa.  They had something called Millanesa - a breaded chicken breast steak or beef steak, probably a Mexican version of chicken fried steak.  You could get the Millanesa Rellena - the same thing only rolled and stuffed with ham and Chihuahua cheese.   They had pork tamales that caught my eye, as well as enchiladas topped with a salsa verde (green sauce).  

It seemed to take forever to get our drinks.  Lili finally brought my beer and it was another five mintues before Cindy got her margarita.  It occurred to us that they were woefully understaffed in the place.  Tables where people had gotten up and left stayed cluttered with used plates and glasses, sort of like how we found our table when we sat down.

Lili came back to take our order and since it was so late in the afternoon, we decided to eat light.  Cindy wanted a side salad and then wanted to split an order of the enchiladas with the salsa verde.  We asked Lili if we could get one of them chicken and the other two beef.  She didn't think that would be any problem.   In fact, she came back again a couple minutes later and said, "I just want to make sure I have this right - two beef and one chicken.  Right?" 

Cindy's side salad came out and it was pretty much like any side salad you'd see at any restaurant.   But it took awhile for the enchiladas to make it out to the table.  By this time, we were already there for about 40 minutes when Lili dropped the enchiladas off.  We had heard a guy at a table across the way give one of the waitresses a ration of crap for being so slow with the service.  We heard her say, "I'm so sorry, but we are so busy today."

The guy sort of brusquely said, "Well, then you should have called in more help."  

The enchiladas - we correctly guessed - were pretty small.  It wasn't that good of a value for $10.95.  They had the green salsa on top, then were topped with Chihuahua cheese.  The only problem is that they gave us three beef enchiladas, forgetting that we wanted one chicken and two beef.  Cindy didn't mind though.  "They're so busy, I'm sure the kitchen is overwhelmed, too," she said.  Refried beans, rice and chopped lettuce and tomatoes accompanied the enchiladas.  

The enchiladas were actually pretty good.  I really liked the salsa verde on the top - it had a nice little kick to the taste.  The rest of the items on the plate were pretty non-descript.  We made short work of the enchiladas and sort of poked at the beans and rice until we figured we were done.

We waited and waited and waited for Lili to bring us the check.  A full 10 minutes after we were finished, Cindy was able to flag down Lili to get our bill.  It was another five minutes before she came back with our check.  We were going to see if we could get a jar of the pickled carrots and just pay cash for them.  I put my credit card in the folder and left it there for Lili to pick up.  And we waited another five minutes.  By this time, it was well past an hour since we first sat down at Su Casa.   When she didn't come to pick up the check folder, I just decided to cut my losses and laid out $30 bucks (the bill came to about $26 with tax) and we left without getting the pickled carrots.  

Later on when I was doing research on Su Casa in South Haven, I found a handful of comments on a couple three travel and restaurant sites where others experienced slow service at the restaurant.  It didn't seem to matter if they were there on the weekend or at night through the week - there were a few people who experienced the same thing we did.  The food, while very good, wasn't that good of a value.  Su Casa was a nice place to get lunch, but it was a good thing that we weren't in any hurry while we were there.  The service wait was excruciating at times.  But food options appear to be limited in South Haven these days, so you have to put up with the slow service if you want to eat at Su Casa. 

El Patio - West Liberty, IA

My step-daughter turned us on to a little Mexican restaurant in West Liberty, IA - El Patio.  She has her degree in Spanish, has spent time in both Spain and Mexico, and married a Mexican national about three years ago.  When they're looking for authentic Mexican food, they make the drive from Iowa City to West Liberty to go to El Patio.  

I've been to El Patio a couple three times in the past.  The last time I went I took a number of pictures with my new camera phone, but I didn't know how to download the pictures from the hard drive on the phone onto my computer.  I accidentally lost all the pictures, but I knew that I'd be back.  One recent Sunday, we drove over to West Liberty to meet up with Cindy's daughter and her daughter's little boy, along with Cindy's mother and one of Cindy's sisters from Cedar Rapids. 

There's a large Hispanic community in the West Liberty area, largely due to the West Liberty Foods meat processing plant in the area.  There are a handful of Mexican-centric businesses in the immediate area and El Patio serves as both a restaurant and as a grocery store for the community.  The owner, Cupertino Sosa, had worked in a textile plant in New York City by day and drove a cab at night.  Wanting a quieter and safer life for his family, he moved them out to Iowa and settled in nearby Columbus Junction.  Looking around at different communities in the area, the Sosa family decided to plant their roots in West Liberty and moved there in 1995.  The Sosa's then opened Santa Ana, a Mexican grocery store.  

With West Liberty's Hispanic population growing, there was only one Mexican restaurant in the area that served primarily northern Mexican-style food.  Sosa, who grew up in the southern part of Mexico near Puebla, saw a need for a new restaurant in West Liberty, only with a different style of Mexican food.  He had a number of recipes from his home region that he wanted to share and it turned out that his store had virtually everything to start a Mexican restaurant. In 2002, the Sosa's moved to a new and bigger location just south of the intersection of U.S. Highway 6 and Iowa Highway 70 in West Liberty (see map) that could accommodate both a grocery store and a restaurant.  El Patio sits on one side of the building and Santa Ana on the other.  

Santa Ana grocery store has a number of Mexican spices, fruits and vegetables, and other items so you can make a number of authentic Mexican dishes at home.  They also have festive items such as pinatas and other party goods, as well as your normal household goods.  They also have Mexican Coca-Cola which many people feel has a better taste than American Coke.  I don't drink pop any longer, but looking at the Mexican Coca-Cola sitting in the cooler was certainly tempting.      

The restaurant (above right) is on your right as you enter the main door to the building.  You got through a set of Western-style swinging doors and you enter a small dining area that can seat 35 to 40 people.  It's bright and clean with the main kitchen in the back.  El Patio is open 7 days a week - opening at 11 a.m. daily, closing at 8 p.m. Sunday thru Thursday, and staying open until 9 p.m. on the weekends.  We pushed a couple tables together near the front of the dining area near the big window that looks out into a brick-walled entry way to the building.  As we sat down, a waitress came over with a couple baskets of chips and a couple small bowls of El Patio's wonderful homemade salsa.  It's just absolutely fabulous.     

El Patio is a full service restaurant with a full menu - including beer and margaritas - so I happily ordered a Sol beer while we looked over the menu.  They're especially known for their tacos which are made from scratch with fresh ingredients.  My step-son-in-law is particularly fond of the tacos which he says are about as close to the ones he would get back home in Mexico. While I've tried other items on the menu at El Patio, I always seem to come back to getting the tacos when we go there.  And this particular visit was no exception.  

They have a handful of different meats to choose from to put on their tacos - carne asada (steak), ground beef, spicy beef, chicken, and pork.  You can get them American style with cheddar jack cheese and lettuce on top, or get them Mexican style with cilantro, chopped onions and a chunk of avocado on top.  I always order mine Mexican style.   

This visit to El Patio, I ordered three tacos - spicy beef, carne asada and pork al pastor.  In fact, everyone in our party ordered tacos that day. They aren't very big, so most people can easily eat three tacos.  You can order them with flour shells if you like, but I always go with the homemade corn shell tacos.     

Since everything is made to order and they use fresh ingredients at El Patio, it takes a little longer to get your food than what you'd find at larger Mexican restaurants.  But the wait is definitely worth it.  

When the food was brought out, this is what my order of tacos looked like.  The carne asada is on the left, the spicy beef in the middle, and the pork on the right.  In addition to the avocado, cilantro and chopped onions, a fresh lime wedge is provided to squeeze on top of the tacos.  It gives them a nice little citrus taste.  

My step-daughter asked the waitress in Spanish for a couple of their hot sauces - a spicy green chili verde sauce, and a somewhat spicy red sauce.  She brought out a green and red squeeze bottle and my step-daughter poured some of the chili verde sauce on one of her tacos.   I immediately reached for the green sauce once she was through with it.  It offered a subtle kick at first, then had an excellent forward kick in taste after it settled on your tongue.  I joked that I wanted to steal one of the bottles of chile verde to take home with me.

The carne asada was flavorful and tender, as was the pork al pastor.  The spicy beef - on its own with no salsa verde - had a wonderful kick in taste.  And I certainly love the homemade and fresh soft corn taco shells they use at El Patio.   

I made short work of the three tacos I had and the waitress came over to see how we were doing.  I ordered up another carne asada taco.  The waitress left and came back a couple moments later and she said, "We're out of carne asada for the time being.  They're cutting up some beef right now and it should be 15 minutes or so if you'd like to wait."  As I said, the food is so fresh at El Patio that they make it to order.  I asked if they had any of the pork left and she said that they did.  I got another pork al pastor taco.  And that was enough.  I was full, so full that we didn't even have dinner that evening.  

El Patio is one of those little out of the way places that doesn't do a lot of advertising and probably doesn't have to.  The quality of the food speaks volumes of how good the place really is.  We're blessed to have some pretty good Mexican restaurants in the immediate Quad Cities area, but sometimes its worth the 45 minute drive over to West Liberty to get some of the best Mexican food we've ever had - and that includes food that we've had in Mexico. El Patio has never disappointed us in the past and we're hoping it continues to have great food in the future.

Barrio - Minneapolis

Earlier this year, Jerry Raskin's Needle Doctor made a substantial commitment to carry Cambridge Audio products for me and I made the trek up north to Minneapolis to do some training for them and to take the staff out to dinner afterward.  Since the staff at the Needle Doctor are all fun people, I asked one of the salespeople, Rachel, to pick out a "fun" restaurant for dinner that evening.  She immediately suggested an Italian place called Bar La Grassa, whose executive chef, Isaac Becker, recently won the James Beard Foundation award for Best Chef in the Midwest. But when she found out that they couldn't accommodate a group of 10 or more with less than a week's notice, she had to go to plan B.  She then suggested a hip Mexican restaurant with ties to Bar La Grassa in downtown Minneapolis by the name of Barrio.  

Barrio bills themselves more as a tequila bar offering more than 150 different types of tequila to choose from.  Since August of 2008, the little restaurant on Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis (see map) has served top shelf tequilas to go along with their variations on eclectic street-style Mexican food.  Barrio was founded by partners Tim Rooney and Ryan Burnet, both veterans of the Twin Cities restaurant and hospitality scene.  Burnet and his father helped develop the trendy W Minneapolis and Le Meridian Chambers boutique hotels in downtown Minneapolis.  The young Burnet is also a realtor with his father's Burnet and Birkeland realty firm and is somewhat famous in the Twin Cities for selling the mansion of the late banker and Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad in just over 30 days.     

Rooney is a partner in his own development firm, Metropolitan Development, that also helped develop the W and Le Meridian Chambers hotels in Minneapolis with the Burnets.  In addition to the hotels and the Barrio location in downtown Minneapolis, the younger Burnet and Rooney also helped develop Bar La Grassa with Isaac Becker in 2009.  

Pictured right - Ryan Burnet (courtesy BizJournals.com) 

Barrio in Minneapolis was an immediate hit when it opened in August of 2008 garnering "Best New Restaurant" in the Twin Cities in 2008 as named by Mpls/St. Paul Magazine.  Barrio opened a second location in St. Paul in 2009 and opened a third restaurant - Cocina del Barrio - in the upscale and trendy 50th and France neighborhood in Edina in late 2010.  

Bill Fairbanks is the executive chef for the Barrio restaurants.  A Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef, Fairbanks has been a chef for over 20 years including a stint at the Stillwater, MN location of the upscale La Belle Vie restaurant.  When Rooney and Burnet opened their first Barrio restaurant, they tabbed Fairbanks as their executive chef.  Fairbanks immersed himself into the Mexican culture, learning about their cuisine and added a European flair to the Latin food.    

Over the past few years, a number of Mexican restaurants have come into existence after the owners garnered a following of people who sought out the food trucks in which their food business started.  Barrio did it sort of backward.  After opening two restaurants, Barrio established a food truck business that goes around to events in the Twin Cities and offers nearly everything the regular Barrio restaurants have to offer in terms of food.  Most of the time, you'll find the Barrio food truck at the corner of 1st Ave. N and 4th St. Monday thru Friday just east of the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis (see map).  

I parked in a $5.00 parking lot a block away from Barrio near the corporate headquarters of Target.  Although it was a cool and pleasant Spring evening in Minneapolis, the Nicollet Mall was not as thriving as I thought it would be.  I walked to Barrio and noticed that no one was seated outside on the patio.  Even with as warm as it had been in the Twin Cities in the late Winter and early Spring, it was still too cool to sit outside. I went inside and found Rachel and some of the guys in the back corner of the main floor of the restaurant.  Rachel told me she had hoped that we could have been seated upstairs, but that didn't happen.  We were a little cramped by the time everyone showed up, but we were fine.  

The interior at Barrio in Minneapolis has sort of a gothic feel to it.  It was dark inside with subdued lighting from candles and chandeliers hanging from the high ceiling.  Rather curiously, they did have a large screen projection television beaming picture onto a screen on the wall opposite the bar.  

The bar area, itself, was rather interesting with a high mirrored wall full of shelves of bottles of tequila.  The real high dollar tequila (including Gran Patron Burdeos Extra Anejo at $133 a shot) sat on the very top shelf.  It was an impressive line-up of tequila, to say the least.  But I started off with a Surly Furious beer while others started with one of Barrio's exquisite margaritas.  

The dinner menu at Barrio is pretty basic, but very interesting.  They have a series of small plates that are served sort of "tapas" style for appetizers.  These include red snapper ceviche with avocados, radishes and oranges; a small plate of pork belly served with a red mole sauce, watercress and apricots; and grilled meatballs with a chile de arbol salsa, pickled carrots and a cheese queso sauce.  They had made-to-order guacamole served with homemade corn chips.  We ordered three of those to start out.  

The guacamole was outstanding, by the way.  It was served in a stone bowl with bits of radish and cilantro mixed in. It was extremely fresh.  Kenny from the Needle Doctor said that it was very had to get fresh avocados in Minnesota.  "We just don't have avocado farms in Minnesota," he half-jokingly said.  We made quick work of the guacamole, which was also served with a small portion of a spicy salsa mix.

Most of the Mexican fare at Barrio consists of interesting tacos and enchiladas.  While they do have entrees such as a seared ahi tuna with a tomatillo-avocado salsa, or a pan-roasted Amish chicken chimichurri served with a spicy black bean and mango salad, the bulk of the main food items are the tacos and enchiladas.  

They had a Taco Lengua - beef tongue - on the menu, along with a pork belly taco with a habenaro salsa and pickled onions.  Those were two that I wasn't willing to try.  I did find a seared ahi tuna taco served with grilled onions, avocado and an arbol-tomatillo sauce.  They had a red chile chorizo enchilada that was served with a fried egg.  Oooooo....  That sounded real good.   There was a pork carnitas taco, a "gringo" taco with ground beef, lettuce and cheese, a spicy shrimp taco with tomato-mint pico de gallo mixed in, and a soft-shell crab taco with watermelon-tomatillo, avocado and watercress.  Mmmmm....

I had finished my Surly beer and decided to get a margarita.  One of the guys had ordered the Trinity - a silver label tequila with Cointreau and a lime sour mixer.  He said it was pretty good.  I ordered one of those and Kenny, who was seated across from me, ordered the Macho Camacho - a blood orange margarita made with anejo tequila and a splash of Cava, a Spanish wine.  Wedges of orange and lime were included.  He said it was pretty damn good.  I made short work of my Trinity margarita and had our waitress, a lovely young Asian woman by the name of Chi - who took great care of us all night long - get me a Macho Camacho for my second margarita.  Kenny was right - it was good, and very interesting.

We began to order up our food and many in the group began to order up tacos and enchiladas, served individually on a plate.  A couple guys got entrees including the Creekstone Farms natural ribeye served with chile-lime tequila butter and fried yucca.  For tacos, I had to go with the ahi tuna taco and the red chile chorizo enchilada right off the bat.  I also decided to try one of the Creekstone Farms natural skirt steak tacos with poblano chile strips (rajas in Spanish), as well as a pork carnitas taco.  I came damn close to ordering a soft shell crab taco instead of the carnitas taco, but was happy with my choice.

After a few moments, waitresses helping Chi that evening were bringing out individual plates of tacos.  The first round to the table where for the people who ordered the skirt steak tacos, the pork belly tacos and the carnitas tacos.  The skirt steak taco was inside a deep fried shell that was light and flaky.  The carnitas were on double  small flour tacos (below left).  A wedge of lime was included with both plates.  The skirt steak was moist, juicy and flavorful.  The roasted poblano pepper strips had a nice smoky taste to them and went well with the beef.  The carnitas were equally as good, but a little more well-done than the skirt steak.  A serrano chile salsa was served on top of the pork and it helped with the taste. 

The food kept coming out.  It was coming in waves of individual plates.  Beef tongue tacos, chorizo enchiladas, shrimp tacos - each came out individually as soon as the kitchen finished them.  My second round consisted of my chorizo enchilada and the ahi tuna taco (above right).  Actually, the portions were pretty good sized and I was thinking I may have trouble finishing what I had in front of me.  But at the first bite of the ahi tuna taco, I knew I would have make short work of this thing.  The avocado with the arbol-tomatillo salsa just helped the already wonderful taste of the seared ahi tuna.

I was a little leery of the chorizo enchilada.  I had a bad experience a number of years ago with chorizo - food poisoning, I'm guessing - and I've pretty much stayed away from chorizo ever since.  But this chorizo wasn't greasy in the least and had a great flavor.  The fried egg went absolutely perfect with the chorizo in the enchilada.  I was getting full, but the taste sensation of the chorizo and egg was stupendous.  It was just outstanding.  

After dinner, a handful of us ordered a shot of tequila - the El Jimador anejo that was moderately priced at $8 bucks a shot.  It was smooth and was a nice nightcap.  But it was also the last thing I needed to drink that evening.   

Barrio was definitely an experience.  Everyone raved about their food and we all had a great time - two things that I like to have when I go out to a restaurant with a group of people.  It was a great experience and one that I'd like to enjoy some time down the line.  Actually, I've been wondering about those soft shell crab tacos ever since that night at Barrio.   

Old Mexico - Rock Island, IL

I'd had a long day in the office trying to close some deals.   After a couple last minute deals fell through very late in the day, I decided I'd had enough.  I needed some food and I needed a drink.   Cindy had suggested going across the river for Mexican food.   I immediately got into the mood for El Mariachi, probably my favorite of all the Mexican restaurants in the Quad Cities.  A couple of their margaritas and my mindset would be back to normal.

As we drove across the bridge to go to El Mariachi, I turned to head in that direction.  Cindy said, "Where are you going? I wanted to go to the other place."

"What other place," I asked.

"That place I read about in the paper," she replied.   Now, I don't remember us having a conversation about going to this other place.  In fact, she didn't even remember the name of it.  "I know where it is, just go this way," she said.

She guided me to place along the border of Moline and Rock Island (see map) and said, "This is it!"  I immediately recognized the place as a small Mexican restaurant that we ate at a number of years ago.

I said, "We've eaten here before."

She said, "Well, not since it's been called Old Mexico."  I just shrugged my shoulders and parked the car.  I just needed a margarita.

Old Mexico has been in business for about 10 years now, but we'd been to the location when it was known as Lolita's.   And we'd never been back for some reason. I really don't remember the visit other than it was in a building along the westbound one-way of 6th Ave. just inside Rock Island.  The Barajas family owns and operates Old Mexico, just as they owned Lolita's for a number of years before.

Lolita Barajas and her husband, Juanito, met in Mexico City in 1947 and were married soon thereafter. Juanito - who was actually born in Texas - came back to the United States in 1958, ending up as a waiter at the old LeClaire Hotel in downtown Moline.   In 1961, Lolita brought the rest of the family to the U.S. to meet up with Juanito.  Her first job was a cook at the original Adolph's Taco House in Moline. In 1965, the Barajas family opened their first restaurant - Lolita's - on 5th Street in Moline.  They moved Lolita's to the current location of Old Mexico in 1993.

Over the years, the Barajas family has owned and operated a total of 10 different restaurants along with a Mexican grocery store. George Barajas runs the Old Mexico location in Rock Island, while his sister, Delores, runs Lolita's Taco House in nearby Silvis.   However, even in their early 80's, Lolita and Juanito Barajas still show up to work at Old Mexico six days a week (they're closed on Sundays).   Lolita continues to cook much of the food at the restaurant and Juanito makes a lot of the sauces used daily.

The interior of Old Mexico is well lit with an ornate tin ceiling overhead.  A number of booths are along the side walls with tables in the middle.  A sparse crowed was in Old Mexico that evening, including a rather loud table of middle-aged to older ladies - one of whom had a piercing loud laugh.   More than once she made me jump with her quick and obnoxious high-pitched laugh.  When they got up to leave, we were certainly happy.

However, one thing that I noticed on the tables in front of the patrons - no sign of beer or margaritas. Sure enough, when the waitress brought around menus the only drinks listed were tea and soft drinks.   I just let out a heavy sigh and Cindy said, "Oh, boy. I screwed up on this one."   Seriously, I contemplated getting up and walking out because I wanted a margarita - just one - in a bad way.  But I decided to stick it out.  Cindy wanted to try this place and I was tired and hungry.  "You can have a margarita at home," she said.  But we had nothing at home to make a margarita with.  Oh well... I had a large glass of water instead.

The menu at Old Mexico is filled with a number of traditional Mexican foods - enchiladas, tacos, burritos, tamales, etc.  When I try a new restaurant, I want to try a combination plate.  They had about four or five combo plates on the menu.  The one that jumped out at me was the large combination - a taco, tostada, enchilada and a tamale.   Actually, I was looking rather hard at getting the pork tamales before I saw the combination plates on the menu.

Cindy found some chicken enchiladas on the menu that she wanted to try.  The chicken enchilada verde sounded very good to her.  We were ready to order, but there was only one young lady working the floor that evening.  Even though they weren't very busy, she was having to be the hostess, wait tables, answer the phone, be the cashier and help clean up.   We sat there patiently - well, no - not so patiently on my part to order food.  The lack of a margarita after a long day was still sticking in my craw.

The young girl finally came over and said, "You guys, I'm so sorry. Everything seems to get hectic all at once. What can I get you?"

We ordered up and fully expected food to show up in about 20 minutes, because that about the time it took a family of four seated near us to get their food after they'd ordered shortly after we walked in.  But in less than 10 minutes she came out carrying a tray with our food. It was a nice presentation.   The enchilada wasn't large, similar to the taco.   The tostada was covered in lettuce and cheese hiding the refried beans on the tortilla.  The tamale was sandwiched between a mound of Mexican rice and a large helping of refried beans.

Cindy's chicken enchilada verde consisted of three enchiladas topped with a green chile sauce and sour cream.   Lettuce and tomatoes were off to the side and an ample amount of rice and refried beans accompanied the enchiladas.

I tried the taco first.  The beef in the taco was rather salty.  Actually, pretty salty.  I don't salt much of anything so it especially stood out when I ate it.  It was all right, but I wasn't overly impressed by it.   The enchilada had beef and pieces of potato inside.   The beef was also salty and the enchilada sauce was rather bland.   I zipped the enchilada up with some of the homemade and above average salsa Old Mexico provides with chips.  It made it better.

The tostada was, well, a tostada.   It's pretty difficult to make variations of one when you're using the basics of refried beans, lettuce and Mexican cheese.  But when I got to the tamale, things went down hill rapidly.

I took a bite of the tamale and the taste was, well, funny.  It was unlike any tamale that I'd had anywhere.  I wasn't certain that I liked the taste of their variation of the starchy, corn dough of the tamale.   And the pork - I took a bite with the pork inside and there was something wrong with the meat.   I don't know if it was overcooked, but I'm guessing it was. It was tough to chew and I actually had to pull a small piece of hard, unchewable meat out of my mouth and place it on the plate.

I went back to eating my tostada for a moment before I went back to trying the tamale.   I took another bite of the tamale and immediately spit it out.  It was horrid in taste.  I had never had a tamale that tasted as bad as this.  There was something wrong with the pork.  Over cooked, probably.   Whatever it was, it tasted bad.  I was finished with my meal at that point.

Cindy kept trying to get me to try some of her chicken enchilada verde, but I just don't like chicken in Mexican food, unless it's grilled for fajitas or tacos - something like that.  She said, "This is very good. I'm sorry that yours wasn't very good."

As we left, Cindy knew I wasn't happy with my meal.  She said, "Aah! We gave that a try," fully knowing that I wouldn't want to go back anytime soon.

I really tried to like the food at Old Mexico.   I just love little family places like this, but the taco and enchilada were just OK, the tostada was nothing special and the tamale, well, the tamale was inedible.   I did like the sauce and the chips, but the lack of having margaritas, at least that evening, was a minus in my book.   I'd much rather patronize the smaller, family-owned places like Old Mexico, but - to me - there are much better Mexican restaurants in the Quad Cites that are similar to this place.  I really wanted the food to be good.   And the Barajas family have been in business for nearly 47 years now so a lot of people must really like their food.  It just didn't hit me like I'm sure it does others.   (Photo at left courtesy Quad City Times)

El Toro Restaurante - Champaign, IL

I spent the night in Champaign, IL recently, in town for a morning meeting the next day.  It was one of those evenings where I really didn't know what I wanted for dinner.  Being on the road so much, I sometimes get burned out on restaurants and don't know exactly what I would like to eat on a given night.  I had thought about Indian or barbecue.  There was a steakhouse just down the street from my hotel.  I decided to get in the car and head north on Neil Street toward the downtown area.  I passed William St. and I noticed a restaurant with a lighted and festive looking outdoor patio.  It piqued my interest, so I went back around the block to see what it was.  It turned out it was a Mexican restaurant - El Toro Restaurante. (See map) I debated with myself for a few seconds trying to determine whether or not I wanted Mexican food or not.  Then I thought, "You know, a margarita would taste pretty good."  So I pulled into the parking lot on the west side of the building and went inside.

El Toro is a 10 restaurant family-owned regional chain with three locations in Champaign/Urbana, and five more Illinois locations in Rantoul, Bloomington, Monticello, Danville and St. Joseph.  They also have El Toro Bravo restaurants in Cincinnati, OH, and Walton, KY on the southern edge of the Cincinnati metro area.  The original restaurant is on W. Springfield Ave. in Champaign.  In 1998, Victor Fuentes and his uncle, Manuel, opened their first restaurant, originally called El Torero.  It was a small place, seating only about 100 people, tops.  The Fuentes were joined by Victor's brothers and sisters, his wife and other family members in the business.  

The Fuentes family opened their second location - called El Toro I - in Urbana in 2002.  A third location on S. Neil Street opened in 2004.  Their growth continued with the purchase of a Mexican restaurant in Springfield, IL (since closed) and opening the St. Joseph location in 2007.  They moved from the original location to a space that was two and a half times larger on W. Springfield early in 2007.  Victor and his brother, Sammy, are the main partners in the El Toro chain today.  

Business at the S. Neil St. location had also grown tremendously over the years.  They ended up moving in February of 2011 to a new location at the corner of William St. and S. Neil, closer to downtown.  Even though the restaurant faces William St. and the main entrance is from the parking lot behind the building, the restaurant location maintains a Neil St. address.   

It was around 7:30 when I got into the place.  I was met at the hostess stand by a pleasant young lady who asked me if I wanted to eat in the bar or in the dining room.  I took a look in the bar area, a very nice bar area that had high tables, high backed chairs, a nice bar with a couple televisions on the back wall.  

There are two dining rooms in this particular El Toro - the middle room off the bar area that is well-lit, and the front dining room that features a fireplace, wooden beams across the ceiling and full-size windows looking out onto the patio on the south side of the building.  Since it was still winter, the patio was closed, but strings of lights illuminated the outside of the place.  

The hostess sat me at a table in the middle room off the bar area and dropped off a menu with a small menu listing their specials they had that night.  My server for the evening, Alfredo - a pleasant 40-something man - came over to ask me what I wanted to drink.  I told him that I wanted a margarita on the rocks, no salt.  

As I waited for the margarita, I took a quick look through the menu at El Toro.  Now, I've said for a number of years that there has to be some sort of a Mexican restaurant godfather who comes up with the menu items for Mexican restaurants.  A number of them - like Azteca in the Quad Cities and El Maguey in the St. Louis area - all seemed to have the same combinations and under the same number.  El Toro was another cookie-cutter Mexican restaurant when it came to their menu.  Combination number 23 on the El Toro menu is a taco, chile relleno and a tostaguac - which, I believe - is the number 22 on the Azteca menu.  The number 1 on the El Toro menu - a taco, two enchiladas with rice and beans - is, I believe, number 1 on the El Maguey menu.  Nevertheless, it's all good in my book.  It's like going into a McDonald's and knowing that the number 4 value meal is the same everywhere.  

Alfredo came out with my margarita.  Chips and salsa had been placed on the table by another server moments earlier.  He wanted to know if I was ready to order.  Since the menu was similar to many other Mexican restaurants like El Toro, you'd think I'd have an idea as to what I wanted.  But I really didn't.  They had a lot of seafood specialties on the menu - I was leaning heavily toward the shrimp tacos.  But I was thinking of getting a chimichanga or maybe some fajitas.  I told Alfredo that I needed a little more time.  

The chips were fresh and warm and the salsa was pretty average.  It was very similar to the other cookie-cutter Mexican restaurants where I've eaten. The salsa wasn't bad at all, just similar to others.  

The margarita, I have to say, was outstanding.  The mix was not overly sweet or syrupy.  It had an adequate amount of tequila in the mix - at least enough where I could taste the booze.  I made short work of the margarita.  

I had picked up the specials list for the night and saw something on there call the "Fajita burrito" - a large burrito filled with fajita meat (your choice - chorizo, chicken or steak) with grilled onions and bell peppers, then guacamole is added.  It's folded and then topped with a melted Mexican cheese.  When Alfredo came back I ended up ordering the steak fajita burrito.  Even though the margarita was excellent, I decided for my next drink to get a bottle of Dos Equis Amber beer. 

My meal took a little longer to get out to me than normal for Mexican restaurants of El Toro's type.  I'm sure they were cooking everything up from scratch on the grill and then placing it inside the burrito.  It was a huge burrito that covered the majority of the large plate that it came on.  There were some herbs - probably cilantro - that were mixed in with the Mexican cheese sauce on top of the burrito. 

The burrito was packed with a lot of meat and veggies.  The steak fajita meat was good and flavorful.  It wasn't outstanding or it didn't knock my socks off.  But it was typical of this type of Mexican restaurant.  Good and serviceable.  That's all I'm looking for in a Mexican restaurant like this.  

I couldn't eat the whole thing, so I ended up picking most of the steak out of the center of the burrito.  I dipped the steak in the salsa a couple times to help zip up the taste and that was good.  I ate what I could and left a good portion of the large burrito on my plate.  Alfredo wanted to know if I wanted a box, but I declined.  It was all I needed.

The fajita burrito special at El Toro was a great value - $7.95 for that big thing.  My bar tab for the margarita and the Dos Equis Amber was higher than my food tab (like that's a surprise).  As I said, the burrito was good - not outstanding - but good Mexican-style comfort food.  The margarita was well above average.  At a place like El Toro you know you're going to get a pretty good meal at a pretty fair price.  I'm sure there are other options for Mexican food in Champaign, but considering I sort of came across El Toro as I was driving down the street I was happy that I found it.  The margarita, alone, is worth the trip to one of their locations.  That is, if they make them all the same - and I'm guessing they do. 

Lindo Michoacan - Las Vegas

During our visit to Las Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, we decided to keep our tradition going for going out for Mexican food when we all get together for shows. My colleagues Ian and Simon had eaten at a Mexican restaurant during a small show they attended in Las Vegas the previous year and they said it was good. My colleague Todd was in charge of making restaurant plans once again this year and he booked us into the place - Lindo Michoacan. (Michoacan is pronounced "Mitch-wa-can")

The owner of Lindo Michoacan, Javier Barajas, has a pretty compelling story behind him and how he was able to make the restaurant one of the favorites around Las Vegas. Growing up in Michoacan, a Mexican state along the south central Pacific coast, the young Barajas had dreamt of going to America to make big money. He wanted to be able to drive a shiny new car back home, just like many men who came back to his village had done when he was a little boy.

His grandparents sent the young Barajas to study at a seminary in Michoacan. There was a wooden revolving door that separated the nuns who were cooking the food from the students in the dining hall. However, Javier struck up a friendship with the Mother Superior, communicating through a small crack in the door. After awhile, the Mother Superior asked Javier to come into the kitchen to help move pots and pans around. Noticing his keen sense of quick learning, they asked the young Barajas to help out in the kitchen, eventually teaching him the concepts and secrets of Michoacan cuisine.

Javier Barajas (pictured right) knew that he wanted to eventually go to the United States and become a cook there. But the only way he was going to be able to do that was to cross illegally. Along with an uncle who was the hoping to become a farm worker in America, the then 16-year-old Barajas crossed the border no less than 10 times. But each time they were picked up by border agents and sent back to Mexico. When he finally made it across the border, he bought a bus ticket to Los Angeles. Or so he thought. The problem was that he didn't speak any English and he ended up in Las Vegas. That was over 30 years ago.

Barajas eventually married an American citizen and that allowed him to stay in the country legally. He opened the first Lindo Michoacan location in 1990 using a lot of recipes that he'd learned at the seminary, as well as a number of recipes that he got from his mother. Barajas' father and mother eventually moved to the U.S. and helped out in the kitchen.

Today, there are four Lindo Michoacan locations in the Las Vegas valley. They've garnered the "Best Mexican" restaurant award seven times from the readers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The executive chef for the Lindo Michoacan restaurants is Barajas' son, Javier, Jr. The young Barajas is a Culinary Institute of America-trained chef and spent some time working for the Disney corporation before joining the family business. Javier, Jr. credits his grandmother with showing him the finer details of Michoacan cuisine.

Michoacan cuisine is famous throughout Mexican as a melding of foods from land and sea. "Michoacan" roughly means "Land of Fishermen" and not only does it have a thriving sea fishing trade, but the Mexican state is dotted with a number of lakes and rolling rivers to the sea. In addition to a lot of fish and seafood in the diet, Michoacan cuisine features a number of corn-based food, as well as different varieties of tamales. When the Spaniards colonized the area centuries ago, they brought along pork, chicken and beef recipes that are still prevalent today. With the vast and varied foods that Michoacan has to offer, it's no wonder that their cuisine is often referred to as "Mexican soul food" as Mexicans say that Michoacan is the soul of Mexico.

One of the reasons Todd picked Lindo Michoacan is that the main location on E. Desert Inn (see map) offers free shuttle service from hotels on the Strip. There were going to be 10 of us for dinner and the vehicle that we had in Vegas only sat 8 - and not comfortably. Todd checked to see how long it would be for the shuttle and we found out that it would be too long before they could pick us up. We decided to take 8 in the van and Ian and Todd cabbed it over. They got there a few minutes before we did and were already seated at a long table - pitchers of margaritas were sitting on the table waiting for us. The margaritas were pink - the house margarita we were told. They were good, but a little effeminate at first glance.

Lindo Michoacan was obviously a favorite of many people in the consumer electronics industry. I ran into a number of people who I've known in this business over the years. One of them, Ernie Coulter from Control 4, told me that their group always makes a trek to Lindo Michoacan at least one time during CES. "The food here is great," Ernie told me.

We were given menus and it was rather dark in the restaurant. Although it was brightly decorated in traditional Mexican restaurant colors and decor, it was difficult to read the menu. I took to using the LED light application on my smart phone to be able to read the menu.

The menu, itself, was vast and varied. They had a number of appetizers that I had never heard of or encountered before. I was especially interested in the Sopitos Steak Chorizo - six small handmade corn tortillas lightly fried and stuffed with steak and chorizo along with lettuce, black beans, tomatoes and sour cream. That sounded good as a dinner entree. (Picture at left courtesy Living Las Vegas)

They had a number of pork, beef, chicken and seafood entrees to choose from. They also had a number of egg dishes including Huevos Rancheros and Huevos Chorizo. But they also had an egg entree with your choice of either shredded pork or shredded beef. It all sounded so interesting.

Chips and salsa came to the table as we were looking over the menu. The salsa had a nice spicy kick to it and the chips were very fresh. Someone ordered up some of Lindo Michoacan's homemade guacamole. It was spectacular. The guacamole was very fresh and flavorful. There were three large bowls of it on the table and we all made short work of the guacamole.

When it came time to order, I was having trouble figuring out what I really wanted. A lot of the beef dishes were steak based, as in full steaks. I looked long and hard at the Novillo al Jerez - a filet marinated in a homemade sauce, then cooked with chopped onion and bacon bits. It's finished off with fresh garlic, peppers and Jerez, a sweet Mexican sherry wine. I almost went for the shrimp chimichangas, too. I can almost imagine that their seafood entrees at Lindo Michoacan would be very good. But when it came time to order, I had to think quick. I finally settled upon the Carnitas dinner - pork chunks marinated in orange juice and spices, then cooked up and served with a green sauce and guacamole. A chile toreado - basically a roasted whole jalapeno - came with the meal, along with refried beans and rice.

After awhile, our food began to show up at the table and we all dug in. While my pork carnitas were tender to the bite, the taste was rather bland and not very spectacular. I'm not saying it was bad, far from it. But to me it was just OK. There seemed to be some sort of pizazz missing with the meal. The roasted jalapeno gave the overall entree a little kick in the taste buds, but the pork was pedestrian.

My colleague Michael was seated next to me and he got the combination dinner with a beef and bean burrito, a shredded beef tamale and a beef taco. I asked him, "Where were the combinations on the menu? I certainly didn't see them."

Michael said, "It was on the back of the menu." I guess I didn't get that far into the menu before I ordered. He was having trouble finishing his portions, which were pretty big. I asked him how the tamale was and he said, "Good! Want half?"

I couldn't say no to that. The tamale was good, not great, but good. The shredded beef was a little shy on taste, but the tamale as a whole was good.

However, the biggest buzz at the table happened when Jon Baker, a former colleague of ours who we'd invited out to dinner with us that evening, got his order. He ordered the "El Burrito Bionico", but had no idea what it was other than it came with a choice of beef, pork or chicken along with rice, beans, lettuce, pico de gallo, Monterrey Jack and cheddar cheese with sour cream and guacamole. It was $11.95 on the menu and - quite actually - sounded pretty good. When they brought it out, we figured out why - in English - it meant "The Bionic Burrito".

It was huge. It covered the whole large plate sitting in a pool of sauce. We were all surprised by the size, none more than Jon. "I didn't know what I ordered. If I would have known it was this big I would have never ordered it. But all the stuff they put inside, I figured it had to be pretty good." And it was. He offered me a bite of it and the combination of ingredients - he got beef for his meat choice - was very good. A couple other guys had a bite or two of it and, above right, is what it looked like when Jon waved the white flag and said that he was full.

When I went to the University of Iowa back in the early 80's, some friends and I would always go to Carlos O'Kelly's - which, back then, was about the best Mexican food we could find in Iowa City. After we'd finish, they would always ask if we wanted any fried ice cream for a dessert. Of course, after gorging ourselves on chips, nachos with cheese and jalapenos, THEN eating a large entree, along with having multiple beers, we were always so full that there was no way we could eat fried ice cream. We always said that someday we'd just go out to Carlos O'Kelly's and get fried ice cream - just fried ice cream - because, well, it sounded good. You know, that never happened. In fact, to this day, I'd never had fried ice cream at a Mexican restaurant.

Well, until our evening at Lindo Michoacan. The waiter, as a treat for our table, brought out four or five fried ice creams - on the house. I was so full from my dinner (I did finish all my carnitas, but left a lot of the rice and bean) as well as piecing on Michael's tamale and a bite of Jon's Bionic Burrito. But it was sitting there in front of me, calling my name. The fried ice cream at Lindo Michoacan has an outer crust of flour used in tortillas and cinnamon. Oooo.... The ice cream ball is rolled in the mixture and quickly deep fried making the outer shell crispy and the ice cream inside still cold. I finally broke down and had a couple bites. It was sinful and heavenly at the same time. I knew it would be good, but not that good.

I guess I'm having a lot of trouble wrapping my mind around what people have said for a long time that this Lindo Michoacan is the best Mexican food in Las Vegas. I guess I was looking for a mind-blowing Mexican food experience and I just didn't get that from Lindo Michoacan. I've had better Mexican food in the Midwest and I really thought this would be just out of this world. The service was good, the margaritas - albeit pink - were very good, the chips, salsa and guacamole was excellent, but I thought the food I had was just average at best. Would I go back? Yeah, sure, if everyone wants to go back during CES next year. I may try the shrimp chimichanga if I go back. But the other food I tried on my first visit didn't live up to the billing.

El Maguey - Chesterfield, MO

I really can't tell you about the first time I ate at an El Maguey Mexican restaurant in the St. Louis area.  It may have been back in 1994 when I was working for a company based out of the far western St. Louis suburb of Chesterfield whose office was near the Spirit of St. Louis Airport in the Chesterfield Valley.  I just remember the food being very good and thinking that the pronunciation of the place was "El MAG-way".  

A few years later, I was working for a company based out of St. Peters, another far western suburb of St. Louis.  The sales manager of the company asked me if I wanted to go eat Mexican for lunch, someplace called "El Ma-GUY".  He said it was over in St. Charles, not far from the office.  When we went to the St. Charles location, I said, "Oh, I've eaten at one of these before!"  Only I thought it was pronounced El MAG-way."  

My sales manager looked at me like I was a complete Midwestern hick.  "It's El Ma-GUY!"  I am such an uncultured dweeb sometimes.  But, then, that was a long time ago...

On a recent trip to St. Louis, I found myself staying in the Chesterfield valley one evening and I found out that there was an El Maguey not far from the hotel.  I took a short trip over to the one off of Long Road in the Chesterfield Towne Center, right in the flight path of Spirit of St. Louis airport.  (see map)

I can't tell you how many El Maguey's there are in the St. Louis area.  I've seen them in Kansas City, Columbia and Springfield, MO.  I have eaten at - maybe - six different El Maguey's around the St. Louis area over the years - a couple of them I've been there multiple times in the past.  I was somewhat surprised that I'd never written about El Maguey before this.

The name of the restaurant comes from the name of a Mexican plant from which Mezcal is extracted from, then distilled.  The maguey plant is a close relative to the agave plant from which top-notch tequila is made from.  They extract the Mezcal from the heart of the agave plant known as the "pina".   Mezcal is the Mexican liquor in which the worm comes at the bottom of the bottle.  But not all Mezcal bottles have the worm - it started out as a mistake in the 30's when an infestation of larvae from a moth that lives in the maguey plant got into some of the bottles during the distilling and bottling process.  Some companies then used this as a marketing ploy and began to put the little larvae worms in the bottles with the Mezcal.  Today, most of the Mezcal that is produced comes from the Oaxaca region of Mexico.  Over 500 distilleries are located in Oaxaco.  I had Mezcal one time back in the 70's when I was much younger and much more stupid than I am today.  I think I saw Jesus that night...

I don't exactly know when the first El Maguey came into being, but today there are about 40 El Maguey franchise locations in Missouri and Kansas.  In doing some research for this entry, the name Martin Leon came up in connection with many of the El Maguey locations from St. Louis to Topeka, KS.  I don't know if he was the founder of the original El Maguey, but I'm guessing he has something to do with the overall corporate structure of the company.  

When I pulled into the parking lot of the Chesterfield Towne Center that one evening, I immediately remembered that I had eaten at this particular El Maguey location at one point and not all that long ago.  It is located less than 100 yards from where the company I used to work for back in the early to mid-90's was located.  But the land on which the Chesterfield Towne Center sits today was a large open field back then.  

The dining area of this particular El Maguey is open and spacious.  The well lit room features a number of tables in the center with booths lining the walls.  A young man greeted me when I came in and escorted me to a booth - I remember sitting in the exact same booth on my previous visit - and he handed me a menu.  

The first thing I did before he walked away was to order one of El Maguey's large margaritas.  I've always liked El Maguey's margaritas - the mix is not too sweet and syrupy like you find at a number of other Mexican restaurants.  And they always seem to pack it with a generous amount of tequila.  After mixing up this particular margarita and taking a sip, it confirmed my assertion - there was a LOT of tequila in this one.  

The menu at El Maguey is really not unlike many other Mexican restaurants that I've been to over the years.  We have a lot of Mexican restaurants in the Quad Cities of Iowa and Illinois and the menu at El Maguey could literally be interchanged with some of them.  We used to joke that a Number 4 combination and a Number 22 combination on the menu at one of the Azteca locations in the Quad Cities is the same as the Number 4 and the Number 22 at El Maguey.  We figured that there had to be one guy who overlords all of the Mexican menus at places like El Maguey and Azteca.  

El Maguey features, of course, fajitas that include your choice of beef, chicken, shrimp or chorizo (or all four, if you want).  But they also feature a vegetarian fajita and something called the Fajitas del Mar - a seafood fajita entree that features tilapia, shrimp and crab meat.  I don't know if I've ever seen a seafood fajita entree on a menu at a Mexican restaurant.  I was seriously considering getting that.  They also feature a number of Mexican style steak entrees, as well as a number of chicken dishes.  Their quesadillas are very good and I do like their Quesadilla Jalisco which consists of El Maguey's succulent grilled shrimp mixed with beans.  There's something about El Maguey's shrimp that sets me off.  I don't know if it's the seasoning they use or the way they grill it, but the grilled shrimp I've had at any El Maguey is outstanding to my taste buds.

I looked at enchiladas (their Enchilada Maguey - filled with grilled shrimp - is to die for), their burritos (the Burrito Mexicano with pork is excellent, as well) and chimichangas.  They have a Carnitas Dinner entree that I've had and is also very good - they take seasoned slow-roasted pork and serve it with rice, beans, guacamole, pico de gallo and grilled onions.  And, of course, I had to go through their combinations - over 30 of them - all of which cost $8.25 each.

I was torn between getting something with shrimp and something with pork.  I did the best of both worlds with a  shrimp chimichanga and a pork taco a la carte.  The waiter asked if I wanted my taco with a hard corn shell or a soft flour shell.  I went with the soft shell that evening.  It wasn't long before both the taco and the chimichanga showed up at my table.  

The first thing I ate was the pork taco.  It was the slow roasted carnitas style of pork that I like at El Maguey and it was outstanding.  A little bit of lettuce and cheese was sprinkled on top and I didn't need to add any of El Maguey's very good salsa to the taco.  The succulent taste of the pork jumped out with each bite.  

After getting my pork fix for the evening, the shrimp chimichanga was next.  It was smaller than the pork or beef tipped chimichangas I've had at an El Maguey in the past.  There were - perhaps - 10 medium sized shrimp inside the flour tortilla wrap.  And the wrap was entirely too large for the chimichanga.  I was getting more of the tortilla with each bite than I was the shrimp, so much so that about halfway through eating the chimichanga that I just started picking the shrimp out of the inside of the chimichanga and eating it like that.  Like I say, there's something about the shrimp at an El Maguey's that just sets me off and these were no exception.  I wonder if I could just go into El Maguey and order a couple dozen grilled shrimp - no sides - and see what they'd charge me for it.  

The beans and rice were serviceable - not much to talk about there.  El Maguey's guacamole is above average and they never give me enough when I order a chimichanga from there.  I should just order some guacamole dip when I go there and quit bitchin' about not getting enough of the stuff.

El Maguey is always a predictable outcome for me.  The food is good and they have a number of items to choose from.  The service is good, as well.  The chips and salsa are good.  The margaritas are good.  If you're looking for "good" Mexican food, but nothing outstanding or flashy like you may find at more adventurous Mexican restaurants, El Maguey is going to suit your needs.  It's family friendly, fast and efficient, and I've never had a bad experience during all the years I've eaten at an El Maguey.  I can see where some people may not like the food, while others will rave about the place.  Put me in the middle, but more so to the "rave" end of the spectrum. 

La Lagartija Taqueria - Chicago

I gotta hand it to the guys from Music Direct in Chicago - they do a great job in turning me on to some great restaurants when I go in to visit - some famous in the Chicagoland region and some very good ones that are not so famous. A few weeks ago, I was in to see the gang at Music Direct and Jason and I had talked about going to Manny's Deli for lunch. (See my entry on Manny's here.) One of the guys asked me, "Do you like fish tacos?" Well, of course I do! He said, "Jason, you need to take him to Lagartija!"

Jason asked me, "Haven't I taken you to Lagartija?" Nope, not me, buddy. "It's a little Mexican joint, not far from here. They have the best shrimp tacos..." Finally, he made an exaggerated wave of his arm and said, "Screw Manny's! We're going to Lagartija!"

(First of all, I have to apologize for the quality of the pictures. The camera lens on my cell phone was smudged and I didn't realize it until after I downloaded the pictures onto my computer. I was able to clean 'em up a bit, but they're still not up to snuff.)

La Lagartija Taqueria is a small place on Ashland Ave, just south of Ogden Ave. and about a quarter mile east of the United Center in Chicago. (see map) Lagartija in Spanish is "little lizard" and there's a large and colorful metal lizard on the wall of the contemporary Mexican restaurant. The little lizard is the mascot for La Lagartija and their owners, Luis Perea and Laura Cid-Perea who opened the little taqueria in 2010.

The Perea's are no strangers to the Chicago food scene. Laura Cid-Perea used to work for Rick Bayless and his Frontera Grill/Topolobampo restaurants. (See my entry on Frontera Grill here.) In 2001, Cid-Perea, a Mexico City-raised, Le Cordon Bleu (Paris)-educated pastry chef, left Bayless' employ and opened the Bombon Bakery. It was immediately popular with people looking just for eclectic snacks all the way up to people needing cakes for birthdays, weddings and bar mitvahs. Cid-Perea also became the personal pastry chef for a number of celebrities in the Chicago area.

Luis Perea was a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and had also worked for the Lettuce Entertain You restaurant empire in Chicago. Cid-Perea and Luis Perea opened the Bombon Cafe on Ashland in 2005. But instead of selling primarily cakes and pastries, they also sold Mexican food. Very good and eclectic Mexican food.

The original Bombon Bakery location caught fire and was destroyed in 2008, devastating the Perea's spirit. They continued to run the Bombon Cafe and had a secondary location for their bakery that was still going, but in 2010 they decided to open La Lagartija just down the street from the Bombon Cafe. It immediately became one of the top Mexican restaurants in Chicago.

We were able to find parking just down the street from La Lagartija one early afternoon. Jason told me, "Two bad things about this place - parking and the service is slow." He told me to pay for about 90 minutes of parking. "It shouldn't be that long," he said. "But they make everything literally from scratch and it takes a while for the food to come out."

We sat up front in the brightly lit restaurant and were given menus to look over. A number of items on the menu were completely foreign to me in that I had never heard of some of these foods before. Jason, who is a regular at La Lagartija, was helpful in explaining some of the dishes. They had a listing of Alambres on the menu and Jason said that they were basically these large tacos with different types of filling inside. "They're huge," he said. "And the different types of meat and vegetables and cheese they put in there all sort of fuse together in this..." He stopped, rolled his eyes and looked down. "It's just outstanding, I can't describe it any better than that."

He suggested the tacos - his favorites are the shrimp and chicken tacos. I'm not large on chicken tacos, but he was telling me that they must marinate the chicken in a fruit juice. "The meat is sweet and fruity tasting," he said. "The best chicken tacos I've ever had."

I ordered three small tacos - the skirt steak, shrimp and fish tacos. Jason ordered chicken, shrimp and fish tacos. I wanted to try the al pastor (pork) tacos, but wanted to try these three first. If I was still hungry afterward, I'd get an al pastor.

Jason also ordered something called a cazuelita - basically a baked cheese dish, or known as a queso fundido that was mixed with chorizo (below left). He got some flour tortillas to go with the cheese and chorizo. They also have these with just cheese, or also with cheese and mushrooms, poblano chiles and their al pastor.

The sauces the waitress brought to the table are completely different from any type of salsa or hot sauce I've had at any Mexican restaurant (above right). First of all, they're served in small bowls and they're all made fresh each day. The green sauce had hints of peppers, cilantro and sort of a fruit taste with a quick bite to the taste. The darker of the red sauces had a smoky, peppery taste to it with a little more spicy taste. The other red sauce I found to be sort of bland, but still had a nice spicy bite to it.

Another thing Jason ordered for us were licuados (below left). Licuados are basically a runny Mexican milkshake that is made with sweetened rice milk and touched ever so lightly with a bit of cinnamon. Oh, man, it was good. But it was, oh, so rich and filling. The water they gave us to drink at the table was a sort of lemon water, very citrusy in its taste. One other thing that I found that is wrong with La Lagartija is that they have no alcohol so you couldn't get a beer or a margarita. At least, I didn't see anywhere where they had a bar with alcohol. That's fine, the food was great without it.

The food - yes, the food. The tacos came out about 15 minutes after we ordered. Each taco was a little different with onions on top of the skirt steak taco, a sort of spicy mayo cream on top of the shrimp tacos, and a combination of chopped greens with chopped tomatoes and avocados on top of the fish taco. I tried the skirt steak taco first and it was delicious. I topped it with a little of the smoky red salsa and it gave it a great kick to the taste.

The next taco I tried was the shrimp taco. I looked at the shrimp and they were battered. I told Jason, "Aw, geez, I don't really like battered seafood in tacos."

Jason sort of looked at me, smiled, and said, "Don't worry, you will."

The batter on the outside of the shrimp was sort of a tempura-like coating, lightly fried and moist to the taste. The shrimp encased in the batter were not overcooked and rubbery like you get with deep fried shrimp, but were plump and juicy to the bite. Jason was right - all preconceived notions about deep fried seafood on tacos went out the window with La Lagartija's shrimp tacos. "Didn't I tell you," he asked after I finished that delectable taco. It was simply scrumptious.

The fish taco was also very good in its own right. The white fish was grilled, then chopped and placed on the tortilla shell. The toppings of the greens with the tomatoes and avocado was very fresh. The green sauce went extremely well with the fish tacos.

Jason offered me a bite of the queso/chorizo fundido. He said, "Chorizo is usually pretty greasy. But for some reason it's not here." I had gotten food poisoning on chorizo a number of years ago and I usually shy away from the Mexican sausage. But the taste of the chorizo at La Lagartija was very flavorful. It had a little spicy kick to the meat, probably blended with chile peppers, I'm guessing.

He also offered me a bite of the chicken meat from his taco. I got a fork full of the chopped chicken and I will say that it was exactly as he described. It had sort of a sweet, fruit taste to the chicken. On a taco, this would also be very good.

Even though I was getting full - mainly thanks to the licuado - I got the waitresses attention and ordered an al pastor taco. Between five and ten minutes later, she brought it out to me. The al pastor pork was smoky in flavor, had a great seasoning to it, but was a little overcooked for my taste.

On the way back to Music Direct, Jason said, "OK, you tried six different meats at Lagartija. What was your favorite?"

I'd have to say the skirt steak was very good, as was the shrimp taco. Actually, all of it was very good, easily one of the best authentic Mexican meals I've had in my life. I told Jason that I would have to bring my wife in at some point to try the tacos and the queso fundido at La Lagartija, or maybe try one of the alambres. He said, "My wife is addicted to the place. We get take out from here from time to time. She doesn't even have to verbally tell me where she wants to go. It's that good."

Yes, La Lagartija is that good...

Inca - Sioux Falls, SD

I was in Sioux Falls earlier this past fall to see a dealer that we've been doing business with for sometime, now. We had to meet late in the day because of scheduling conflicts and afterward I asked him if he wanted to go out and get some dinner. He begged off as he had something going on with his wife. So, I was on my own and sort of had a hankering for Mexican or Cajun food. Well, there really isn't any Cajun in Sioux Falls, but there are a handful of Mexican restaurants. On the recommendation of the desk clerk at my hotel, he steered me to Inca, a Mexican restaurant on the south side of Sioux Falls (see map).

In 1997, Julio Espino was sent to Sioux Falls to service sales systems for restaurants who were clients of the company he worked for. He actually drew the short stick to go to Sioux Falls as his colleagues all passed on the assignment. Espino spent some time in Sioux Falls and fell in love with the area. He also found that there was a paucity of Mexican restaurants in the city. He contacted a friend out in Seattle, Danny Navarro, whom Espino knew from the restaurant industry. He convinced Navarro to come out to Sioux Falls to help him open a restaurant. Navarro thought he'd only stay a few weeks to help Espino start up the restaurant, but he ended up staying in Sioux Falls, as well.

Espino had immigrated to the U.S. in the late 80's and helped a number of Mexican immigrants who moved to the Sioux Falls area. However, in 2007, Espino was convicted of hiring illegal immigrants - paying them cash for their services in his restaurant - and was sentenced to four years probation, six-months house arrest and ordered to pay a $15,000 fine and perform 200 hours of community service over a two year period. It could have been a lot worse for Espino - his lawyer successfully argued that Espino had only hired the illegals to help them get on their feet as they worked to get citizenship, plus the fact that Espino contributed much to the Sioux Falls community (a point that even prosecutors acknowledged). Today, Espino helps other businesses when it comes to hiring practices and how to stay compliant with federal guidelines.

Espino recently opened a second location on Sioux Falls' west side - Inca Express - that has a smaller menu and more of a fast paced feel compared to the original Inca. He has also been thinking of putting a second Inca location on the east side of Sioux Falls.

The food fare at Inca is categorized as Chihuahuan-style. Chihuahuan region food is described as a melting pot of different cuisines picked up by immigrants to Mexico beginning in the 16th century. Not only do you find influences of Spanish food in Chihuahua, but you'll also find variances of French, Lebanese, Welsh and Italian foods. But most importantly to the Chihuahuan region are the Mennonites who immigrated to Mexico in the early 1920's, coming first from their lowland areas of Holland and Northern Germany, then to Canada before accepting an invitation from the Mexican government. Mennonite-raised beans, corn and chiles are now a staple for Mexican food and Mennonite cheese is considered the best of all the Mexican cheeses.  

The dining area at Inca is divided into two areas - the more spacious and well lit main area (below left) that has natural colors on the walls and ceilings, with pastels for the booth seats and table tops - and a smaller area along the west side of the building with booths lined along windows. I was seated at one of those booths next to the window and given a menu.

The chips and salsa at Inca are very good. The chips are light and very thin, but not thin enough where they break under the weight of the thick and very tasty salsa. Espino bottles Inca's salsa and sells it at various grocery stores around Sioux Falls. He estimates that they sell about 1500 to 1600 jars of salsa each month.

I was really in the mood for fajitas, but I found a few other interesting items on Inca's expansive menu. They had a number of steak and beef entrees, as well as a large number of seafood offerings. One thing that I don't think I've ever seen on a menu at a Mexican restaurant are scallops. They had a dish called Scallops el Mojo de Ajo - garlic/olive oil/lime juice marinated scallops sauteed with garlic and butter with fresh mushrooms. It sounded pretty good. They also had Chile Colorado - chunks of slow cooked pork in a red chile sauce. And I almost got the Tacos al Carbon - marinated beef chunks that are grilled, then served in soft corn tortillas with chopped onions, tomatoes, cilantro and parmesan cheese. But I hadn't had fajitas for quite sometime and I decided to go with that. I also got a margarita to start out.

That was when the meal began to go bad.

The margarita was bad - one of the worst margaritas I've ever had. It was syrupy, much too sweet and I couldn't detect any tequila in it. It had one of the worst aftertastes, sort of like they needed to clean out the margarita machine. I drank just over half the margarita and waited for the waitress to come back so I could order a Dos Equis Amber.

The fajitas showed up, all sizzling and the onions and peppers were smelling good. There was a large plate of rice, refried beans and, interestingly, cole slaw, along with a small bowl of pico de gallo, guacamole, sour cream, lettuce and shredded cheese. It really looked promising.

The beef, however, was lifeless. It was overcooked and had almost no taste to it whatsoever. And there was a scarcity of beef on the fajita griddle. I had to pick through the mounds of cooked onions and peppers just to see if there was anymore hidden underneath. There really wasn't. While the guacamole and the veggies were fresh - and the beans and rice were good - I may as well just have gotten vegetarian fajitas. There was barely enough beef to put onto two of the flour shell tacos. And it really wasn't that good.

I was disappointed in my fajitas at Inca and I was very disappointed in my margarita. I can almost still taste that sweet, yet bitter taste on my tongue from that margarita mix. However, the service was good at Inca and I really enjoyed the chips and salsa. In hindsight, I probably should have gone with my gut instinct and gotten the Chile Colorado or the Tacos al Carbon. But my stomach was yelling for fajitas. They just weren't very good. I'm willing to give Inca another chance at some point, but for as little as I get back to Sioux Falls, it may be a long while before that happens.

Blue Iguana - LeClaire, IA

Since last summer, we'd been hearing about a new Mexican restaurant that had opened in the small tourist town of LeClaire, IA, just up the river from the Quad Cities. The name, Blue Iguana, was interesting enough. And when we found out that the owners of the place were the same people who owned Steventon's just down the road, we were intrigued (see my entry on Steventon's here). Through the summer, we'd heard pros and cons on the food and service at the Blue Iguana and we finally decided to take the short drive out to LeClaire to see for ourselves.

Open less than six months, the Blue Iguana already had a little bit of national notoriety from earlier this summer when President Obama made a surprise stop in LeClaire during a bus tour of the Midwest. One of the places he stopped at to press the flesh with the little people was the Blue Iguana. The quaint little Mexican restaurant couldn't have had better free advertising, even without the President of the United States eating there.

Blue Iguana is located on the main drag of Cody Road in LeClaire, next door to the long established Sneaky Pete's steakhouse (see map). It was a beautiful fall afternoon when we took the drive out to Blue Iguana and hoped to get a place to eat on what turned out to be a busy afternoon in the little town.

The Blue Iguana features outside dining in both the front and the back of the restaurant. The front area is larger than the back deck, but the back deck offers views of the Mississippi River. We checked out the back deck to see if any of the four or five tables were open and they were not. There were a couple tables available out front, but we didn't want to dine with all the traffic going by on that beautiful fall day. We resigned ourselves to eating inside. And, actually, that wasn't a bad thing.

The dining room and adjacent bar area featured a high wooden ceiling, brick walls and a hard tiled floor. The front windows of the building were also large. Because of all those factors, the sound just booms and echoes throughout the place. So much so that we had a difficult time hearing our waiter, Nicholas, when he greeted us with menus. More than once during our visit, I had to ask him to say again what he just said because it was so loud in the place from the reverberation of conversations coming from a half filled room. I wondered how loud it would be if both the dining area and the bar were packed on a weekend night.

Nicholas brought out chips and salsa - there was a small bowl of homemade deep fried tortilla chips, holding about a dozen chips. We'd heard the first bowl was complementary, but you had to pay $4 dollars for a second bowl. Well, this bowl wasn't going to last long. And if I had to pay $4 bucks for a bowl of these, I would gone without.

He explained that the two salsa containers that he brought out were very different in taste. The green tomatillo salsa was the milder of the two, while the red sauce "was spicy". And he wasn't kidding. The red salsa WAS spicy, so much so that I really needed their signature Blue Iguana margarita that I'd ordered from him sooner than later.

The margarita, itself, was just OK. I didn't think I could taste all that much tequila in my drink, and that was probably OK considering it was 2 p.m. in the afternoon. I found out while we were there that they get the margaritas out of a machine, the bartender doesn't make the drink. I was a little disappointed in the drink, although there was a lot of it (22 oz.) for $6.50. I just wish there would have been more tequila in the drink. Getting a margarita out of a machine takes away the mystique of the bartender, but probably helps add to the bottom line. So after I finished that, I ordered a 24 oz. Dos Equis Amber that was a good value at $4.75 a glass.

The menu at Blue Iguana isn't overly extensive compared to other Mexican restaurants in the area. One of the first things that jumped out of the menu was their guacamole. $10 bucks for a serving of the guacamole at Blue Iguana. Holy guacamole! $10 bucks? It was made fresh and you could add anything from cilantro, lime juice, tomatoes or jalapenos to the mixture. For $10 bucks, it had better jump up off the table and kiss you.

One of the other things that I saw on the menu was their "Wanna Iguana" challenge. Spurred on by the uptick of food challenges, Blue Iguana has their own challenge in which they serve you a 6 lb. burrito and you have 30 minutes to eat it along with downing a 30 ounce beer. You get your name put into a Hall of Fame and get a Blue Iguana t-shirt. All that for just $30 bucks. I'll pass on that.

They had a handful of entrees including a charbroiled 1/4 bone-in chicken that is marinated in an herb citrus oil, an 8 oz. charbroiled skirt steak that you could either get plain or with poblano peppers, onions and sliced avocado, or large shrimp sauteed in their homemade butter garlic sauce. As it said on the menu, if you're a garlic lover, you'd love this dish. I do like garlic, but for lunch and at a $15 dollar price tag, I don't like garlic that much.

Cindy was looking at getting the chile relleno, but for $12 bucks all you got was one cheese filled poblano pepper. "That's ridiculous," she said. "One chile relleno pepper for $12 bucks? No way..."

We finally decided upon getting burritos. Actually, their tacos and burrito selections were extensive. For fillings you could get steak, chicken, beef tongue, fish (deep fried, unfortunately - at least that's what I think Nicholas told me, but I couldn't hear him very well), pork or chorizo. You can also get vegetarian burritos at Blue Iguana. I went with the pork burrito and Cindy had the chicken burrito.

When Nicholas brought the food to our table we were impressed with the size of the burritos. It was very large and Cindy immediately lamented that she should have just gotten the burrito by itself rather than with the rice and beans dinner.

The pork burrito that I had was interesting - it featured shredded pork slow roasted in Mexican spices. When I usually order pork tacos, burritos or enchiladas from Mexican restaurants, they usually come out with grilled pork chunks rather than shredded pork. But the burrito was very good, surprisingly good.

Cindy said her chicken burrito was very good, as well. "But this is a lot of food," she said. "I may not want to eat dinner tonight." (As a side note, we did not.)

Nicholas came back to see how things were going and he asked if we wanted more chips. Cindy said, "Sure", but I was worried that we'd have to pay $4 bucks for a small bowl. Considering we were halfway done with our meals and I was getting full, I would have liked to have more chips about 15 minutes before after we nailed the first bowl in about 5 minutes. But he brought another bowl and we didn't get charged. I have to say that even though it was very spicy, the red salsa at Blue Iguana was somewhat addicting.

We've started to do this thing with our neighbors once a month on Sunday nights where we pick out a Mexican restaurant to go eat. We'd talked about going to Blue Iguana at some point and we'll make the suggestion to go back and eat there. The burritos we had were very good. I really liked the chips and salsa (as long as I didn't have to pay for extra), but the margarita was a little disappointing. The ambiance of the place was nice, but Blue Iguana is a little loud for laid-back dining. For a nice Mexican dining experience, the Blue Iguana is above average. I think some of their prices are a little high, but the burrito was a very good value. I'm definitely going to try something else on my next visit.

Uncle Julio's - Lombard, IL

When I first ate at an Uncle Julio's location in Atlanta, I thought it was pretty good Mexican food (see that post here).  In doing research for that entry, I was surprised to find out that there was one in the western Chicagoland suburb of Lombard.  Since I'm in Chicago quite a bit, I knew that I wanted to go try the Uncle Julio's there at some point.  When Cindy and I were in Chicago earlier this summer, I took her there for lunch one afternoon.  

Although Uncle Julio's is a chain of now 16 locations, it's only found in five markets -  their home base of Dallas-Fort Worth, Washington D.C., South Florida, Atlanta and now two in the Chicago area including a new one in the city on North Ave. (see map).  The Lombard location is located in the Fountain Square shopping and entertainment area, in between Yorktown Center mall and the OakBrook Center mall (see map).  

Cindy had wanted to stop at Yorktown to look for some shoes at Von Maur and it was getting to the point that we either had to eat lunch or start thinking about dinner.  We had a lot of options for lunch in the area, but then I remembered that Uncle Julio's was just down the road.  I said, "Do you want Mexican for lunch?"  She said that was fine and we got to Uncle Julio's from Yorktown in less than five minutes.  

It was a beautiful afternoon, one of the best days of the summer, and there was next to no one in the Mexican hacienda-style dining room.  We had our choice and, of course, we decided to sit outside on the veranda.  

 The outdoor veranda had rolled up windscreens and heaters to keep the heat inside during the cooler days and evenings, but it certainly wasn't needed that particular day.  The hostess left off menus with us and later a waiter came by with chips and salsa.

The chips at Uncle Julio's are made fresh and in-house with their unique automatic tortilla maker.  They take flour balls and stick them in the top of the machine.  They're flattened, cooked and then cooled as they slide down a spiral pathway to the bottom.  While it takes the romance out of the way handmade tortillas are made, they can usually make a dozen of them in a couple minutes.  For a high traffic place like Uncle Julio's, that's a big time and money saver.

Our waitress came out and immediately began to pitch us on the lunch specials, margaritas, appetizers and some other signature items Uncle Julio's has to offer.  It was sort of a quick and hard sell on some items, but we did sign up for margaritas as it was a perfect margarita day.  

Knowing that we would be eating somewhere in downtown Chicago that evening, I didn't want to load up on food.  They had fish tacos on their lunch menu - the good kind where they aren't breaded.  It was not only a good day for a margarita (I downed the first one in about five minutes), but a warm Summer day is the perfect time for grilled fish tacos.

Cindy was torn between a couple things - one of the featured specials was "Camarones a la Parilla", basically shrimp fajitas.  The other thing she was looking at was something that caught my eye right off the bat, the El Campo, that allowed you to choose from either beef or chicken crispy taco and an enchilada with either beef, chicken or cheese.  Following my lead, she took the seafood route and went with the shrimp fajitas.

Like most Mexican food, it didn't take long to get the food to our table.  My fish tacos came with a spicy avocado sauce on the side, along with shredded red cabbage and black beans.  That was a nice touch, I thought.  Most fish tacos will come with regular cabbage and you usually get refried beans at most Mexican restaurants rather than black beans.  The fish was fresh, as were the tortilla shells.  With a little of the avocado sauce and some of the red cabbage, the fish tacos were delicious.  

Cindy was amazed at the amount of shrimp that she got with her meal.  She said, "Oh, my God!  There's like a pound of shrimp here!  I won't be able to eat all this!"  She made a significant dent in the pile of shrimp, however, and let me finish off what she had left.  The shrimp were grilled with a sort of cumin, chili spice that gave them a little bit of a spicy bite to their taste.  Actually, they were damn good.  

While we're not big on chains, I don't know if I can really classify Uncle Julio's as a "national" chain.  It's more of a local chain that happens to be in five areas of the U.S.   Like the one in Atlanta, the food was good - surprisingly good.  I thought the service was a little pushy toward some items on the menu - probably high profit products for them - but, overall, the experiece we had at Uncle Julio's was overly favorable.  While it's still more of an Americanized-Mexican restaurant, they do have some authentic Mexican dishes throughout their menu.  Uncle Julio's is a suitable Mexican restaurant if you want a little better food with a good menu selection.

Los Laureles - Des Moines

On a trip home one Friday a few weeks back, I found myself in Des Moines and a hankering for Mexican food. One place that I'd never been to, but had known about for over 10 years is Los Laureles on the east side of Des Moines, near the Iowa State Capitol building (see map). I popped in for a quick lunch around 1:30 that one afternoon.

Los Laureles is in the middle of a number of Mexican shops and restaurants in the East Grand and East 15th Street area of Des Moines. It is set back in a little strip mall that was built a number of years ago after the notorious 1536 adult movie theater was closed and the building razed. Los Laureles is also right across the street from what was the original location of Raul's Mexican restaurant, one of my all-time favorite places to get Mexican food in Des Moines. (Raul's has since reopened in West Des Moines. To see my entry on that, click here.)

The owner of Los Laureles, which roughly translates into "The flower wreaths", is Eufracio Mayorga. Little information is available on Mr. Mayorga other than he also owned a Los Laureles in Mason City, IA at one time. According to a number of Internet sites that list Los Laureles, the restaurant is famous for their huge portions, yet low prices, of authentic Mexican food.

I parked around the back of the little mall and went in to get a seat at Los Laureles. The girl behind the cash register told me I could sit anywhere and I took a seat in a booth near the front door. The only problem was that there was absolutely no padding on the seat and I literally sat on a board poking through the vinyl. I got up and moved to the other side of the booth and the seat on that side was unlevel and started to pop up in the back. I had to find a perfect balance so that I could sit there comfortably enough without tipping the seat over. I could have gotten up and gone to a different booth, but the rest of the ones in the place either had people sitting in them already, or weren't cleaned off from the lunch rush. There were a number of larger tables, but I would have felt funny sitting by myself at a table for six.

I had been seated - finally comfortably - for less than a minute when a waiter came and gave me a menu and asked if I wanted something to drink. Los Laureles is known for their margaritas, but I still had a little bit of a drive ahead of me. I knew I could have a couple beers and be able to navigate home OK, so I ordered up a bottle of Sol. He brought back the Sol and asked me if I was ready to order. The menu was pretty broad and had a number of truly authentic Mexican dishes to choose from. I told him I wasn't ready and he said he'd come back. That was a mistake.

Another waiter brought a basket of chips and three different types of salsa. The chips were fresh and the regular salsa had a nice little bite to it. The green tomatillo salsa was even a little more spicy and had great flavor. The third salsa had an even more spicy smoky chipotle taste to it. That one got my attention. The first Sol that I had went down pretty fast trying to stave off the burn from the hottest of the three salsas.

When I finally figured out that I wanted to get the shredded chimichanga dinner with a pork al pastor taco for a side, the eager waiter was nowhere in sight. I was really needing another beer to help wash away the spicy taste going on in my mouth. It was about another 10 minutes before another waiter finally came over and got my order.

Like most Mexican food places, the food didn't take long to get to me. They certainly weren't kidding about the size of the portions of the food at Los Laureles. There was a lot of food in front of me. The chimichanga was drizzled with white Mexican cheese. A large amount of refried beans and rice were on the plate as well as a very good guacamole salad that went well as a topping on the chimichanga.

The chimichanga was thin, but full of a very zestful tasting shredded beef. I'm guessing by the deep lines on the outer shell of the chimichanga that they put it in a holder and deep fried it that way. Overall, the chimichanga was very good.

But the highlight of the meal for me was the single pork al pastor taco that I got. Chopped onions and fresh cilantro topped the pork chunks on the small homemade taco shells. Surprisingly, and somewhat confusingly, it was also served with radish slices. I'm not big on radishes, so I didn't add those to the taco. But I did squeeze a little lime juice on the taco and added some of the green tomatillo salsa. The taco was simply outstanding. I really liked the chimichanga, but I wished afterward that I would have gotten three of the small pork tacos. Next time.

Once again, I was ready to get another beer and my waiter - the one who took my food order - was nowhere in sight. I eventually got full, leaving some food still on my plate, then decided I'd had enough and was ready to go. I waited for my bill over five minutes after I was done and I finally got up and headed to the front counter to pay. Hopefully, my waiter would show up and give me my bill. It turned out that he had been up front talking to some lady and was more interested in carrying on the conversation with her than taking care of me. He only got a $2 dollar tip on a $20 buck lunch.

The food at Los Laureles was very good, the seating was a little tired and the service was so-so. I can look past a lot of things if the food is good and since it was, it won't sour me for a return visit to Los Laureles at some point. There are a ton of Mexican restaurants in the greater Des Moines area and Los Laureles is one of the best.

El Sol de Tala - Indianapolis

While it's hard to believe that Road Tips turns six years old later this week, it's even tougher to fathom how much has changed with this blog over the course of time. Some of my early entries failed to find a directional voice and lacked a lot of information other than, "Hey, I was here and it was good!" One of the first entries I had was on one of the best Mexican restaurants I've ever been to - El Sol de Tala in Indianapolis. After a recent visit there, I decided to give El Sol their props with a more in depth look at the place.

I don't even remember how I first came across El Sol de Tala but it had to be over a dozen years ago when I found the place in a tough neighborhood on East Washington, east of downtown Indianapolis (see map). Since then, I've visited the original location and a former downtown location a number of times with a number of friends who have never been disappointed in the food they have at El Sol. During a CEDIA Expo about seven years ago, I took two or three colleagues of mine to El Sol and they immediately loved it. The next year, our whole group of about 8 people went to El Sol and they all raved about the place. With the CEDIA Expo back in Indy this year, the first thing my colleague Todd said, "Hey, we need to go back to that Mexican restaurant!"

The name - El Sol de Tala - translates into "The Sun of Tala". Tala, Mexico is a small village over 2000 miles from Indianapolis and the hometown of El Sol owner Javier Amezcua. Amezcua grew up in a very traditional Mexican family of 12, all of whom helped out for meals. Amezcua learned the art of authentic Mexican cooking and brought those skills with him to the U.S. 32 years ago at the age of 26, he opened El Sol de Tala on East Washington as both a Mexican market and cafe. Amezcua immediately had to fight to get recognition because his authentic Mexican food wasn't the Americanized version of Mexican food that people were used to at places like Chi-Chi's or Taco Bell. But he soon won over legions of Mexican food fans with his fajitas, shredded beef tacos, and Mexican seafood dishes - items that Indianapolis natives had never before experienced

After winning over legions of Mexican food lovers in the greater Indianapolis area, he opened up a second location on the north side of Indy in 1995. A few years later in 2003, he closed the north side eatery and opened a downtown location in Union Station in downtown Indy. However, things began to unravel with El Sol soon thereafter.

The downtown location had a tough go for the two years it was open and it eventually shut down in early 2005 when Amezcua filed for bankruptcy protection. The original location shut down for renovations in 2006 and it was supposed to take well less than a year to reopen. However, renovations drug out, and a 2007 lawsuit by Amezcua against a partner put El Sol's future in doubt.

With new partner Ramon Michel, Amezcua reopened the remodeled original East Washington location in March of 2008 after the lawsuit was settled out of court. Amezcua installed his son, Javier, Jr. as the head chef and introduced a number of new entrees to their menu.

While the neighborhood is still dodgy, El Sol provides a well-lit parking lot on the west side of their building. The old stuffed donkey hanging from the wall still welcomes patrons as they enter, but after that much of El Sol de Tala has changed.

The first thing that I noticed was the new Cantina just off to the left of the foyer at El Sol (below left). It features a brick bar and a brick back wall with arched openings with interior shelves for the liquor. The lighting was recessed into the ceiling and it gave the area a nice little relaxing atmosphere. The only problem is that it seemed that no one was working in the Cantina. But that didn't matter as there was no wait for tables on that weeknight.

The dining room (above right) had also changed rather dramatically from my last visit (which had to be the last time we had CEDIA in Indianapolis). First of all the wood beams over the main "courtyard" area of the dining room had been stripped of their paint and left bare to give it an old world look. The lighting was more subdued than before and the chairs and tables had all been upgraded. To me, El Sol de Tala was always about stepping back into old time Mexico each time I went in there. Even with the renovations, it still has that old world feel to the place.

We were seated at a long table near the back of the courtyard area. Our company has grown over the years and some of our Canadian colleagues joined us for dinner that evening. There were 11 of us seated at a table for 14. Three of my colleagues had come early in a taxi and they had already ordered multiple pitchers of margaritas for the table.

Looking through the menu, it struck me that El Sol de Tala features a number of food items that you normally don't find at any style of Mexican restaurant in the Midwest. The menu has such delectable foods such as Panuchos (gorditas stuffed with black beans, marinated pork, pickled red onions and a fiery red habanero sauce), Lomo con Nopales (Mexican spiced boneless pork chops served with cactus and a guajillo chile salsa), and Mixiote (banana leaf wrapped lamb shanks steamed fresh daily in 13 different Mexican spices with guajillo and tequila). I'm especially particular to their pork huaxtla, basically a pork chimichanga topped with chihuahua cheese.

Along with the margaritas, we had the normal chips and salsa, but we also got some of El Sol's tasty Guacamole Ville - their homemade avocado dip made with chunks of tomatoes, onions, jalapenos and lime juice. A bowl of that was $7.95 and we may have gone through six or seven bowls at the table, it's just that good.

I went pretty basic that evening and just ordered up the pork tacos al pastor - I had been wooed on the menu by the shredded beef enchiladas and the shrimp fajita quesadilla. But I wanted something good and simple that evening. A side of chopped tomatoes with onions, guacamole, refried beans and Mexican rice accompanied my tacos. I incorporated a little bit of each with each taco I had. And I have to say like nearly every other meal I've ever had at El Sol, they were pretty damn good.

My colleague, Todd, was seated next to me and he also went the tacos al pastor avenue only ordering chicken on his (above right). He, too, was happy with his meal. "This place has always been great," he said. "The food, the margaritas. When I found out we were coming back to Indy for CEDIA, I knew I wanted to come back here."

My boss, Daniel, was seated next to me and while he's not that much into Mexican food as the rest of us are, he did find something that he really liked - the Poc Chuc. It's a southern Mexican dish with orange and lime marinated pork loin, thinly sliced and topped with a Yucatan pico de gallo sauce called Xni Pec made with red onions, manzano chiles, a bit of habenero pepper and orange juice. Sweet plantains, black beans and guacamole came with it. He said, "It's spicy, but it's good!"

The new guys in the company who had never been there before were also raving about the food at El Sol. One of my Canadian colleagues from Toronto said, "I've been to Mexico a few times and I'm not certain I've had food this good down there on any of my trips."

Count me among the hundreds who are very happy El Sol de Tala reopened. From the first time I've visited there years ago to my most recent visit, I've had nothing but great food at the place. I've eaten at a lot of Mexican restaurants in my life, but I can't think of many - if any - that are better than El Sol de Tala. If you ever get to Indianapolis and are looking for some of the best Mexican food you'll ever have, you have to try El Sol de Tala.

La Playa - Nashville, TN

After we finished setting up our small booth at the 2011 Summer NAMM show at the Nashville Convention Center, my colleague, Ian, and I began to walk back toward our hotel thinking about getting something to eat.  Mexican sounded good, especially a cold margarita.  We came upon an old alley way off 4th St. called The Arcade.  It housed some tourist shops and restaurants and we found a Mexican restaurant called La Playa about 3/4's down the way from the 4th St. entrance (see map).  We decided to give La Playa a try.

The Arcade, itself, is the oldest shopping complex in Nashville, and quite possibly the South.  It was built in 1902 and designed after a similar shopping arcade in Italy.  It's located in what was formerly the Overton alley and is in between 4th and 5th Streets in downtown Nashville.  It went through a major renovation in the past few years, but it's still somewhat of a tourist trap with trinket shops and specialty food outlets.  

 

The Arcade is two stories high and is covered with a glass roof the length of the building.  State flags hang from the upper walls of the Arcade.  And the thing that sort of amazed Ian and me was the fact that many of the restaurants in The Arcade were only open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.  (In fact, as a testament to how Nashville rolls up the streets at night, many restaurants that we saw away from the Lower Broadway area had limited their open hours to daytime only.)  It was getting close to 2 p.m. when we got into La Playa.

 

 

 

 

 

 The inside of LaPlaya is brightly colored with murals painted on stucco walls of a Mexican village courtyard on the main level.  But it's pretty small and I'm sure there could be some long waits for tables. There are a handful of tables on the first floor and a couple outside the front, but there are a larger number of booths and tables on the second level.  The upper level is where we were shepherded to and were placed in a booth.  

The first thing we found out was that LaPlaya didn't have margaritas.  Or beer, for that matter.  It was a non-alcoholic restaurant.  Well, so much for our plan of getting a margarita after set up at the convention center.  Ian got a soft drink and I just opted for water.

The menu at La Playa was also pretty limited and it wasn't all that adventurous.  It was the typical burritos, enchiladas, tacos - that sort of thing.  Chips and salsa were provided, but they didn't have much pizazz to the taste.

I ended up ordering a beef burrito.  Ian - you know, I don't remember what Ian got because I was so hungry and sort of upset that I couldn't get at least a beer with my meal.  We ordered up and in typical Mexican restaurant fashion the food came to us pretty quick.  Or it came out quick because they wanted us to eat up and get the hell out.

And, quite actually, my burrito was pretty good.  No, it was damn good.  It was large, full of seasoned beef and topped with a creamy white cheese that didn't hinder the taste of the meat.  The burrito was surprisingly good and I normally don't go for burritos all that often.  

Our lunch at La Playa was pretty cheap, too.  Even with a drink and a tip, the bill came to just a bit over 20 bucks.  It was a lot of food for a low price.  La Playa was a good value with above average food.  The only strikes against it that it doesn't serve alcohol.  Still, for a lunch place that is only open 3 hours a day, it probably doesn't need to serve alcohol to make money.  La Playa was a good find for a good and quick Mexican meal.     

Abuelo's - Middleton, WI

Staying in Middleton, WI one evening, I had my stomach set to eat at a small Italian restaurant in the rapidly evolving downtown area of the town. I pulled up in front of the place and it was closed. It was well before the 9 p.m. closing time, but the lights were off and no one was in the place. I wondered if it had gone out of business, but it didn't appear to be the case. They were just closed that evening. I headed out west of the beltway highway knowing that there are a number of restaurant to choose from in that area. I drove by a shopping complex and looked over and saw a place called Abuelo's. (see map) Since "Abuelo" is "Grandfather" in Spanish, I rightly figured it had to be a Mexican restaurant. Hmmm.... Mexican. OK, it's not Italian, but Mexican would do that evening.

The Abuelo's in Middleton (pictured right) is part of a chain of nearly 50 upscale Mexican restaurants in 15 states stretching from Virginia across the South and Midwest to Arizona. The origins of Abuelo's is sort of interesting, considering that a Chinese native was the person who helped come up with the concept of providing upscale Mexican food.

James Young moved from his native Taiwan in the mid-70's to study electrical engineering at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. He'd never tried Mexican food before he made it to Lubbock, so it's rather curious how he ended up heading a chain of upscale Mexican restaurants. .

In order to make ends meet while Young was going to college, Young worked at a McDonald's, then worked as a waiter at a Chinese restaurant. His wife, Margaret, and he eventually opened their own small Chinese restaurant in a building that used to house a taco shop near the Texas Tech campus. The venture proved so successful that Young gave up any aspirations to become an electrical engineer and instead concentrated upon being a restaurant owner. His restaurant, Chinese Kitchen, had grown to 16 locations before Young partnered with Chuck Anderson and Dirk Rambo to develop the Abuelo's Mexican Food Embassy concept. They opened the first Abuelo's in Lubbock in 1989. Today, Young is the CEO of Food Concepts International, the parent company of Abuelo's.

As Abuelo's has grown, so has their reputation for good food at a good value. Consumer Reports has twice named Abuelo's as the best concept Mexican food restaurant in the nation. They've also been cited for their efforts to preserve traditional Mexican artwork, much of which adorns their restaurants across the country.

I pulled into Abuelo's just after 8 p.m. on a Monday night. Monday nights are usually not that busy for most restaurants (that's probably why the Italian place was closed) and it was no exception at the Abuelo's in Middleton. I had my choice of a table in the ornate dining area, or to sit at the bar. They had a couple flat screen televisions above the bar with basketball on them, so I sat there. There was one other guy at the bar, but he was getting his food to go.

The bartender told me they had a special on margaritas that evening and I quickly signed up for one of those. He asked if I needed a menu and I took one from him. The margarita was good and sweet and was packed with an eye-opening amount of tequila. He later brought out a basket of homemade chips and two bowls of salsa - one large and one small. The small bowl was a chipotle-based salsa and the larger one was their regular salsa with a spicy bite. The chipotle salsa had a nice smoky bite to it and was rather enjoyable. I would have rather had a larger bowl of the chipotle salsa.

The menu featured your typical Mexican food fare - enchiladas, burritos, fajitas and tacos, but it was far from the "American-ized Mexican" food that most Mexican food chains seem to have. Abuelo's had some interesting house specialties including stuffed chicken medallions (chicken breasts stuffed with chorizo, poblano peppers and cheese, then fried), pescado Guerrero (wood-grilled mahi-mahi with shrimp, scallops, mushrooms, roasted peppers, spinach and sliced avocado in a white wine sauce), and enchiladas de Cozumel (three crepe enchiladas stuffed with grilled shrimp, scallops, mushrooms and fresh guacamole). No, this was not your typical American-Mexican restaurant by any means.

They had an extensive combination menu at Abuelo's including Mi Abuelo's manjar (three enchiladas filled with beef, cheese and chile con carne and topped with two eggs), the Nogales (two large enchiladas, one filled with shredded beef and ranchera sauce, the other filled with grilled chicken and a sour cream sauce), and a chile relleno combination (one with blended cheese stuffed inside and the other stuffed with shredded beef). I looked up and down the menu trying to figure out what I was going to get for dinner and I finall decided upon the make your own enchilada combination. I got one with ground beef and chile con carne sauce, another with pulled pork with a green chile sauce, and a shredded beef with ranchera sauce. Papas con chiles - mashed potatoes with red and green chiles, a blend of four different cheeses, sour cream, garlic and jalapenos - came with the enchiladas along with a side of refried beans.

I had pushed away the chips and salsa long before the meal came out or I would have gorged myself on them and ruined my appetite. And I'm glad I did - when the bartender brought out my dinner I was amazed at the large portion of food on my plate. The three enchiladas took up half the large plate and the Papas con chiles and the refried beans took up the other half.

The first enchilada I tried was the shredded beef with the smoky ranchera sauce. While it was good, the sauce sort of overpowered the overall taste of the enchilada.

I next tried the pulled pork with the green chile sauce. The pork was tasty and tender and the green chile sauce was just excellent. It was much better than the shredded beef enchilada with the ranchera sauce.

Finally, the ground beef taco with the chile con carne sauce was good, but not as good as the pulled pork. But I would rank it number two of the three I had that evening.

But I have to tell you, it's rare that the highlight of the meal is a side dish, but the papas con chile was just out of sight. As I was eating bite after bite of the potatoes, I thought to myself that it had to be easy to make. My wife makes a great garlic/cream cheese mashed potato recipe that is outstanding. I usually don't like to eat potatoes on their own, they're usually too bland. But Abuelo's zipped up their mashed potatoes with mild chiles, a blend of Mexican cheeses, sour cream and a hint of garlic with a little bite from chopped jalapenos. Finding the right combination would be the key.

The surprising thing about the whole meal is that the combination was just $11.95. With a margarita special for $3.00 and a Dos Equis Amber beer at $3.75, my meal was under $19 bucks before tax and tip. It was an outrageous value for pretty good Mexican food. And just trying the papas con chile was worth the price of admission for me.

Sometimes, the surprise you get from finding a good restaurant out of the blue makes it all worth while to be on the road. Abuelo's was one of those surprising finds and I wasn't disappointed in the least. If I make it back - and I probably will if I find another Abuelo's while I'm on the road - I'll modify my food order to not include anything with the ranchera sauce (good, but too overpowering) and go more with the green chile sauce. Oh, and the papas con chile. I can't forget that delectable dish! Yum!

Raul's - West Des Moines

The "Rest in Peace" category of Road Tips is one of the more popular links that I have within this blog.  One of the earliest entries had to do with the closing of one of my all-time favorite Mexican restaurants, Raul's in Des Moines.  Raul Hernandez was in his late 70's and found that his health couldn't allow him to keep up with and compete against many of the small taquerias that had sprung up around the Des Moines area.  The Hernandez family shut the doors of his original restaurant on East Grand and the one out in the suburb of Urbandale.  I was really bummed because Raul's was the place where I was introduced to real authentic Mexican food, not the American-ized version of such that you find at most Mexican food chains.  And I am proud to say that I turned Raul's on to a lot of friends during their existence. 

So, it was to my delight to hear that Raul's daughter, Connie Hernandez-Limke and her husband, David, re-opened Raul's in a new location in West Des Moines (see map) last May using many of the same recipes that Raul and Josephine Hernandez used at their original East Grand location since 1962.  Since Raul's had closed in 2005, Connie Hernandez-Limke was selling Raul's enchiladas, salsa and other items at area farmers markets.  She was convinced by many who continually bought her goods to open a new restaurant.  Luckily for many of the fans of the original Raul's and those who were buying her food at the farmers market, she and her husband decided to re-open Raul's.  I was in Des Moines recently on my way to Kansas City early one evening and decided to stop into the new Raul's for a bite to eat to check it out. 

Along with the help from Jackie Hernandez-Wells, the Limke's opened the new Raul's in a building that used to house a number of restaurants along 8th Street in West Des Moines, including Fratellos, which became the Coaches Lounge, then was sold and turned into the Skybox Lounge.  They had a soft opening in May last year, but had a grand re-opening on June 12 - Raul Hernandez's 82nd birthday.  And the Hernandez sisters brought back one of the most popular aspects about Raul's - the lunch buffet served between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Tuesday's through Friday.  (Raul's is closed Sunday and Monday.)

I pulled into Raul's about 6:30 that evening and went inside the front door.  A long bar is situated on one wall of the building and on your right as you walk in there's a little "den area" that has a fire place and a few tables to eat or to just relax over a margarita and some chips and salsa.  There's a main dining area with an open kitchen (the kitchen at the original Raul's allowed you to look inside to see the food being prepped, as well).   A hostess came up to greet me and asked if I wanted to sit at the bar.  I decided that I would rather sit in one of the booths toward the back of the restaurant.  She dropped off a menu for me and a bus boy came over with a basket of chips and a bowl each of Raul's homemade mild salsa and somewhat more spicy salsa.  I like to add both of them together for an added taste sensation to the mild salsa.

My waitress soon came over to get my drink order. It turns out they were having a margarita special that evening - a 16 oz. "Grandpa Margarita" that Raul's was/is so famous for $5.00. Their Grandpa Margarita consists of Cuervo Gold tequila, triple sec and Raul's homemade lime juice, shaken together and served over ice. (They also have a version of the Grandpa Margarita where they add Grand Marnier on top. Cindy really likes that one.)

 

 

The waitress came out with my margarita and told me that she'd give me a little more time to look at the menu. Des Moines is famous for their deep fried flour tacos and Raul's had some of the best around. And they also had what I deem are the best chile rellenos I've ever had. They take an poblano pepper, stuff it with cheese and seasoned ground beef, dip it in a batter and deep fry the chile relleno for a few moments. Then they top it with Raul's homemade relleno sauce. I ordered a couple of the beef flour tacos and a chile relleno - ala carte. By that time, I had made short work of my margarita and ordered up a Sol.

When the waitress came out with my food and my first impression was, "Oh, my GOD! That's a lot of food!" My second reaction was that the fried flour tacos weren't exactly as I remember at the original Raul's. The ones I remember were sort of more enclosed than opened as the ones that are pictured below left. And they were smaller than these. And from my first bite, I knew something else was different. The meat was different. I couldn't quite place the taste, but it was sort of spicy and wasn't what I remembered from the original Raul's beef taco. It wasn't that it was unpleasant, but it sort of jarred me a bit because I didn't think it was the same.

 

 

 

But the chile relleno was exactly as I remembered. A big poblano pepper stuffed with Mexican cheese and beef, dipped in an egg batter and deep fried for a moment. The chile relleno came with three soft flour taco shells to dip into the tasty relleno sauce. The chile relleno, on its own, is a meal and a half. I was able to put a significant dent into the chile relleno, finish one of the tacos and a portion of the second one. Note to self - next time, get just ONE taco with the chile relleno.

The waitress came over and asked me how my dinner was.  I told her that I thought there was something different about the taco meat - I didn't remember the beef tasting that way.  She seemed sort of perplexed and said, "Well, it's the same recipe that we've had for years.  I don't think they've changed it." 

 

I sort of shrugged my shoulders and said, "Well, it's not exactly as I remember.  But, then again, it's been six years since I've had a Raul's taco.  But, I'll tell you.  The chile relleno was exactly as I remember as just as good as I remember."

It's not that the tacos were bad.  I was just expecting something else as far as the taste of the beef was concerned.  But the trip to Raul's for the chile relleno was worth every cent and more.  I've eaten in a number of Mexican restaurants over the years and have tried a number of chile rellenos and I have yet to find one that is as good as the one at Raul's.  I'm overly happy that Raul's has re-opened.  It gives me another place to eat when I get to Des Moines. 

 

El Mariachi - Moline, IL

As I've said in many of my entries regarding Mexican restaurants in the Quad City area, we're very blessed to have a number of very good to great Mexican restaurants in town.  There's a significant Hispanic population in the Quad's and that's why we have an abundance of authentic Mexican restaurants.  One of those is a little place in Moline on top of the hill on 15th St. is Restaurante El Mariachi, or as the locals call it, just simply El Mariachi (see map). 

Virginia and Alfredo Castro are the owner's of El Mariachi, a place they opened almost 9 years ago.  Alfredo Castro learned how to cook from a Mexican chef and Virginia had a number of recipes that were handed down to her by her grandmother and mother.   Alfredo and Virginia began their restaurant experience selling Mexican food out of a trailer they'd take around to events in the area.  After people began to inquire where their restaurant was located, the Castros opened Restaurante El Mariachi in 2003.   I've had Hispanic friends I know in the area tell me that the food at El Mariachi could easily be the most authentic of any Mexican restaurant in town.  And given the amount of authentic Mexican restaurants in the area, that's saying a lot!  And Virginia is also well-revered in the Latino community in the Quad Cities - she was recently named the Latina Business Owner of the Year by the Greater Quad City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. 

(Alfredo Castro - right)

El Mariachi has a wide array of Mexican food to choose from including traditional cheese and onion enchiladas, homemade chile rellenos, chicken mole, and their popular Camaron Fiesta - a three course shrimp dinner consisting of a shrimp cocktail, shrimp salad and shrimp fajitas.   It's also one of the very few places in the Quad Cities that features a traditional Mexican dessert - arroz con leche - a Mexican rice pudding. 

During the lunch hours, El Mariachi features a popular Mexican buffet through the week and a Mexican breakfast buffet on Sundays consisting of pozole (pork stew), chilaquiles (fried tortilla mixed with egg and chicken), huevos a la mexicana con chorizo (Mexican style eggs with chorizo), pozole (pork stew) and a lot more including some traditional American breakfast staples.  The lunch buffet (served from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.) is $8.95 a person while the Sunday breakfast buffet (served from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.) is an overly reasonable $6.95 a person. 

I was hesitant to talk about it on Road Tips, mainly because I'd really like to keep El Mariachi a secret.  The food is priced extremely reasonably at El Mariachi.  You get a lot for a good price.  Most entrees and combinations top out at $8 to $10 bucks.   

And the restaurant, itself, is not all that big - it seats, maybe, 56 people, and that's really cramming them in.  And there's usually only one waitress and one bartender working in the place.  Some nights, the bartender IS the waitress.  But even with the small staff, we've always been served promptly and have never had an issue with being forgotten about.  I'd sort of like to keep it that way.

And because it's one of our favorite restaurants, we usually go to El Mariachi once a month.  They have two dining rooms in the restaurant - a lower dining area just inside the entrance, and the upper area that features the bar, a couple booths and three or four tables.  We usually like to sit up near the bar, especially in the winter time, as it can get a little cool with the door opening and closing all the time.  During a recent visit to El Mariachi, it was a Friday night and the upper part of the restaurant was full.  It doesn't take many people to make it full.  We were forced, actually for the first time, to sit in a booth along the far wall as you come in. 

They have wonderful margaritas at El Mariachi and up until a couple years ago it used to be one of the few places in the Quad Cities that had Sol beer available.  But they do have Dos Equis, which is still pretty darn good.  Sometimes I'll get a margarita while I'm waiting for the meal, but then get a Dos Equis (or two) with my meal.  I think there's nothing better than having an ice cold Mexican beer with authentic Mexican food. 

And while El Mariachi has a number of authentic and unique entrees to choose from, I like to order the combinations which is like ordering two, three or four items a la carte including enchiladas, burritos, regular tacos, specialty tacos, tamales and three or four other types of Mexican food, served with rice and beans.  Cindy is sort of fond of the enchiladas at El Mariachi and that's exactly what she got this time we went (below left).  The enchilada platter is served with Mexican rice, refried beans, chopped lettuce and tomatoes. 

 
Everything is so good at El Mariachi, I have a lot of problems figuring out what I want on any given visit.  This particular visit I got a large combination dinner (above right) where you get your choice of 4 different types of Mexican specialties.  The large combination I had that evening consisted of a beef flauta, a pork tamale, a beef enchilada and a pork carnitas taco.  The tacos aren't very big at El Mariachi and I can usually kill an order of 3 pretty easily - that is, if I don't overindulge on the great homemade chips and salsa they bring to the table when you first sit down.   My combination plate with Mexican rice and refried beans came to just under $10 bucks.  That's a lot of food for $10 dollars. 

While Road Tips doesn't have a huge following (but we seem to be garnering more people on a weekly basis - and I thank you for that), I didn't want the word to get out on El Mariachi - one of the best kept secrets in the Quad Cities.  The food is authentic and excellent.  The margaritas are tasty and the beer is cold.  And the service is wonderful and the staff is always attentive and friendly.  Just do me a favor - don't tell anyone else about El Mariachi.  Let's keep it our little secret.

Jose Pepper's - Overland Park, KS

Today, I give a shout out to Ryan Davis and his wife, RaeChelle.  I met them earlier this summer during a baseball outing we had here in the Quad Cities.  RaeChelle Davis is the news anchor for WQAD, the local ABC affiliate, and is paired along side with another casual friend of mine, Jason Fechner.  The Davis' grew up in Kansas City and went to school at Western Kentucky.  We talked about places in and around K.C., how beautiful the campus was at WKU, and, of course, my visit to Mariah's in Bowling Green, KY.  (See the post on Mariah's here.)  We began to talk about restaurants around the greater Kansas City area and I was telling them about Oklahoma Joe's and how much I liked it.  RaeChelle asked me, "Have you ever been to Jose Pepper's in Overland Park?"

I told her that it didn't ring a bell.  She said, "Oh, my GOD!  They have the best Mexican food in the whole world!  When ever we go back home, we always stop at Jose Pepper's!"  She was describing this cheese sauce at the place - escindada con queso - that was simply to die for.  As she was describing the taste sensation to me, I thought Ryan was going to cry.  Anything that good deserved a visit. 

I was in Kansas City recently and got into my hotel in Overland Park just after 9 p.m. one evening.  I looked up Jose Pepper's on my GPS and found that it was only 1.3 miles away.  I threw my bags in the room and programmed the GPS to take me to Jose Pepper's.  In a long and round-about way (my GPS has a tendency to do that rather than use the real world approach of taking a left turn instead of three right turns) I found Jose Pepper's (see map).

I immediately realized that I'd been there before. 

About six years ago, I had just put on a new dealer in Overland Park.  It was after closing time one night and I asked some of the sales crew if they wanted to go out and get something to eat.  They suggested this Mexican restaurant that was tucked back in the corner of a strip mall off of Metcalf Ave.  I remember the food was outrageously good and the margaritas were some of the best I'd ever had.  The problem was that on subsequent trips to Kansas City and hankering for Mexican food I couldn't remember the name of the place.  I had an idea as to where it was and driving up and down Metcalf I couldn't seem to find it.  I figured that it probably went out of business. 

However, this recent night when I found it, I realized that one of the big reasons why I couldn't find it was because it was hidden by a big bank at the corner of 103rd and Metcalf.  Sure enough, there it was.  I couldn't remember the name of the place (as I usually can't), but I can sure remember the food and, generally, where it is. 

Jose Pepper's is actually a small local chain of Mexican Food restaurants under the J.P.'s Southwestern Cuisine banner.  The parent company of J.P.'s Southwestern Cuisine is North Star restaurants which runs 8 Jose Pepper's throughout Kansas City, one in Topeka and one in Wichita, and the Cactus Grill in suburban Leawood, KS. (click here to see all the locations.) The original Jose Pepper's - the one at 103rd and Metcalf - opened in 1988. 

Jose Pepper's has been getting some local notoriety lately - and not for the best type of P.R.  They just settled a sexual harassment lawsuit that was brought on by an 18-year-old waitress who accused a former assistant manager at the Cactus Grill of inappropriately touching her and making sexual suggestions. 

And earlier this year, a judge decided that a class action suit against the chain could go forward after Jose Pepper's was found in violation of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act by printing more than five numbers of a customer's credit card number on their receipt.  The lawsuit covers over 45,000 transactions between December of 2006 and December of 2007.  The lawsuit could award each person who used their credit card at a Jose Pepper's or at the Cactus Grill during that period up to $1000.  Understandably, Jose Pepper's lawyers say the lawsuit would be "annihilating" to the chain, but the judge allowed the lawsuit to proceed.

Well, I certainly didn't care about any lawsuits when I got into Jose Pepper's around 9:15 p.m.  There were a few people in the bar area and just a handful of people in the dining room.  I contemplated sitting in the bar and having dinner, but I ended up going for a booth along the wall in the dining room.  The hostess guided me to the table, dropped off the menu and told me that they had a 2 for 1 special on Patron margaritas - $10 bucks for two 28 oz. margaritas.  I immediately signed up for one of those.  A young man brought over some fresh corn chips and salsa to get me started.

The menu at Jose Pepper's features a number of authentic Mexican foods including enchiladas, chimichangas, tamales - even seafood tacos featuring grilled mahi or shrimp.  Oooo...  I remember this place now.  They had GREAT mahi tacos!  San Diego style with the cabbage.  Ummm....  That's why I kept trying to find the place.

The original hostess - also a waitress - brought my first margarita to the table.  She said that another waitress would be helping me out.  Not long after that, a younger girl - well below 20 years old - with braces on her teeth timidly approached me to see if I was ready to order. 

I was leaning toward getting the fish tacos, but I'd also been looking over the combination plates.  The one that really caught my eye was the number 4 combo - a shredded beef hard shell taco, a pork tamale and a cheese enchilada.  Only I asked if I could substitute a beef enchilada instead of the cheese enchilada.  The young girl said, "Oh, gee.  I don't really know if we can.  I can ask."  I also got an order of the espinaca con queso cheese sauce.

I'd downed my first margarita and was ready for the second one.  When the young waitress brought out the espinaca, I asked her to bring me the second margarita.  She said, "I'll get someone to get that for you."  It dawned on me that since she was under 21 she couldn't serve me a drink.  The first waitress/hostess brought me my other margarita. 

I do have to say that the espinaca con queso was absolutely outstanding and sinfully rich.  The chunks of peppers they put in the cheese sauce gave it a little kick, but not enough that deterred from the overall taste sensation.  While the bowl wasn't all that big, it was way too much for one person to eat.  But I did take a large chunk of cheese sauce out of the bowl.   

I never really knew if the substitution I requested would make it to my plate or not.  The waitress basically forgot about me and the food took an excruciatingly (it's a word - I looked it up) long time to get to my table.  I was hoping that it was because the food was good and authentic, and not pre-made and micro-waved like you find at some Mexican restaurants.  Finally, about 20 minutes after I ordered, my food showed up.  The wait was worth it. 

She was able to make the substitution of the cheese enchilada for the beef enchilada and the seasoning on the beef was outstanding.  But the highlights of the meal were the pork tamale and the shredded beef taco, which was placed in its very own holder. 

The pork tamale was just this side of heaven - flavorful, a nice corn meal outer shell with loads of seasoned sliced pork meat inside.  The pork literally melted in my mouth.  I'm not big on really doughy tamales, but this one was not that oppressive.  It was sensational. 

For as much as I like grilled fish tacos, I'm about as big a sucker for shredded beef tacos.  And the shredded beef taco at Jose Pepper's was no exception.  The beef was tender and ripe with flavor.  The taco shell was nice and crunchy.  It was as close to the perfect taco that one could ask for.  You're much more likely to find a shredded beef taco on the menu than one that features ground beef.  This one was 4 star taco. 

I couldn't finish my meal - I left a good portion of the corn meal dough tamale on the plate, but picked out the pork.  I made quick work of the shredded beef taco and finished what I could of the beef enchilada.  The meal was exactly what I remembered it to be six years prior - completely outstanding. 

I will say that the biggest drawback was the service at Jose Pepper's.  It took too long for the food to come and I was almost over-gorged on the chips and espinaca con queso dip by the time it finally showed up.  Also, having an underaged girl serving me while I was ordering drinks was a minor hassle.  (I ordered a Dos Equis beer when she brought me out my food and the other waitress didn't get it to me until my meal was nearly finished.)  But the food was just outstanding and it was tough to beat the $5 dollar 28 oz. Patron margaritas.  Times two.   

I certainly have to thank Ryan and RaeChelle for mentioning Jose Pepper's.  And I'm overly glad that I was able to find it once again.  Now that I know what I'm looking for and where it is, it will be a staple during my trips to K.C. - just like Oklahoma Joe's has become for me.  I just hope that class action lawsuit doesn't hurt them in the long run. 

El Tejaban - Minneapolis

On a recent visit to Minneapolis, I was up for some Mexican food one evening.  Being out on the South side of town, I decided to try one of my all-time favorite Mexican restaurants, Tejas.  Imagine my surprise when I found it to be shut down!  I'm not having too much luck with restaurants this summer!  Turns out Tejas shut down at the end of 2009 when the owner's lease ran out and the landlord was going to be jacking up the rent significantly.  

I ended up going somewhere else that evening, but the next night I still had a hankering for Mexican food.  I was going to head over Pepitos, a pretty good Mexican restaurant that I've visited a couple of times in the past.  I was heading up Nicollet Ave. heading toward Pepitos when a large sign in a small strip mall on the Northwest side of the corner of W 66th and Nicollet caught my eye - El Tejaban (see map).  It looked interesting enough that it made me turn around and go back to check it out. 

El Tejaban (which roughly translates into "Mexican Hut" in English) has been in business since 2008 when the current owners bought the long time Morelos restaurant at the same location in what is officially Richfield.  El Tejaban's signature items on their menu are made in authentic Mexican molcajete's - authentic serving bowls that date back to the Aztecs and are used primarily to grind spices, to make salsa or guacamole in, or as a bowl to served fresh made Mexican dishes.   

The interior of El Tejaban is similar to a lot of Mexican restaurants, but was full of authentic Mexican artwork and a handful of antiques.  It was well lit, but was shy on customers the night I was in.  I was able to get a booth in the main dining area right away.  The bar area in the back has a large neon sign above it that signifies it as a "Tequila Bar".  I was given a menu and began to look through it.

In addition to mocajete's, El Tejaban has the usual Mexican fare with a nice authentic touch to the food.  They feature a number of specials for both drink and food through the week.  That night I was lucky - it was two for one margaritas that evening. 

The one thing that I also noticed about El Tejaban's very extensive menu of authentic Mexican food was that they didn't offer many combination dishes.  I wanted to try a couple three things on the menu, but they were generally full dinners.  Their "ala carte" selections weren't overly extensive, but I knew I'd be able to find something.

A young man brought out a basket of chips and two different types of salsa.  There was a regular tomato-based salsa, but the other one was rather intriguing.  It was sort of an orange color and had some spices that I really couldn't put my finger on as to what they were.  But I have to say it was very good - a very pleasurable taste sensation that I don't think I'd ever had before.  The orange salsa was so good I was afraid I'd fill up on that and some chips before my main entree showed up.

A good sign about El Tejaban was that I appeared to be the only Anglo in the place.  A family in the booth next to me was speaking in Spanish and I heard the waiter greet some new customers in Spanish, as well.  I've learned long ago that if there are more Hispanic's in a Mexican restaurant, it must be very authentic. 

I finally did find something on the menu that appealed to me - well, actually, a lot of stuff appealed to me, but I was looking for a sampler of things to try.  I did find a combination on the menu of a beef chile relleno, a beef enchilada with a green chile sauce and a beef taco.  For good measure, I ended up getting a pork taco ala carte. 

One of the good things about the 2 for 1 margaritas at El Tejaban, the waiter brought them out one at a time.  The first one was pretty damn good - it had been a long day.  It went down rather quickly and he brought the second one out.  By the time I had that one down, my food came out.  I signed up for another 2 for 1 special on the margaritas.

The first thing that caught my eye were the large portions El Tejaban offers.  The chile relleno was very big and was drizzled with a chipotle cheese topping.  The enchilada had an abundance of a homemade green chile sauce and was topped with a small red onion ring.  And both the beef and pork tacos were over flowing with meat, cheese, chopped lettuce and chopped tomatoes.  The presentation looked scrumptious.  I tried a little bit of both the orange and the regular tomato salsa on the tacos.  I would love to get the recipe for that orange colored salsa at El Tejaban. 

There was no way that I was going to be able to finish the whole meal, but I made a significant dent into the portions.  The chile relleno was a pleasant surprise in that it was stuffed with beef and cheese - most Mexican restaurants I've encountered just do a cheese-stuffed chile relleno.  I really liked the beef and cheese chile relleno at El Tejaban - it reminded me of the old Raul's restaurant in Des Moines.  Raul's had the absolute best chile rellenos stuffed with beef and cheese, dipped in an egg batter and deep-fried to a golden brown.  The chile rellenos at El Tejaban were very similar. 

The pork was a little overcooked on the pork taco, but both the beef enchilada and the beef taco were very good.  I especially liked the green chile sauce - very flavorful and I laid waste to the chile relleno and the enchilada, eating about half each of the tacos.  Between the food, the chips and now up to my fourth margarita at El Tejaban, I was stuffed!   

Overall, I was thoroughly happy with my food and my experience at El Tejaban.  I was pleasantly surprised to find the place and I was happy that I took a chance on a place that I had no idea what I was getting into.  It just looked inviting to me as I drove by.  The service was good, the food was very authentic and very good, and I certainly dug the 2 for 1 margaritas.  El Tejaban goes on the list for good Minneapolis Mexican restaurants.

Tasty Tacos - Des Moines

What I call Des Moines style tacos are unique in that a handful of local places over the years will deep fry the flour tortilla shell giving it a fluffy and somewhat crunchy contour.  Some places would actually roll the beef and into the shell and pop it down in a fryer for about 15 to 20 seconds.  Unfortunately two of my favorite places that used to do their tacos that way - Lil' Nips Taco Village and Raul's - are long out of business.  However, there is one establishment in Des Moines that still deep fries the flour tortillas - Tasty Tacos. 

Tasty Tacos began in 1961 in what is described as a little "hole-in-the-wall" location in Des Moines.  Richard and Antonia Mosqueda built the business from their first location into now five locations around the greater Des Moines area.  A sixth location is expected to open in north suburban Ankeny this summer.  The Mosqueda family is still involved with the business.   Rick Mosqueda is the overall manager of the business, but is also well known in the Des Moines area as being a drummer for a number of blues-style bands over the years.  Rick's brother, Andre, is a long-time disc-jockey who has his own local blues show on a local radio station in Des Moines.  The food at Tasty Tacos is not very different from the time I first visited one of their places nearly 30 years ago. 

I got into Des Moines late one evening and was looking for something quick before I checked into my hotel near the Des Moines Airport.  I immediately thought about the Tasty Taco location on SE 14th St., a couple three miles east of where I was staying (see map).  It was just before 9 p.m. when I pulled into the place.  A worker was mopping the floor in part of the restaurant and a younger couple was enjoying their food toward the back of the place. 

I knew exactly what I wanted when I got to the front counter and looked up at the menu - two original beef tacos.  You can also get Tasty Tacos' original taco with refried beans, chicken or steak.  Tasty Taco is more of a fast-food type of Mexican restaurant with a limited variety of Mexican food such as burritos, enchiladas, nachos and tostadas.  

 

It was about a three minute wait before my number was called and I went up to the counter and picked up my tacos.  The tacos came out in a plastic basket on top of wax paper - nothing fancy in the presentation, that's for sure.  The shells were puffed up the way that I like them, but with a little crunchy texture to the outside edges.  They were stuffed with ample amounts of seasoned ground beef, lettuce and shredded cheese.  With the addition of some of their homemade salsa, the tacos had a little spicy kick to them.  The taste and texture of the taco shell at Tasty Tacos is what sets them apart from other places that sell tacos. I just like that deep fried shell giving the taco a little more heft to the overall taste and feel of the shell.  

Now, Tasty Taco is far from having what I would call authentic Mexican food.  And there are a number of places in the Des Moines area that have a great selection of Mexican items on their menu.  Lord knows there's enough Taco John's and Taco Bell fast food restaurants in the area.  Tasty Taco's niche is right in between the national fast food and the local authentic restaurants and at a much better value.  Tasty Tacos may have originated the deep fried taco shell in Des Moines.  But if Lil' Nips and Raul's were still open, I would have to call Tasty Tacos my third favorite deep fried flour taco in the Des Moines area.  But since Tasty Taco is the only one remaining, they - by default - make my favorite deep fried flour taco in Des Moines.  And that's not a back-handed compliment to the restaurant - Tasty Taco's original flour tacos are still consistently very good and a nice treat for me from time to time.  The Mosqueda family has been doing this for nearly 50 years and there's something to be said about consistency. 

La Flama - Moline

As I've pointed out in many posts regarding Mexican food restaurants in the Quad Cities, we are blessed to have a number of very good places that serve authentic Mexican cuisine.  One that has been around for over six years is La Flama in Moline.  They recently moved to a larger spot in downtown Moline - one that used to house the former Brown Bottle restaurant.  We went there recently on a Sunday night when neither of us felt like cooking.

Juan, Alex and Martin Garcia moved from Mexico to the Quad Cities in 1998 and worked in various restaurants around the area.  In 2004, the brothers opened La Flama in a small building on 5th Ave. in Moline.  It became one of the more popular places for authentic Mexican food in the Quad Cities.  A couple years ago, the brothers opened Papi's Bar and Bites on Kimberly Road in Bettendorf, not far from our house.  They bring in food from La Flama and serve it on the menu there.  We drive by it all the time, but have not yet gone in. 

The Garcia brothers (right) moved to their new location (see map) just a block down the street from their old location in January of this year.  Their old location had seating up to 100 patrons, but the new location effectively more than doubles the capacity.  Friday nights is La Flama's "Salsa Dance Night" with a D.J. who plays salsa, merengue, and cha-cha-cha music.  The basically move the tables out of the way on the floor and turn it into a dance club.  We've gone by the place on Friday night and it's usually packed. 

A City of Moline parking ramp is located directly behind La Flama and you can park there for free after 5 p.m.  There's a rear entry to La Flama coming out of the parking garage.  We got into the restaurant around 7:30 that one Sunday evening and we didn't realize that they closed at 8 p.m. on Sundays.  We got a hostess to seat us and she gave us menus to look over.  Both Cindy and I ordered margaritas.  It wasn't long before a young guy brought us chips and salsa. 

The food found on the menu at La Flama is typical of what you find with other authentic Mexican restaurants around the Quad Cities.  One thing that is rather unique is their selection of soups, including pozole - shredded pork in a red chile broth with hominy.  It's topped with lettuce and onion and served with tortilla chips.  They also feature the Mexican staple, sope.  They take a large hand-made tortilla and fill it with beans, deep fry it and then top it with anejo cheese, sour cream and guacamole.  You can also add chorizo and potatoes or steak and onions to a sope, as well. 

La Flama also features lengua - basically beef tongue.  They boil slices of beef tongue in herbs and spices, then top it in tomatillo salsa.  You can also get lengua tacos, as well.  I'm not quite that brave enough to try beef tongue, although the Mexicans rave about the stuff. 

Cindy was certain that we'd eaten at the original La Flama before.  She may have eaten there at some point, but I was overly certain I had not.  She said, "I don't think you liked it.  That's why I was surprised that you wanted to come here tonight."  I assured her that I had never eaten at La Flama before. 

Our waitress brought out our margaritas and took our order.  We had eaten heavily for breakfast and it was one of those lazy Sunday days where we really didn't do much to work up much of an appetite before dinner.  I was pretty basic - I went with an order of beef tacos, although I almost went with the pork carnitas tacos.  I wasn't overly hungry, so I thought three small tacos would be fine.

Cindy ordered up a single beef and bean burrito, topped with melted colby cheese.  We figured between the chips and salsa and what we ordered for dinner, we'd be fine.

And the chips and salsa was pretty good at La Flama.  It didn't stick out as anything remarkable.  It was pretty much about the same as you find at other Mexican restaurants.

But the margaritas - hoo boy!  Were they packed with tequila!  Cindy took a drink of hers, sputtered, opened her eyes real wide and said, "Oh, my God!  These things are lethal!" 

I took a drink of mine and was taken aback by the amount of tequila in mine.  I like tequila, but this was almost overpowering.  I said, "I'm glad I didn't order a double shot in my margarita.  It would have been like drinking tequila on the rocks!"

It was getting close to closing time, so they got our food out to us in a hurry.  The tacos were soft flour tortillas with beef and what appeared to be potatoes mixed in.  They were topped with shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes and anejo cheese.  I took a bite and realized that, yes, it was small chopped potatoes in with the beef.  The beef had some strange seasoning, as well.  I couldn't quite put my finger on what exactly was in the beef, but it was - well - different.  I'm not certain that I liked it all that much.  I was suddenly wishing that I'd gone with my first impulse and gotten the pork carnitas tacos. 

Cindy said her beef and bean burrito was "OK".  She said, "This is pretty basic and quite honestly that's all I really wanted this evening." 

But everything was reasonably priced, including the margaritas.  With a tip for our very helpful waitress, the bill came to just over $20 bucks.  I'm not overly certain that I liked La Flama as much as I do some of the other good Mexican restaurants in the Moline area.  But a lot of people must like it as they had a good crowd up to closing time on that Sunday night.  And the place is doing great business since they moved to their new location.  I may have to go back and try their carnitas taco at some point.  Then I can determine if I really like the place or not.

Tako Taco - Waimea, HI (Big Island Brewhaus)

The last full day we were on the Big Island of Hawaii, we took a road trip up to the northern part of the island to scout for places to take pictures later in the evening of the full moon rising out of the ocean.  However, much of the north and northeastern part of the island was shrouded in clouds that were producing some heavy rains along with some strong winds.  It's amazing that we could drive about 10 miles north of our hotel along the coast and the temperature would drop and it began to rain.  All the while we could look in the rearview mirror and see sunshine behind us. 

We eventually ended up in Waimea and went to a place that we'd read about in some travel books - Tako Taco.  Actually, we'd read in a couple books that Tako Taco had closed, but a couple others said that it had re-opened.  I figured a Mexican food place in Hawaii ought to have some righteous fish tacos, so we decided to give it a shot.

From what I could gather from doing some research on Tako Taco was that it was originally a small taco shop in Waimea that offered what would be called "Hawaiianized Mexican Food".  Actually, their food was a fusion of Mexican, Island and Asian cuisine.  A lot of travel books we had read on the old place raved about the inventive nature of their Mexican food.

Tako Taco opened around 2002 and moved to their present day location in 2007 (see map). But they soon went out of business - much to the dismay of locals and tourists, alike.  That's when Tom Kerns, a former brewmaster from Oregon, came into the picture.

Kerns' (pictured right) career in the restaurant business began when he worked at McNemamins, a chain of brewpubs in the Pacific Northwest.  Kerns eventually landed in the Phillipines where he helped open a brewpub there.  Liking the south Pacific lifestyle, Kerns came to Hawaii and opened up the Fish and Game Brewing Company on the island of Maui about 11 years ago.  It quickly became one of the more popular destinations for food and beer in the Lahaina area. 

Kerns also became a hero to many beer enthusiasts on the Hawaiian Islands when he drafted legislation that would allow brewpubs to sell growler containers (one gallon jugs of beer) and kegs directly to their customers.   We noticed a small shack directly outside the Kona Brewing Company that was selling growlers to people when we were there earlier on our visit.   

Eventually, the Maui Brewing Company was looking for a brewpub/restaurant to feature their beer and they bought out Kerns and turned the Fish and Game Brewing Company in the Maui Brewing Co. brewpub.  Kerns "retired" with his wife to the highlands around Waimea looking for his next opportunity.  His goal was to open another brewpub and looked at a number of places around his home in Waimea for a place to do so.

When Tako Taco went out of business, the wheels began to turn for Kerns and his wife, Jayne.  The Kerns bought the building and resurrected the old cantina style restaurant with an eye on serving the same style of healthy Mexican/Island food, along with serving some of his own beers.  The Kerns bought what was an old motorcycle shop behind the Tako Taco building and began to put brewing equipment in the building.  The capacity of brewing in the building isn't huge - their 10 barrel system will brew about 500 barrels of beer annually.  But Kerns hopes to grow that part of the business in the future.   

Kerns image of taking Tako Taco and turning it into a brewpub came to fruition in August of 2008.  However, the signage is sort of confusing as it's both called Tako Taco and also Big Island Brewhaus.  Turns out the official name of the place is Tako Taco Taqueria Big Island Brewhaus.  Sort of wordy for name of a resturant, don't you think?  Either way, the place is open and they offer pretty much the same menu as the old Tako Taco and a number of different in-house brewed beers. 

Actually, we tried to get into Tako Taco earlier in the afternoon, but there was no place to park in the rather small parking lot.  Given that it was raining, we didn't want to park the car across the road and walk to the restaurant.  We decided to drive around for a bit and then come back.  When we did get back just after 2 p.m. there was a place to park. 

The outside of the building features a bamboo fence that houses a beer garden the Kerns built to help give the restaurant sort of a neighborhood brewpub feel.  But walking into the restaurant, it was far from a brewpub atmosphere.  It was like they had taken a Mexican cantina and dropped it in the middle of the Pacific.  There were a number of tables and chairs all through the place, a small bar upfront with a multitude of beers on tap - not only their own beers, but beers from the Kona Brewery, Stella Artois and Heinekin.  For some reason, Heinekin is big in Hawaii.  It's sort of an island staple like Spam.

 

We took a seat at a table near the front counter.  Above the counter is the menu for the place (click on the picture for a closer look at their menu).  It's not an extensive menu, but it offered a lot of different variations of Island-Mex food.  We didn't know if there was waitress service, so we sort of sat there for a moment.  Finally a girl behind the counter said, "You have to order up here."  Oh, OK.  That's fine. 

We weren't overly hungry, even though it had been nearly five hours since we'd had breakfast.  I really just wanted to try some of their fish tacos.  Their fish tacos are fresh catch, usually ono, spearfish or some other light white fish.  They came with cabbage on the side and a homemade black bean salsa on the top.  I ordered a couple of those. 

Cindy always loves chile rellenos, so she ordered one of those.  She also wanted some chips and salsa, but unlike most Mexican restaurants on the mainland, Tako Taco charges for their homemade ships and salsa.  But that was OK - the chips were very good and very fresh, while the red and green salsas they provided were excellent as well.  Both had a hint of heat to them, the green more so than the red. 

For drinks, something caught my eye - lilikoi margaritas.  Instead of the regular margarita mix, Tako Taco uses lilikoi juice in this variation of the margarita.  Since lilikoi was like heroin to me, I had to try one.  Cindy follwed suit and ordered one, as well. 

And the margaritas were out of this world.  I don't know what it is about the taste of lilikoi, but I was absolutely hooked on it.  I quickly down my margarita and went back up to order another one.  By that time, our food was brought out to our table. 

While the tacos weren't overly huge, there was a lot of grilled fish on the double corn tortillas.  The cabbage was fresh and went well with the fish.  What grabbed my attention was the black bean salsa they put on the fish.  Man, it had a spicy peppery taste to it.  It almost overpowered the taste of the fish, but it had a really good spicy finish on the tongue.  About the time I really needed to take a drink, the girl behind the counter came out with my second lilikoi margarita.  The combination of the lilikoi and the spicy black bean salsa was a taste sensation like no other I'd ever had.

Cindy was sort of confused with her chile relleno.  Unlike most chile rellenos she's had in the past, it didn't come with a tomato-based sauce on the top.  There was chopped lettuce topped with a mild salsa served on the side.  She just used some of the red salsa that was provided for our chips.  She seemed to like the chile relleno calling it "different".

Between the chips and salsa, the two lilikoi margaritas and the two fish tacos, I was pretty stuffed.  I got up to look around the place and I noticed an autographed picture of Elton John on the wall.  Turns out he had eaten at Tako Taco at some point in time.  I don't know if it was during the current incarnation of the restaurant or if it was back during the previous owner's tenure.  Either way, I thought it was sort of ironic that I had eaten in at least two places that Elton John has eaten at before, the other being Raja in Atlanta.

 I don't know if the food at Tako Tako was really good or if it was just really different as compared to the usual Mexican food we get back on the mainland.  The fish tacos were good, but not overly outstanding.  Cindy said her chili relleno was good, but she's had better.  The lilikoi margaritas were outstanding - I wish I could find lilikoi juice on the mainland.  And the homemade chips and salsa was above average.  I liked the atmosphere of the place, but I thought the people working there were a little distant.  Overall, it was a good experience at Tako Taco.  I don't know if I'd go back there for the food, but I'd crawl back there for the lilikoi margaritas.

(Update - Since our trip to Tako Taco, Kerns has opened his brewpub - Big Island Brewhaus - that also serves the same Mexican food.) 

La Primavera Restaurante - Moline, IL

As I've said on a couple of occasions when writing in "Road Tips", the Quad City area is blessed with an abundance of authentic Mexican food restaurants. One place that just opened recently is La Primavera in downtown Moline (see map). Actually, La Primavera is also the name of the grocery store run by Yolanda and Angel Vargas just down the street from the restaurant. They had a little 20 seat restaurant in the back of the store where they served tacos and tortas. They became so popular that they opened up a full service restaurant a few doors to the west. (Photos courtesy of the Quad City Times)

As a little girl, Yolanda Vargas sold chickens from a road side stand in her native Mexico. She immigrated to the U.S. in the 80's and settled in Chicago. She eventually made it to Davenport to work in a friend's Mexican grocery. In 1989, Yolanda opened her first small store in Moline. Within three years, business was so good that she moved to a larger location. In 1999, the business expanded again and moved to its present day location on 6th Ave. in Moline (see map). Actually, the second location for the store was right next to where La Primavera restaurant is today.

Not only does Yolanda Vargas have a wide variety of Mexican foods in her grocery store, she also sells items such as clothing, Mexican-made goods and magazines. She also has a thriving distribution business for her fresh produce that she delivers to other stores and restaurants around the Quad City area. We go over there from time to time to get tortillas, authentic cuts of Mexican meats, limes and fresh produce when we're going to have a good homemade Mexican dinner.

La Primavera restaurant is run by Yolanda's and Angel's daughter, Claudia, and their son, Erick. It's housed in an old corner building that was once the very popular Glenn Moore's supper club years ago. Most recently, it was a Mexican restaurant called Chino's. I didn't care for the place all that much, but Cindy seemed to like it. She always wanted to go there, but I always balked at going back. Eventually, it went out of business a couple years ago.

The Vargas family came in and renovated the interior of the restaurant and painted the walls in festive colors. A huge old picture of the corner of 15th St. and 6th Ave. showing the building is on the wall. They replaced the spartan and shabby tables and chairs that were in Chino's with new booths and sturdy tables and heavy chairs. There's a small bar area toward the back of the restaurant.

We took a seat in one of the booths and the menus were on the table. The lighting is somewhat subdued in the place and I didn't have my glasses with me. I could hardly read the menu. The print was small and it was a red colored font against an orange background. I told Cindy, "I can't read this." My eyes finally focused enough that I was able to make out some of the things on the menu. Cindy, who wears contacts, wasn't having any problem reading the menu.

A waiter brought a basket of chips while we waited. Another waiter, who we figured to be Erick Vargas, came over to take our drink order. I got a Sol beer while he coerced Cindy into one of their special margaritas. "It's not overly sweet like other places," he said. "We don't use all that syrup in our margaritas."

It must have been a made from scratch margarita because it took quite a while for him to bring Cindy's to the table. By the time he got back with it, we were ready to order our food. Cindy ordered the steak especial, a thin slice of grilled beef steak with sides of grilled veggies, Mexican rice and refried beans. Cindy also has a soft spot for chile rellenos and she asked our waiter if she could get one ala carte. He said it was no problem.

I ordered the combination - a taco with your choice of meat, an enchilada and a tostada. I also ordered one "perna" taco - perna (Pee-air-na) is a type of pork that is marinated and cooked in mild juices and spices. I had to give that a try. For my taco with the combination, I ordered carne asada.

I will say that Cindy's margarita was worth the wait. It wasn't as sweet and syrupy as you find at other Mexican restaurants. It had a refreshing tart taste and had a generous amount of tequila. I sort of wondered what their special margaritas were like considering this one was pretty damn good.

We had finished our basket of chips and another waiter came over to see if we wanted any more. I hesitated, knowing that we'd be having a lot of food coming out in a short bit. But Cindy said, "Yes." He brought more chips and a second bottle of salsa. He told us, "You look like people who enjoy the hotter stuff. This is a little more spicy than the first bottle."

I wouldn't say it was overly more spicy than the first bottle, but it did have a little zip with a spicy aftertaste. I liked it immediately.

Not long after that, our waiter brought out Cindy's chile relleno. He explained that it was an authentic chile relleno from an old family recipe they got from relatives in Guadalajara. It was adorned with an avacado slice on top. Now, I forgot to bring in my new camera phone so I could get a picture of it, but it was worthy of a pic. Cindy used to chastise me for bringing my old Blackberry into restaurants, so it was by force of habit that I didn't bring my phone in with me that evening.

I will say that Cindy's chile relleno was very good. Cindy went so far as to call it "the best chile relleno I've ever had." It was a hefty poblano pepper with a very good brown sauce on top. I had a couple bites and it was very good.

Actually, I'm glad that we had the second basket of chips and that I had a couple bites of Cindy's chile relleno because it was quite some time before the rest of our food showed up at the table. Business was steady at the restaurant, but it wasn't overly busy. From the time we initially ordered our food, a couple came in, sat down, ordered, ate their food and left all before our main order showed up. I thought it to be a little strange that they brought out the chile relleno well in advance of the rest of the order. But quite honestly, we were in no hurry. It was a pretty relaxing environment.

When our food finally did show up, well there was a lot of it. Cindy's steak was pretty good sized, not all that thick, but it covered a large portion of her plate with the grilled onions and peppers on top. She said, "My God, I'm not going to be able to eat all this!"

The waiter had forgotten my carne asada taco and he went back to get one for me. In the meantime, I had the perna taco. Their version of tacos come with the meat, chopped onions and chopped cilantro on a couple small soft corn tortillas. No cheese. It was pretty good - a little dry, but still OK. The carne asada taco, after he brought it out, was similar. It wasn't bad, but I can't call it the best I've had.

My enchilada was a rather pedestrian cheese enchilada and the tostada was topped with refried beans and white cheese. Once again, it was OK, nothing special. I determined that if we went back, I wouldn't order the combination again.

Cindy's steak, on the other hand, was flavorful and tender. One thing that I liked about the waiter is that he would explain some of the dishes to the customers. He told us the steak is marinated in juices and spices (sort of like the "perna" pork) before grilling. Cindy thought the steak was just wonderful. But as she said it was way too much food - especially after a chile relleno and a couple baskets of chips. She didn't touch her rice or refried beans and hardly touched her grilled onions and peppers. And she wasn't able to finish the whole steak.

While our waiter was a nice guy, service was pretty slow. We were finished for quite some time before we were able to get his attention to get us our bill. He said, "Ah! We have it up front." I also thought that to be sort of weird as he was giving checks to other tables. OK, that's fine.

For all we got, including three beers and an a margarita, the bill came to just over $40 bucks. I thought that to be rather high for a Mexican restaurant. At first I thought they'd miscalculated, but after further review the bill was correct. Cindy's steak was $11.99 and her ala carte chile relleno was $4.50. My combination was $6.95 and my ala carte taco was $2.50. I guess it adds up fast when you order a lot of food to try.

All in all, La Primavera was good, but not outstanding in my book. Cindy, however, loved the food, loved our waiter, and loved the decor. We'll go back again and I'll have something different the next time around. Hopefully, it will be better than what I had on my first visit.

(Update - We noticed that they have shut down this location during a trip over to Moline late in 2011. However, they are still preparing food in their little restaurant in the La Primavera store just down the street on 6th Ave. We've eaten there once. Tacos are OK, but the menu is limited.)

El Vaquero - Columbus, OH

There are times when I go to a restaurant where the expectations are high and the food is not all that good.  Then there are times when I visit a place where the expectations are not as great that completely blows me away.  I had the latter experience recently during our trip to Columbus, OH at a Mexican restaurant by the name of El Vaquero.

El Vaquero is an 11-location chain in and around the Columbus area.  El Vaquero means "the cowboy" in Spanish and the motif of El Vaquero is styled after a northern Mexican ranch.  The menu is one of the largest I've ever encountered in a Mexican restaurant and it offers a number of different Mexican specialties.  They have the usual beef, chicken and combination entrees.  But they also offer seafood and a number of house specialties.  One other thing they do at El Vaquero is offer the customer to "mix and match" their own combinations.  And they also have a number of vegetarian entrees to choose from.

We'd gotten into Columbus, got checked into the hotel and ended up going to The Varsity Club near the Ohio State University campus to get a few beers before we decided where to go for dinner.  I've found on these trips that when you're with a group of people and there's not much of a consensus as where to go to dinner, it's best to just go with the flow and hope for the best.  The pizza at The Varsity Club looked good, but a couple people didn't want pizza.  There's a Damon's Ribs not far from the place and my friend Scott was sort of up for that.  OK, we can go.  I've had Damon's Ribs before and they're not that bad.  Not that great - but not that bad.  

We were standing around finishing our beers talking with one of the managers from The Varsity Club who was off duty and drinking a beer with her boyfriend at the bar.  She said, "Where are you going for dinner?"

Scott said, "I think we're going to go check out Damon's."

She said, "Oh, honey.  Wait a minute.  That Damon's over there isn't all that great.  There's a number of other better places in the area to eat than Damon's."

She asked, "Do you guys like Mexican?"  We all said we did.  She said, "There's a place just down the road from Damon's on the opposite side of the street called El Vaquero.  It's got the best Mexican food in town.  But go to the one over here on Olentangy River Road.  There's a bunch of 'em around town, but that one is the best of them all."   

So, our dinner plans changed just like that.  When we told the ladies that we were going to get Mexican instead of ribs they all voiced their pleasure over that. 

Now, I'm always a little leery of people who claim that something's the "best" in town.  When we pulled up to the restaurant on Olentangy River Road (see map) there were a lot of cars in the parking lot.  That was a good sign.  Entering the restaurant, it had the typical Mexican decor - lots of stucco on the walls with lighted beer signs all over the place.  It was sort of loud and manic in the place, but it was still inviting.   In short, it looked like any other Mexican restaurant we've been to.  We got our menus along with chips and salsa.  I was hoping this place didn't suck.   

Along with a Dos Equis Amber beer for me, we ordered up a pitcher of El Vaquero's house margaritas.  The chips were OK, but the salsa was very good.  The house margaritas weren't bad, either.  In fact, they were pretty damn good. 

The menu is so vast and varied that I had a hard time figuring out what I wanted.  They had so many specialty dishes on the menu that I knew I couldn't just get a chimichanga or a burrito for dinner.  One thing that stuck out was something called a Birria Estilo Jalisco.  It was shredded machaca beef with a red Jalisco sauce served with rice, refried beans and pico de gallo.  Soft shell flour tacos came with the plate so you could make your own fajita-style tacos.  That sounded really good.

They also had a carnitas (pork) dinner on the menu, along with Zarape - marinated strips of steak or chicken, paired with ground pork sausage and topped with mozzarella cheese and served fajitas style.  They also had "Fajitas del Mar" - grilled shrimp and scallop fajitas.  I'd never had scallops on fajitas before and that sounded rather intriguing.  A lot of stuff sounded great.  But one thing caught my eye - fish tacos.

They grill three soft corn tacos and fill them with fish and mango pico de gallo, then put a dollop of chipotle cream sauce on top.  The only question I had was if the fish was breaded or unbreaded.  Breaded fish tacos are always a deal breaker for me.  

When the waiter came around to take our order, I asked him how they prepared their fish for the tacos.  His English skills weren't very good, but I was able to figure out they were grilled and not deep fat fried.  Sold!

It wasn't long after we all ordered - well less than 10 minutes - when our food showed up at the table.  While my fish tacos weren't overly big, they had ample grilled white fish in the shell.  From the first bite, oh man!  I was in heaven.  The taste sensations of the grilled fish, the fresh corn tortilla shell, the mango pico de gallo and, most importantly, the chipotle cream sauce were just out of this world.  Actually, I believe the somewhat spicy and smoky flavored chipotle cream sauce is what made the tacos so good.  I've had fish tacos before, but I never had that many taste explosions in my mouth with each bite.  I added a couple drops of Cholula to the tacos to give them even more of a zippy taste. 

Similarly, everyone at the table agreed that their selections were "very good" to "excellent".  I made short work of my three fish tacos and drank another beer while everyone finished their meal.  Cindy gave me a bite of her chile relleno.  It was had a smoky taste to it and was very good, as well.  But I was digging the afterglow of my fish tacos. 

I went into El Vaquero with an open mind and an empty stomach.  I hoped the place would be OK.  It was better than OK, it was outstanding.  It was some of the best - if not THE best - fish tacos I've ever had in my life.  I've got to figure out how they make that chipotle cream sauce.  It was what made those tacos fabulous.  We never did see the manager back at The Varsity Club to thank her for turning us on to El Vaquero.  But I'm sure she knew that we liked it.  It was a much better choice than Damon's would have ever been.   

Botanas - Milwaukee

As I continue to go down the list of restaurants that were suggested by Bob and Kasey Kelly when they were married in Milwaukee last May, I decided to try Botanas - another Mexican restaurant that is in the city's "Little Latin" area around National and 5th (see map).   Botanas is just south of La Perla, and a little over a block south of, and across the street from, La Fuente.  To keep up with either one of those two, Botanas would have to be excellent. 

Jaime Hernandez grew up in Mexico, the oldest of 11 children.  He was asked to help out in the kitchen as a growing child, then worked in a small taco stand with his father.  That stand eventually turned into a restaurant.  In 1989, Hernandez came to Milwaukee to help out at a Mexican restaurant.  He never went back.  He worked all types of jobs at a number of restaurants in the area - bus boy, cook, waiter, bartender - before he eventually became a chef at La Fuente.  Hernandez eventually moved down and across the street to be the head chef at La Perla.  

In 2005, Azteca, a former restaurant on 5th St. south of National, moved across the street to a larger building.  Jaime Hernandez was given the opportunity to buy the old restaurant with the help of La Perla co-owner JoAnne Anton.  When Hernandez, along with his wife, Martha, opened the restaurant, it seated 38 people.  Less than five years later, they have expanded the restaurant to over 400 seats, including a huge dining hall where people can have pre-selected buffet dinners for parties.  It has quickly become a popular stop for Mexican food lovers in the Walker's Point area of Milwaukee.

It was after 8 p.m. on a weeknight when I got into Botanas (a Mexican slang word for "snacks").  I was able to park on the street, but Botanas does have valet parking in a nice sized lot next door.  While the place is decorated in bright colors and with murals, Botanas was dimly lit.  They have a good sized bar that you walk into as you come in to the restaurant.  A pretty good sized crowd was having dinner in the place.  Two birthday parties were going on in the dining hall off the main dining area, so it was loud and raucous.  

I sat down and was given a menu along with a basket of chips and Botanas homemade salsa.  The chips were nothing special, but the salsa was good with not much of a kick to it.   One plus is that they did have Sol beer, but I also wanted to try a margarita.  I ordered up a regular house margarita to start out. 

Like most good Mexican restaurants - especially in Milwaukee - Botanas had almost too much to choose from.  They had beef, chicken, pork and seafood specialties.  My head was just spinning from the choices - tamales, burritos, pork in green tomatillo sauce.  The amount of great sounding Mexican food on the menu was almost too much. 

I ended up ordering a super burrito filled with chunky beef.  The beef was slow-cooked in a tomato sauce to make it tender.  I also ordered a Pork tamale on the side.  The house margarita was good, but I ended up ordering a Sol when I ordered my dinner. 

Like most Mexican food, it didn't take long for the food to make it to my table.  The super burrito was very large, but manageable to eat.  And the beef was very tender - you could easily cut it with a fork - and the seasoned tomato sauce they slow cook the beef in was a great taste compliment.   The super burrito came on a large plate with rice, refried beans, pico de gallo, lettuce and guacamole. 

Let me tell you a bit about the guacamole.  I don't know what Botanas does to their guacamole, but it may have been the freshest, best tasting guacamole I've ever had.  I'm not kidding you one bit.  It was absolutely wonderful.  I'd never had guacamole that good before and I thought I'd had some pretty good guacamole over the years.  I was literally licking the remnants off my plate, it was that good.  

And the pork tamale was just outstanding, as well.  It was served in an authentic corn husk and the pork was tender and flavorful.  All in all, my meal at Botanas was just outstanding.  

Seated at a table just across from me was a Hispanic couple.  I noticed people coming out of the kitchen and talking to them.  It turned out that it was the owners, Jaime and Martha (right).  A few patrons would walk by and they'd talk with them for a bit.  They seemed to be very nice people that had a very loyal clientele.  

And I can see why.  The food at Botanas was just outstanding.  Some of the best - if not THE best - Mexican food I've ever had in Milwaukee.  And with La Perla and La Fuente just up the street, that's saying a lot.  My meal with a margarita and couple of beers came to about $33 bucks with tip.  The service was efficient and the atmosphere was wonderful.  The next time I go into Botanas, I'm going to get a side order of guacamole.  Maybe two sides of guacamole.  It was just that outstanding.  And with all the other great sounding things on the menu that I want to try, I can't wait to go back later this year.  

Uncle Julio's - Atlanta

Sort of a ritual with guys in our company on our first night together when we meet up at a trade show is to go out for Mexican food.  Not far from our hotel in Buckhead was a Mexican restaurant by the name of Uncle Julio's.   Even though the name just screamed, "American-ized Mexican food chain!", we still decided to give it a try. 

Uncle Julio's is a chain, but not a huge one by any stretch of the imagination.  It started in Dallas in 1986 and it is one of the more popular Mexican restaurants in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.  Founder and CEO Todd Conger has expanded into Washington D.C., Atlanta, Florida, and - to my surprise while I was researching the restaurant - they have two locations in Chicago.  I've more than likely passed both of them during my many travels in and around the Chicagoland region, but have never recognized them.  In all, there are 15 Uncle Julio locations.

Since we all ate lunch in the middle of the afternoon at Canyon's Burger Company, we didn't go out for dinner until late.  It was a warm night in Atlanta and we took a table outside on the patio.  The interior and exterior of Uncle Julio's was a classic Mexican theme with soft lighting and large tables.  It was definitely nice both inside and out.  My colleague, Ian, who travels to Atlanta as part of his territory said, "I've been past this place a million times, but have never come in." 

Margaritas were immediately ordered by our group and we were given menus to look over.  From the description of items on the menu, I recognized that this was not another bland Mexican chain restaurant.   Uncle Julio's had a number of what you'd expect to find on a standard Mexican restaurant menu, but they added a number of items with some flair to them.  Such as:

Mesquite-grilled marinated frog legs. 

Slow-smoked mesquite pork ribs with a chipotle barbecue sauce.

Mesquite-grilled marinated quail. 

Honey-chipotle mesquite-grilled salmon. 

Fruit sides topped with sweet cream.

It was interesting, to say the least.

My colleague, Ian, decided to try the quail entree.  I said, "I'm not certain I've ever seen quail on the menu at a Mexican restaurant." 

He said, "Me neither, that's why I want to try it."

There were so many interesting items on the menu, my head was spinning.  Well, that could also be because of the very strong Classic margaritas at Uncle Julio's.  My colleague, Jon, is sort of a tequila aficionado and he said Uncle Julio's Classic margarita is the most authentic margarita there is. They take one shot Patron Silver tequila, one shot Cointreau, one shot water and one shot fresh lime juice and mix it all together.  It wasn't cheap, but Jesus Jones, it was damn good.  (We've since made this at home and I have to tell you, I may never be able to drink a margarita with triple sec again.)

I decided to just go basic with Juanita's Platter.  It consisted of two enchiladas (choice of meat), a crispy taco (beef or chicken) and a tamale (pork or chicken).  I got beef enchiladas, a beef taco and a pork tamale.  Sides of refried beans and rice came with the dish.  I needed food because the first two margaritas went down very quickly and I was just finishing my third one when the food arrived. 

And there was a lot of food on my plate.  I definitely wasn't going to finish my whole meal, that was already for sure before I took my first bite.  The enchiladas were good, but not outstanding.  I did like the crispy beef taco, especially with some of Uncle Julio's salsa added to it.  And the pork tamale was also good, but not the best I've ever had.  I'd rate the meal as above average, but still not as good as some authentic Mexican restaurants I've eaten in. 

By the way, Ian declared his quail as "excellent".  He said, "They must marinate it in lime juice as it was very tender and had sort of a citrus taste to it."  Everyone else at our table said their meal was good to very good.  Even my colleague, Chris, who grew up and lives in Arizona where there are tons of authentic Mexican restaurants, said that his carne asada el jardin was "surprisingly good." 

Now that I know there are a couple Uncle Julio's in the Chicago area, I'll have to stop in and give one of them a try on a visit to the city.  There were a couple of other things that I wanted to try - the cheese and jalapeno stuffed jumbo shrimp wrapped in bacon; and the fresh rolled tortillas for tacos al carbon were choices two and three for me.  I can't say Uncle Julio's was the best Mexican I've had.  But for a chain-type restaurant, it outshines a lot of the other ones that are out there. 

Red Habanero Grill - Indianapolis, IN

For four years now, Red Habanero Grill in Indianapolis has served up their style of fresh Mexican food in their small northeast side location (see map).  I decided to give Red Habanero Grill a try when I was in Indianapolis earlier this year. 

The concept of Red Habanero Grill is pretty basic.  There is no wait staff service at the restaurant.  The menu is pretty basic.  You order at the counter and they make the tortillas on a hot press right before your eyes.  You then walk down the line of the counter and you choose what you want for fillings for your chimichanga, burrito, quesadilla or fajitas.  It's all made right before your eyes and within minutes of stepping into the restaurant, you have your food and are ready to eat.

The concept is similar to Panchero's, a restaurant chain based out of Iowa City that has over 50 locations in 19 states.  I had a friend from the east coast who used to travel to Iowa City a couple times a year who never missed a chance to eat at Panchero's.  He absolutely loved the huge burritos Panchero's has.  We have one not far from our house in Davenport and it's OK in a pinch for quick Mexican food. 

While both Red Habanero Grill and Panchero's are similar in their concept, Red Habanero Grill offers a selection of homemade salsa and hot sauce for customers to choose from at a "salsa bar".  Their hot sauces begin with a mild sauce that I would categorize as "hot".  It definitely had some steam to the taste, but it was far from over-powering.  They had an XX Habenero sauce that definitely got my attention when I took a little bite of it on a corn chip.  And they had a XXXX Hot Tomatillo sauce that, frankly, I was much too chicken to try. 

The other difference is that Panchero's is pretty much run by Anglo's, Red Habenero Grill has Mexican natives running the restaurant.  There's more of an authentic Mexican feel to Red Habenero Grill than there is to Panchero's. 

It was around 8:30 when I got into Red Habanero Grill.  The restaurant is nestled back into a strip mall right  next to the popular Moon Dog Tavern.  While there is ample parking in front of Red Habanero Grill, it was sort of tough to find a spot due to the crowd at Moon Dog Tavern. 

There was a light crowd inside Red Habanero Grill having a late dinner.  I went to the counter and took a quick look at the menu.  I was torn between the shredded beef burrito and the chimichanga with your choice of meat.  I ended up getting the steak chimichanga which was served with a side of refried beans and rice.  I also got a couple bottles of Sol beer to go along with the meal. 

The chimichanga was made before my eyes - the tortilla was pressed, the steak was added, and then it was folded and their homemade queso sauce was added on the top.  They call this "fresh Mexican", although I'm guessing a lot of the toppings had been sitting in their warming containers for a good portion of the evening. 

Along with some Cholula hot sauce, I doctored up the chimichanga with the "mild" sauce Red Habanero Grill provided at the salsa bar.  All in all, the chimichanga was OK, nothing special.  The steak meat was a little over-cooked due to it sitting on the line for awhile.  But the pieces of steak were small enough that were easy to chew and easy to digest.  And they were flavorful from the grilling process.  It wasn't a total washout of the meal. 

The hot sauce was pretty damn good, though.  I ended up downing my two bottles of Sol and going back for a third.  I didn't touch much of the refried beans or rice, but was able to finish the chimichanga and the basket of chips one of the guys brought out. 

With the three beers, my bill at Red Habanero Grill came to $17 bucks plus with tax.  The food was good.  Not outstanding, but good.  It may be better at peak times when they're switching out the food more often.  I've eaten at a couple three Mexican restaurants in Indianapolis that were much better and more authentic than Red Habanero Grill.  But for a quick Mexican fix that definitely a step above Taco Bell, and is a better alternative than a Chipotle or Qdoba, Red Habenero Grill fits the bill.

Frontera Grill - Chicago

Rick Bayless is a world-renown chef who has taken Mexican food to a gourmet level.  His two Chicago restaurants - Frontera Grill and the adjoining Topolobampo - have been favorites of food critics for years.  Bayless further cemented his rock-star status by winning the Bravo TV network's "Top Chef Master" title earlier this year.  And because of that, both of his restaurants are doing tremendous business.  While Topolobampo takes dinner reservations, Bayless reserves tables at Frontera Grill on a "first-come, first-serve" basis.  On a Saturday night, Frontera Grill's waiting list can run up to 3 hours or more.  Most people would say, "Screw it!", and go to Plan B.  But Cindy and I have eaten at Frontera Grill before and when we went there recently during our trip to Chicago, we happily waited over three hours to have some of Bayless' sensational food.  

(To view a recent Chicago Tribune article on Bayless, click here.)

Frontera Grill specializes in regional Mexican cuisine, something that Bayless studied long before he and his wife, Deann, opened their restaurant in 1987.  Bayless' reputation grew over the years and his little (65 seat) restaurant on N. Clark St. (see map) attracted visitors from all over to sample his ever changing menu.  Each year, Bayless closes down Frontera Grill and "Topolo" and takes his staff to a different region in Mexico to study and taste the different types of food that are offered there locally.  

Bayless is also a marketing machine.  He is host of the television program, now in its 7th season, "Mexico - One Plate at a Time". He has authored five cookbooks - three of which we own.  He has his own line of food products - Frontera Foods.  Plus, he is the head of the Frontera Foundation, a non-profit organization that benefits small organic farms in and around the Chicagoland area.  Through all of this, there are many nights you'll see Bayless in the kitchen helping out his two chefs, Richard James (Frontera Grill) and Brian Enyart (Topolobampo). 

We had a long day in Chicago, walking around the city, taking in the Shedd Aquarium, and just taking it easy.  Cindy wanted to take some time to go over to Nordstrom and do some shopping.  She stayed a little longer than I anticipated.  I wanted to get over to Frontera Grill around 6 p.m., but she didn't get back from Nordstrom until about 6:15.  She needed to tidy up a bit and by the time we were ready to take the short walk from our hotel to Frontera Grill, it was about 6:45. 

The place was predictably packed as we walked up.  The hostess told us it would be a 3 to 3.5 hour wait for dinner.  Cindy asked me, "Do you have a Plan B?"  Nope - Frontera Grill was my only option that evening.  As I said, we ate there once before about seven years ago on Cindy's birthday.  Oh, my God, was the food excellent.  We sat in the bar during that visit for a couple hours and we drank Blue Agave tequila like we were rock stars.  I honestly can't remember what I had that evening, but Cindy had a flank steak that had been marinating in lime juice and chiles for a couple days before being grilled.  The taste sensation was just unbelievable.  Once again, Cindy got the better of the two meals we ordered.  That's not saying mine was bad.  It's just that the chile-lime flank steak eclipsed my memory of exactly what I had. 

We put our name in and proceeded to the bar area.  Well, it was unbelievably packed.  While the bar's capacity says it can hold 30 people, there were, quite possibly, three times the amount of people packed in the bar area.  There was no way I could get to the bar to get a drink.  Cindy said, "Why don't we go over to Harry Caray's, get a drink, watch some baseball, then come back in a couple hours.  It should be cleared out by then and we can still wait for a table to open up." 

Capital idea, my wife.  We walked about four blocks over to Haray Caray's and sat at the bar and had a few beers while watching baseball and pre-season NFL football.  Although we were tempted to just say, "Screw it!", and eat at Harry's, we both realized we were bound and determined to eat at Frontera Grill. 

We decided to head back to Frontera Grill around 9:00 p.m.  Cindy checked in at the hostess stand while I went back to the bar to get a margarita.  The bar was still packed, although not as bad as it was before.  I was able to get a Blue Agave margarita and found Cindy standing in a corner.  She said, "It's still about a 60 to 75 minute wait."

Cindy is one of those people who grew up having dinner at 5:00 p.m.  She still wants to have dinner at 6:00 p.m. most evenings.  Me, on the other hand, grew up in a family that if we ate at 7:00 p.m., well, that was early.  During my bachelor years, I routinely would eat at 8 p.m. or later.  I still haven't been able to kick that habit.  (I usually eat after 8 p.m. while I'm on the road - the restaurants are usually not as busy at that time.)  Having dinner at 10:00 p.m. was usually grounds for divorce with Cindy.  But she knew how good the food was at Frontera Grill and she was willing to wait it out.  

And wait we did.  I was drinking Blue Agave margaritas 3 to 1 to hers.  And at 10 bucks a crack, the bar tab added up very quickly.  When we were finally called for our table around 10:20, I was gassed.  But it was a fun kind of gassed.  That was until they led us out to our table which was situated outside on the sidewalk under a canopy.

The whole weekend we were in Chicago, the high temperature had trouble making it into the low 60's.  Saturday night, a stiff breeze out of the north had developed and it was shooting right down through Clark St.  Cindy had a light jacket and capri pants, I had on a polo shirt and shorts.  I normally don't get cold, but I'm guessing the combination of no food and a lot tequila was making the cool wind seem a little more cold than usual.  

Since it was late and we were hungry, we had pretty much already looked at the menu when we were waiting in the bar.  Our waitress came out and we ordered up right away.  Cindy got the Creekstone natural black angus rib steak marinated in spicy red chiles, then wood-grilled.  It came with black beans, sweet plantains with sour cream and a side of fresh guacamole. 

I went with the wood-grilled Maple Creek pork loin that was served in a sauce of roasted tomatillos, fresh corn, chile guero (yellow chiles) and hoja santa (a Mexican sweet herb).  Rustic mashed potatoes and grilled summer squash came with the pork loin.  We hoped it wouldn't take very long.

As time went by, I continued to get colder by the minute.  It wasn't a pleasant experience.  Although we were close to the building and under the awning, we started to feel some mist falling on us from the wind that was whipping through the outdoor seating area.  Any other time, eating outside would have been the best way to go.  But it was getting too cold.

Cindy got up to go to the bathroom and it wasn't long after she left that a gentleman from the restaurant came out and said, "Is it getting cold out here?"

I said, "Yeah, it's getting a little nippy."

He said, "Come on inside.  I've got a table for you in there."

It turned out that when Cindy went inside to the bathroom, she happened to pass the hostess stand.  She casually asked if there were any tables that had opened up inside as it was beginning to rain and the wind was gusting pretty well at that time.  Wordlessly, the man standing next to the hostess quickly left.  Cindy didn't know that he immediately walked out to grab me and bring me inside to the festive and colorful dining room.  It turned out the dapper-dressed man was Rick Bayless' managing partner, Carlos Alfarez.

I sat down at a small table in the dining room, now about half-full of people, and they caught Cindy before she went outside and directed her to the table.  It wasn't much longer before our food showed up.  As the waitress was serving our food, Carlos Alfarez came over and asked, "Is this a little better than being outside?"

Cindy laughed and said, "Much!"  

We didn't have to be prompted to dig in.  My pork loin was just excellent.  There are so many different taste sensations in the tomatillo sauce that it's just so tough to describe.  The pork loin was tender and had a great wood-grilled taste to it.  I don't eat potatoes all that much, but the mashed potatoes were very good and the summer squash was equally as good.

Cindy's rib steak was just outstanding.  As much as I liked my pork loin, once again Cindy got the better of the two meals we had.  The spicy red chile marinade was a great complement to the wood-grilled taste to the meat.  Although I think its safe to say that it wasn't as good as the chile-lime marinated flank steak she had on our first visit, it was still a very good steak.

We hungrily devoured our meals, completely satiated, tired, and - in my case - pretty drunk.  Our bar tab was close to $90 bucks, while our food came to around $45.  A nice tip for the bartender and the waitress brought our overall bill for a night at Frontera to about $165 bucks.  And that's not including the beers and drinks we had while we were over at Harry Caray's. 

Bayless just opened a new restaurant - XOCO - a low-key counter to the Topolobampo and Frontera Grill restaurants just to its south.  XOCO (pronounced SHOW-co, and means "little sister" in Aztec) features a limited menu, akin to what one would find with street vendors in Mexico.  Long lines have been reported during the lunch and dinner hours as there is only counter service and no waiters or waitresses to wait on tables.  So far, XOCO has been a roaring success in its first five weeks of existence.

Word to the wise about Frontera Grill - get there early, especially on the weekends.  They were turning people away before 9 p.m. because the wait was so long.  But as Rick Bayless' star continues to rise in the "foodie" galaxy, it's always going to be tough to get into.  But it's damn well worth the wait if you go. 

La Rancherita - Rock Island, IL

I just love authentic Mexican food.  We have a large Mexican population in the Quad Cities and finding a good Mexican restaurant with REAL Mexican food is a real treat.  Some of the more established Mexican food places in the Quad's are getting to be either too predictable, or the quality of their food has gone down hill as they've expanded or grown their business.  On the advice of a friend, Santo Pullela, with whom I worked with on River Roots Live in the past, Cindy and I went to La Rancherita over in Rock Island one evening.

La Rancherita is located on 14th Ave in Rock Island, just south of Augustana College and near the border with Moline (see map).  In fact, 16th Ave in Moline becomes 14th Ave. in Rock Island.  It's a little confusing when you come through Moline to get to La Rancherita.    It's housed in a building that - I was told - was formerly a neighborhood grocery store a number of years ago.  Parking is mainly street parking, but there are a couple lots across the street that appear to be attached to vacant buildings.

La Rancherita is owned by five brothers - Roberto, Carlos, Jeronimo, Everando and Salvador Villalobos, and helped out by their nephew, Jose Arias, Jr.  The family is originally from San Jose de Gracia, Mexico, a small village just south of Guadalajara in west central Mexico.  They moved to the Chicago area about 13 years ago and ended up in Rock Island over five years ago.  The recipes they use at La Rancherita are family recipes that have been passed along over the years.

Cindy and I got in there around 6:30 one evening earlier this summer and took a booth up toward the front of the restaurant.  We were given chips, salsa and homemade pico de gallo, and I ordered up a Sol beer, while Cindy got a Negra Modelo.  The menus were on the table and the description of the food was exactly what I was looking for.  Real pork tacos al pastor, shredded beef enchiladas, real homemade pork or chicken tamales, menudo soup - I was already in a mental tizzy just trying to figure out what to get.

La Rancerita has a number of dinner combinations, or you can order ala carte.  That's exactly what I did.  I knew the tacos were pretty small, so I got two pork tacos al pastor with corn tortillas, a beef enchilada and a pork tamale.  Cindy got the burrito combination with refried beans and rice.  She also got a chicken tamale.

Our waitress was pleasant and very thorough, checking on our chip basket, salsa and beers on a regular basis.  Their hot sauce salsa was very good and I was getting a slow burn from eating the chips with the salsa.  I think I went through three Sol's before we got our food.

And it wasn't all that long - less than 10 minutes - after we ordered our food when it came to our table.  The pork tacos were great.  I love the small (5 inch) corn tortillas when eating a taco.  Two tortillas per taco (sometimes three in some places I've been) is the norm in authentic Mexican places.  I really liked the enchilada and the pork tamale was a little dry, but really tasted good with a generous slather of salsa on top.

Cindy, on the other hand, wasn't quite as enamored with her dinner as I was.  She declared her burrito as "OK", but she did like the chicken tamale.

We noticed a lot of families coming and going from La Rancherita while we were there.   The table turnover was rather quick at the restaurant, which is very good if you own the place.  There were also a number of people who got food to go.  La Rancherita also offers a kid's menu and they also have an extensive breakfast menu with authentic Mexican egg and chorizo dishes.  Cindy did want to come back sometime for breakfast.

With tip (La Rancherita doesn't take credit cards - cash only), our bill came to about $35 bucks -$17.50 of that was our bar tab - so our food was relatively cheap.  And I thought it was delicious.  Cindy wasn't quite sold on the food, but I thought it was wonderful.  We've got La Rancherita programmed in on the GPS so we'll have no problem finding it the next time we go.  

La Hacienda de los Fernandez - Addison, IL

La Hacienda de los Fernandez (The Estate of Fernandez) is a four-location chain of Mexican restaurants in the far west suburbs of Chicago.  The restaurants are part of the Fernandez Food chain of eateries which include 4 La Magdelena restaurants and Besa Mi Taco in far northwest suburban Itasca.  Also part of the Fernandez Food family is La Mag Catering, the company's catering arm for parties, corporate events and large gatherings. 

Jose Fernandez opened his first La Magelena restaurant in Addison in 1976.  From the start, Fernandez wanted only the freshest ingredients for his made-on-site authentic Northern Mexican food.  Jose (Joe) was 28 years old when he opened his first restaurant and he later followed with three more "La Mag" restaurants.  He opened the first La Hacienda de los Fernandez in Addison in 2002.  It shared a lot of the same home-cooked philosophies and goodness that people found at the La Magdelena restaurants. 

La Hacienda is a pretty large place located on the Lake St. corridor in Addison (see map).  I was staying at the Hampton Inn and Suites in Addison one night earlier this year and I was tired and hungry from a long day of making calls in the Chicago area.  Instead of trying to find something new in the area, I decided to go to La Hacienda, a place I'd been to a couple times before.

While I couldn't call my previous trips to La Hacienda memorable, I can say the food was good, there was an extensive menu to choose from, but the service was "iffy", at best.  I got into La Hacienda around 8:30 one evening and they gave me a booth in the dining room.  The place, for as late in the evening as it was, was about 3/4's full.  I was given a dinner menu and I ordered a cold Sol beer to go with my complementary chips and salsa.

I will have to say that I do like La Hacienda's salsa.  It's chunky, tangy and the right amount of spiciness where it doesn't burn your face off, but offers a nice little zip to the taste.  Their salsa doesn't last long when I get my hands on some. 

La Hacienda's menu isn't like a lot of other Mexican restaurants I've been to in the Midwest.  There are only 4 combination dinners to choose from (some restaurants will have up to and over 40 different combinations on their menu), and there is no "ala carte" ordering on the menu if you want to have a taco, enchilada or burrito on the side.  I would have to say that La Hacienda is more upscale compared to a lot of other Mexican restaurants I've been to.  And the decor supports that with comfortable booths and large wooden tables, subdued lighting and tasteful Mexican decorations and artwork on the walls. 

In addition to the usual Mexican fare of burritos, tacos, enchiladas and fajitas, La Hacienda also offered main course of rotisserie chicken, steaks, fish and vegetarian dinners.  Actually a lot of things sounded great and interesting as I perused the menu.

One thing on the menu that caught my eye was the Guisado de Res - a Mexican beef stew with skirt steak and vegetables cooked in a heavy broth.  They also had Guisado de Peurco, the same stew only with pork. 

While I kept looking at the enchiladas and tacos, I found something on the menu that I don't quite see any longer - chile rellenos stuffed with your choice of beef or chicken and topped with cheese and sauce.  Finding a chile relleno stuffed with anything other than cheese these days is rare, to say the least.  But I was really torn between that and an order of pork tacos.  If done right, there's nothing better than a great pork taco.

When my waiter came back to the table to take the order, I got the chile rellenos stuffed with beef.  And I asked him, "Is it possible to get a pork taco on the side?" 

He quickly asked, "Corn or flour tortilla?"

I hesitated for a moment and said, "Corn."

He said, "Crispy or soft."

"Soft!"

Sometimes it just doesn't hurt to ask...

And within 10 minutes my chile rellenos surrounded by chopped lettuce and tomatoes, rice and refried beans arrived at the table along with a small plate with my pork taco topped with a little lettuce and chopped tomatoes.   I have to say the chile rellenos were very good - flavorful, full of seasoned ground beef and not a lot of cheese on top that sometimes detracts from the taste of the pepper and stuffing. 

And the pork taco was good - not the best I've ever had - but good.  I'm glad I got the one on the side because I probably won't go out of my way to order one again on my next visit to La Hacienda. 

After taking my order, my waiter sort of forgot about me.  Someone else brought out the food and I was really ready for another beer (like I said, it was a long day).  My food was long gone off my plate before my waiter showed up with my check.  He asked, "Will there be anything else?"

I said, "Well, I could have used a beer about 15 minutes ago."

He asked, "Would you like one now?"

I said, "Nope, not now." 

La Hacienda is a little expensive compared to other Mexican restaurants - it cost me a little over $22 bucks with a couple beers and a tip.  But like I said - La Hacienda is more of an upscale Mexican restaurant than many others I've visited over the years.  

Every time I go past a La Hacienda location, whether it be at lunch time or dinner, the parking lot is always packed.  While it can run to the expensive side of Mexican food, the service was not too stellar, but the food was good.  If you can plan ahead to make sure you have everything you need when the waiter takes your order, you should be fine and dandy. 

While I probably won't seek out a La Hacienda de los Fernandez, as long as it's close to the hotel and quick - like the one in Addison is - I'll go back. 

Pink Taco - Las Vegas

 

Cindy and her sisters had eaten Mexican food at the Pink Taco at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino when they went out to Las Vegas a couple years ago.  She proclaimed it to be "excellent" with a fun atmosphere.  I tried to get us into the Pink Taco at last year's Consumer Electronics Show, but they told me that for a group of 10 or more people I had to make reservations over a week in advance. 

This year, I decided to go ahead and make a reservation for us for the first night we were in town.  I called the Pink Taco and talked with the reservation supervisor, a very pleasant and fun lady by the name of Katy.  She told me that they no longer need a week's advance notice for larger parties, but they do have a fixed menu for  groups of ten or more people.  You can see the fixed menu here.  I was trying to make reservations for the Saturday night we were there for a group of 12 and the fixed price ran from $40 to $51 per person - and that didn't include the optional beverage plan.  Katy told me, however, that if I committed within 48 hours, she'd give us the weekday fixed prices which ran $33 to $42 per person.  

On top of all that, I was going to have to sign a contract and give a deposit of $250.  The contract was sort of confusing as it also said that if less than 12 people showed up I would be charged $25 per person for each person under the agreed upon number.  So if only nine people showed up for a party of 12, I would be charged $75 bucks.  And I had to give 24 hours notice if more than 12 people would be coming to dinner.  

Well, if you know our company at trade shows, the situation with dinner reservations is always fluid.  We have guys that may have to peel off and go to a dinner with an account or client.  We have people that show up at the last moment and go to dinner with us.  We don't know 24 minutes before we're supposed to sit down to eat how many there may be of us, let alone 24 hours in advance. 

Add to this, I didn't feel comfortable choosing food for other people.  Our company has a bunch of "foodies" in the group who like to try eclectic and exciting things on the menu.  And the options included four courses - an appetizer, a salad, a main entree (your choice of three or four items), and a dessert. 

First of all, an appetizer for me at a Mexican restaurant is usually chips and salsa with an occasional quesadilla.  And I can't tell you the last time I had a dessert at a Mexican restaurant - I'm usually so full from the meal that I've never tried fried ice cream or whatever other thing they're trying to pry more money out of your wallet.  And I can easily tell you the number of times I've had a salad at a Mexican restaurant before my meal - zero. 

I just didn't feel overly comfortable in either signing a contract to have dinner or to pick food for my colleagues.  So I deep-sixed the plan and told Katy that if we came, we'd just wait for a table like everyone else.  It actually turned out for the best. 

When I traveled to Las Vegas this year for CES, I took American Airlines thru Chicago, mainly because the price was about $300 bucks cheaper than the nearly direct United flight from Moline thru Denver to Las Vegas.  But my flight between Chicago and Las Vegas was over two hours late because they had to take us off one plane and put us on another due to a leaky toilet.  Then snowy weather further delayed us the place had to be de-iced.  By the time I got to the hotel, I was tired and hungry.

It also turned out that we didn't have a full staff in Las Vegas right off the bat.  We had some guys who were attending the MacWorld Exposition up in San Francisco and they wouldn't be joining us until later in the week.  So it was just five of us for dinner the first evening in Las Vegas.  When someone asked about dinner, I made the executive decision to head to the Pink Taco.  Everyone wholeheartedly agreed. 

The Pink Taco is located in the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas (see map).  The restaurant was founded in 2000 by Harry Morton, the son of Peter Morton - the co-founder of the Hard Rock Cafe chain and the former owner of the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas - and the grandson of famed restaurateur Arnie Morton - the founder of the famed Morton's Steakhouse restaurants, and who also helped develop the Playboy Clubs for Hugh Hefner in the early 60's. 

The name "Pink Taco" is somewhat controversial as it is vulgar slang for describing a woman's vagina.  In fact, when Harry Morton tried to open a second location in Scottsdale, AZ in 2006, it was met with tremendous resistance by the locals - fueled by Scottsdale mayor Mary Manross who felt the restaurant's name was obscene.  Harry Morton undoubtedly looked at the controversy as free publicity, but he claimed the restaurant's name came from a menu item also known as Panuchos, a traditional Mexican taco filled with beans, chicken, avacado and pickled pink onions.  After everyone settled down and received a reality check, the second Pink Taco opened in June of that year.  In addition to Las Vegas and Scottsdale, there is a location in Los Angeles with three more locations slated to open in Hollywood, San Diego and Miami. 

We were able to get a table right away when we arrived around 8 p.m.  Three people in our group were from Canada and it was 11 p.m. body time for them, 10 p.m. for me.  Our other colleague came from Phoenix, so he was at 9 p.m. body time.  In other words, we were all hungry and somewhat tired from a long day of travel. 

We were given menus and we ordered a round of beers or margaritas.  Homemade chips and salsa came to our table while we waited.  The Pink Taco is sort of loud, helped along by the decor that featured wooden floors and high tin-metal ceilings.  It was designed to be somewhat of a funky little Mexican cantina.  I was actually surprised that it wasn't bigger than it really was.  I was guessing they had to have a couple rooms where they'd be able to handle up to 30 people in a group.

I was starting my diet to lose a ton of weight before my planned hip surgery, so I was planning on eating light.  I noticed they had fish tacos, but when I found that the fish was breaded and deep fried, I passed on that. 

I ended up ordering the beef enchiladas - two shredded beef brisket tacos topped with a ranchero sauce along with cheese and sour cream.  What a way to start the diet!  But I had done pretty well for the first few days I was on the diet.  I figured I could jump off the diet for one meal.  

And I'm glad I did.  The beef enchiliadas were excellent.  The beef brisket was tender and flavorful, and the ranchero sauce with melted cheese was a wonderful combination.  I will say, however, that I wasn't absolutely blown away by the meal as my expectations of the Pink Taco were sky high based upon Cindy's glowing review and the feedback I'd received from a couple other people who have eaten at a Pink Taco.  Still, it was a very good meal. 

The service was good, the atmosphere was fun - but a little loud, and the food was very good.  I was sort of worried if everyone in our group shared the same sentiment about the food at the Pink Taco, but each of them said their entrees were very good.  I'm glad, however, we just came in on our own and didn't jump through the hoops they wanted us to do for a big party.  If we come back with a big group, I think it would be worth the time we'd have to wait to get a big table all together.  Hey, they do have a bar area and we can certainly wait there for a table.  It's going to be much better than pre-selecting your meal days in advance.   

La Fuente - Milwaukee

For a number of years, I'd felt that La Perla in Milwaukee was one of the best Mexican restaurants in the Midwest.  The last couple times I've stopped in, I thought the food just wasn't as good as I remember it being.  It was still good compared to a lot of other places I've eaten at, but it didn't have that La Perla "pizazz".  During a recent trip to Milwaukee, I was in the mood for Mexican food.  Instead of La Perla, I went down the block to a place we've eaten at a couple three times before - La Fuente (see map). 

La Fuente (The Fountain) is part of Jose Zarate's small family of restaurants which includes Hemingway's Habana Vieja (Hemingway's Old Havana), a Cuban restaurant which opened in late 2005 and is located just across the street from La Fuente.  La Fuente has been a staple in the Old South Side neighborhood around National and 5th since 1991, becoming one of the first Mexican restaurants in an area with a growing Hispanic population. 

The decor of La Fuente is festive with a Mexican slant.  Bright pastel colors adorn the walls along with authentic Mexican items and artwork.  There is a nice-sized bar with a long dining area inside the restaurant.  In the summer months, there is a large outdoor seating area (right) with, of course, a large water fountain that runs non-stop.  Actually, there's a couple fountains in the La Fuente courtyard.  I'm a sucker for nice ornate fountains.  La Fuente is a common destination for a number of the areas younger people who go in for drink specials and appetizers at the bar.

I got into La Fuente around 7:30 and was shown to a table toward the back, near the door that empties out into the outdoor courtyard.  I was given a menu and ordered up a Cuervo 1800 golden margarita.  

The menu is expansive with over 40 different combination dishes to choose from.  That's what makes it so difficult to go into La Fuente - I never know what to get because there's so many great things on the menu.  In addition to the regular menu, La Fuente also incorporates vegetarian dishes, as well as well as a handful of shrimp or seafood items.  

Sipping on my margarita, I was really torn as what to get that evening.  The Enchiladas al Tomatillo is one of my favorites - you choice of chicken, ground beef, chunky beef, or pork topped mixed with goat cheese and onions in a green tomatillo sauce.  Oh, man!  The ones with pork are out of this world.  

The Chimichanga is always a good choice at La Fuente - your choice of one or two large Chimichangas filled with your choice of meat, deep fried and topped with goat cheese and guacamole.  And the Fajitas are excellent, as well.  I also love the La Fuente Chef Special - double soft corn tortillas filled with steak chunks.  Yum!  It's tough to make a bad choice at La Fuente.  

This night, however, I looked over at the Ala Carte menu which features a number of items where you can mix and match your own combination choices.  I ordered up a small Chimichanga with chunky beef, a steak Enchilada with green tomatillo sauce and a pork taco.  I had finished up my margarita by this time and ended up ordering a Sol beer to go with my dinner.  

It wasn't long after I ordered - less than 10 minutes - when my food arrived at the table, piping hot and smelling great.  I chomped into the pork taco right away and it was as good as I remember them from before.  The pork is seasoned and grilled and chopped into pieces.  Oh, it was heavenly.  

The Steak Enchilada was also wonderful.  The steak was flavorful and juicy.  I enjoy the green tomatillo sauce tremendously.  It's a great taste sensation.  And the small Chimichanga was just outstanding, as well.  I really like to order ala carte at La Fuente - or really any Mexican restaurant.  While the combinations they offer are very good, I like to do my own mixing and matching of foods.  

With a couple beers, the margarita and food, my bill before tax and tip came to around $26 bucks.  I had OK service at La Fuente - similar to many other Mexican restaurants I've been to, quick and efficient.  Even though they were somewhat busy that even (as they always seem to be), I didn't feel rushed to finish my meal and give up my table.  

In a town where there's a lot of good Mexican restaurants, La Fuente is one of the best.  They're consistently voted by critics and everyday people as having some of the best Mexican food in Milwaukee.  They have a great atmosphere, good service, wonderful food and a lot of different tequila's to choose from.  The summertime is the best time to visit La Fuente with their large outdoor patio and wonderful fountains.  It's a tough place to beat for good Mexican food.    

La Hacienda - Indianapolis

I've always liked going out to Indianapolis and I'm starting to like it even more now that I've got a dealer who is doing some business and we're working with a distributor who has a warehouse in Indy.  The guys at my dealer told me there was a great Mexican restaurant not far from their store called La Hacienda (see map).  While I was in Indy recently, we met up there after work for some great Mexican food. 

Now, I believe there are three or four La Hacienda's around the Indianapolis area.  I believe all of them are connected in some way, but I couldn't find much information about the company when I did my research.  In any event, La Hacienda may be the most popular Mexican restaurant in Indianapolis since El Sol de Tala shut down for nearly a year and a half doing renovations at their original East Washington location.  I understand the place is now open again and I'll have to try it to see if it's as good as it was before.

I met three of the guys from Ovation Ultimate at La Hacienda off of Binford Blvd. after they closed the store for the evening.  Duke, the store manager, was telling me how great this place was and he had me convinced that we had to give it a shot.  He said, "Great food, great margaritas. Cold beer.  La Hacienda has it all."

We sat down at a table in a 1/3 full restaurant around 8:30 one evening and we were greeted with menus, a basket of homemade chips and some great salsa that was loaded with cilantro and had a nice kick to it.  I ordered up a Sol beer for starters while the others got margaritas.  I knew I would get one of their margaritas later, but for now I needed a cold beer. 

The menu is certainly authentic Mexican when it comes down to La Hacienda.  It's not your typical American-ized Mexican restaurant.  There are a lot of excellent choices on the menu with lots of pork, beef and chicken dishes.  Duke wholeheartedly recommended the roasted pulled pork tacos with refried beans and Mexican rice.  He said, "It's not on the dinner menu, but they'll make it for you." 

They slow cook the pork in a number of spices until it literally falls apart.  They have a pulled pork dinner, but Duke said, "Oh, man, the tacos at lunch are even better, I think.  And if you ask them, they'll make 'em for dinner."   So Duke and I went with that. 

One of the guys went with the carnitas dinner - pork tips cooked in spices and served with grilled onions, guacamole, peppers, rice and refried beans and accompanied by three tacos to make them fajita style. And the other guy went with the Cancun special - chicken strips marinated then grilled and served with rice and hot peppers in a creamy cheese sauce.  It looked damn good.

I had to have a margarita before they brought my food and I had to agree with Duke - the margaritas were great.  In fact, I ended up getting a couple pitchers of them for the table during our meal.

And I have to say the meal was outstanding.  The pulled pork was tender and tasty.  Topped with goat cheese and lettuce, the pulled pork tacos were just killer.  Along with the margaritas, it was a Class A "spot-hitter". 

The bill before taxes and tip was about $100 bucks for the four of us.  The margaritas were about half the bill, but they were worth it.  I'm sure there are a lot of good Mexican restaurants around Indianapolis, but La Hacienda showed me why they're arguably the best and most popular of Mexican restaurants in the area.  

Coyote's Mexican Grill - Villa Park, IL

Staying at the Courtyard by Marriott in Elmhurst, IL recently, I asked the night desk clerk where she thought some really good Mexican food was in the area.  She didn't even flinch when she said, "Oh!  Coyote's Mexican Grill down on Roosevelt Rd." (see map)  She told me they had good food and great margaritas.  And in the summertime, it's one of the best places to eat as they have a pretty nice courtyard. 

She had me sold when she said they had great margaritas.

It was about a 10 minute drive from the hotel down to the restaurant.  I actually passed it and had to double back to the strip mall where Coyote's Mexican Grill sits back in a corner.  I walked up to the place and I thought, "Man, where would you have an outdoor courtyard around here?" 

Then I spotted a gated in area in the clear corner of the mall that was an open air area with tables, chairs and a nice little fire pit.  I'll bet it would be nice to sit out there in the summertime, I thought. 

I went in and it was getting late - it was 8:30 and they close at 9:00.  I'm always worried that I pissed the cooks off when I show up in the final minutes of the work day when they're trying to clean up and get out of there.  In fact, other than a couple people watching television in the bar area, I was the only one in the dining room.

The owner told me I could sit anywhere, gave me a menu, and he asked what I wanted to drink.  I told him a margarita on the rocks, no salt.  He said, "What size?"

He told me they have four sizes including a liter-sized margarita. I said, "What the hell.  I'll go for the liter."  When he brought it out, I thought, "Now, how in the hell am I gonna drink THAT!?"  The glass was filled with over a quart of margarita!

One of the bus boys brought out chips and salsa.  The chips I couldn't tell if they were made in house or not and the salsa was OK, nothing outstanding, but it wasn't bad.

There were lots of interesting things on the menu, but I got sort of interested in what was called the Burrito Especial - a burrito filled with chunks of steak that was cooked over mesquite.  It came with a side of rice and refried beans.  Man, it sounded great, so I went with that.

I nursed my margarita passing the time until my food came out.  It didn't come out quickly which told me one of two things - the cooks were making it from scratch; or they had turned everything off in the kitchen and were pissed they had to make one last meal for a gringo coming in late in the evening.  I was hoping for the former and not the latter. 

When the plate came out, it was filled with a large burrito and the sides.  I eagerly dug into the burrito and I was not disappointed.  It was wonderful.  The taste of the mesquite on the steak chunks wasn't overpowering, yet it was strong enough to give the burrito a smoky flavor.  It was a good meal to finish out the day.

But, as I was finishing up my meal, I reached across the table to move the basket of chips out of the way.  As I did that, I tipped over the margarita glass - which, thankfully, was mostly ice and water at this point.  I apologized profusely to the owner, but he was very helpful in coming over and wiping up the spilled ice and water.  I felt like a complete idiot. 

He invited me to come back in the summertime when they got their patio reopened.  He said, "It's been voted as one of the nicest outdoor dining spots in the Chicago suburbs." 

I told him I would come back sometime.  But the next morning, Coyote's Revenge got me.  Either there was something exotic in the food, or the cooks really did get back at me for coming in so late.  Still, the food was very good and I would like to go back.  Coyote's Mexican Grill is sort of tough to find, but it's well worth looking for when you're in the western suburbs of Chicago.

(Update - I was in the mood for Mexican food one night in the summer of 2009 when I was in the western suburbs of Chicago and I went by Coyote's hoping to give another shot in giving me "Coyote's Revenge".  Unfortunately, I found their doors were closed.  Oh well...)

El Jardin Norte - Glenview, IL

During our trip last November into Chicago to see the Iowa/Northwestern football game with our friends Scott and Marcia Schroeder, and Dave and Pat Heusmann, we decided to find a good Mexican restaurant for our meal the second night we were there.   On a whim, I found El Jardin Norte, a little Mexican restaurant in The Glen Town Center - a residential and commercial subdivision that was developed on the former site of the old Glenview Naval Air Station. (see map)

El Jardin Norte is the outgrowth of the original El Jardin that's located on North Clark in Chicago near Wrigley Field (see map).  El Jardin has been in business since 1966 when three sisters from Mexico opened the restaurant.  They immediately found a large following of their family's signature Mexican dishes and great margaritas.  Over the years, they had to expand a number of times as their business grew.  Today, the grandson of one of the sisters, Augustine Quinondes, runs the restaurants. 

The El Jardin (which is "The Garden in English) restaurants are not only famous for their authentic Mexican food, but for their large selection of premium tequila's and world class margaritas.  Dave Heusmann is a connoisseur of fine tequila, so he was in heaven. 

I was a little worried about El Jardin Norte as from the outside it looked sort of large.  I'm of the mindset the smaller the Mexican restaurant, the better the food.  But going inside the restaurant, my fears dwindled as I saw a cozy little place with a nice bar and a not so large attached dining area.  The host, who was a very nice man, told us that it would be about 45 minutes to get seated.  Well, that just gave Dave time to walk over to the bar and check out the top-shelf tequila collection.

El Jardin Norte's margarita menu is pretty extensive with a number of interesting drinks.  The women got margaritas that had top shelf tequila, Grand Marnier or Blue Curacao in them.  I tried a Cadillac Margarita - Jose Cuervo Especial with Grand Marnier and lemon juice.  It was very good. 

During all of this, Dave was trying a couple of different tequila's.  I don't think there was one El Jardin Norte had that he hadn't tried.  I took a couple of sips of the ones that he got.  They were really smooth.

We were able to look over the menu while we waited.  The food listed was definitely authentic and it all looked yummy.   They're famous for their Carne Asada - a marinated skirt steak cooked over charcoal.  In fact, a lot of their main entrees came from the grill including pork and chicken.  They also had grilled red snapper tacos, as well.  I was leaning toward getting those. 

About 25 minutes after we got in to the very busy bar area, the host came over and said that he had a table for us.  A large party had left and they were setting tables up for us and a couple other groups.  The host was certainly accommodating and was very nice.   

We were seated toward the back of the restaurant along the wall.  We immediately got chips and salsa and ended up ordering their homemade guacamole.  The waiter came back out and said, "Oh, we just ran out of guacamole."  We were sort of bummed and resigned ourselves to the fact that we could just have chips and salsa. 

Suddenly, the host - who must have also been the manager - came back to our table and said, "Did you folks order guacamole?"  We said we did.  He said, "We had a batch hiding in the cooler in the kitchen.  We'll bring some out if you still want it."  And, once again, we said we did.  And I'm glad we got the guacamole.  It was very fresh and flavorful.

I was in a quandary as to what to get for dinner.  Everything looked great.  The pork tips in the green sauce was tempting, as were the red snapper tacos.  They had spicy enchiladas with a special spicy sauce from San Luis Potosi, the hometown of the three sisters who opened the original El Jardin.  Just the regular enchiladas sounded good. 

At the last moment, I saw they had a combination plate where you had your pick of three of either a taco, tostada, chimichanga and a burrito.  And you could pick your ingredients from beef, pork, chorizo sausage, chicken, etc.  So, I ordered a pork taco and burrito, and got the beef chimichanga.  Beans and rice came with the meal on the side. 

When our meals came a little later on, it was like Mexican heaven.  My pork taco and burrito was wonderful, the beef chimichanga was just as good.  Everyone's meal at the table was exceptional.  I don't remember what everyone got, but they all raved about the food.  It was simply excellent. 

Other than the high prices of the margaritas, I thought the food prices at El Jardin Norte were very reasonable.  It was a great find and it's a place that I'll definitely be going back to sometime in the future.   

Amada's Cafe - Addison, IL

You ever drive by a place time after time and think, "I wonder how the food is in there?"  There's a small Mexican/Cuban place on the Lake Ave. restaurant corridor in suburban Addison, IL called Amada's Cafe (see map) that I've passed dozens of times wondering just that.  I finally stopped in for a meal on evening during a recent trip to Chicago.

Now, there's a number of what appears to be these little authentic Mexican restaurants up and down Lake Street in Addison.  There's a large Mexican population in the area.  Amada's is one of those little places that just looks interesting.  I thought, "Well, I may as well give it a shot.  I've always wanted to."

It was around 8 p.m. when I got into Amada's.  It was typical of most Mexican restaurants I've been to - medium lighting with bright colors.  I was seated at a booth toward the back of the restaurant and given a menu.  My waiter came out with homemade corn chips and homemade salsa.  I ordered up a Sol beer while looking at the menu.

Most of the food on the menu was the typical Mexican fare.  But they also had a page of Cuban food, as well.  I was tempted to try the Cuban food, but I reminded myself the only good Cuban food I've ever had was in Miami.  And there's nothing better than Cuban food when it's authentic. 

I decided to give a couple items a try.  I ordered the beef enchilada - machaca-style shredded beef in a soft flour shell covered with a red sauce.  And I wanted to try one of their pork tacos with the soft corn shell.

I got the pork taco before the enchiladas.  The chunks of pork were tender, but not big on flavor.  Still, it was good to eat.

The enchiladas followed soon thereafter and the shredded beef was a dark brownish-red in color.  I thought, "This looks interesting."

But from the first bite, it went downhill from that.  First of all, the meat was very salty.  I usually don't salt any of my foods, and if I do it's sea salt.  But this was an abnormal (to me) amount of salt in the meat.  So much that I didn't finish the second enchilada. 

I was disappointed in my food at Amada's Cafe.  I'd like to go back and try some of the Cuban food sometime, but I'm afraid that I'd be just as disappointed in that as I was their Mexican food.   

Arcelia's - St. Louis

Finding great Mexican food on the road can be so hard sometimes.  It's really difficult to find a good authentic place for Mexican food that isn't "American-ized".  During a recent trip to St. Louis, I had a free night for dinner and I wanted Mexican.  Good Mexican.  Authentic Mexican.  I ended up finding a little gem in the Lafayette Square area called Arcelia's.  (see map)

Arcelia Sanchez (left) was born in a small town on the Pacific Coast of Mexico.  She emigrated with her husband to the U.S. and became a cook at a number of notable Mexican restaurants in the St. Louis area, bringing a lot of her hometown recipes with her. 

In 1990, along with her son, David, Arcelia opened her first restaurant in the Soulard area of St. Louis.  It was a very small place, but it did a lot of business.  With business booming, Arcelia's moved to its present day location across from Lafayette Square.  It has been named as the Best Mexican Restaurant by The Riverfront Times, St. Louis' weekly free entertainment paper. 

Unfortunately, Arcelia died in 2003 from injuries and complications she suffered in a car accident.  Family members have continued to run the restaurant in her spirit.

I found Arcelia's rather easily and parked my car on the street down from the restaurant.  There's a little seating area outside that a few people were seated at a couple tables eating dinner.  They were speaking Spanish, which is always a good thing when you're looking for good Mexican food.

It was about 8:30 and Arcelia's closes at 9 p.m. on Monday thru Thursday, so there wasn't a lot of people in the place. (They're also closed from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m thru the week, as well.)  I was told I could sit anywhere, so I chose a booth about halfway back. 

Service was a little slow, but finally a lady who looked to be well into her 50's came over with a menu.  I ordered a Sol beer while I looked to see what they had.  Another person brought me some chips and salsa.  The salsa was definitely homemade and had a great kick to it.

I saw a lot of interesting stuff on the menu.  Now, this food was REALLY authentic Mexican.  And with so many different things to choose from and try, I didn't know which way to go.

For example, they had Albondigas - spicy Mexican meatballs served over rice with a Mexican gravy; Arroz con Pollo - pulled chicken meat served over rice with a Mexican vegetable sauce; and Nopales - a stir fried cactus served with tomatoes and onions.  Now, that really sounded interesting. 

The also had something called an Empanada - a pastry folded and stuffed with beef and cheese.  I'd never heard of that before.  They also had a sour cream enchilada with pepper strips with onions and cilantro.  Man, there was just too much to choose from.  I really wanted to try it all.

Suddenly, I saw that there was something they called the "Trio combinación" - pick three items for $12.95.  That gave me the latitude to try different things.  So, I went with the Empanada, a pork tamale and a soft corn shell beef taco.

My food was brought out in about 10 minutes and it was a plate full including refried beans and rice.  I didn't know where to start, so I took on the beef taco, first.  It was very good.  Good flavor to the beef.  Fully authentic Mexican flavor all around. 

Secondly, I tried a bite of the pork tamale.  Oh man!  Was that ever good.  It may have been one of the best tamales I've ever had - and I've had some very good ones over the years. 

But I had to try the Empanada.  I cut into the flaky outer shell and pulled out a big chunk of beef that simmering in sauce inside the crust.  Oh - MY - GAAAAWD!!!   It was one of the best tasting things I'd ever had in my life.  It was just outstanding.  I quickly forgot about my tamale and devoured the Empanada.  I'm thinking, "Where have these been all my life?"

I was barely able to finish the tamale and I have to tell you, for $12.95 that was a boat load of GREAT food.  The food was just all incredibly great. 

Arcelia's isn't much to look at on the inside.  I gathered from reading some of the reviews they had on the wall inside Arcelia's that it's definitely a family run endeavor.  But I love places like this.  Arcelia's is definitely a "must-go" if you want Mexican food in St. Louis.          

(Update June 2011 - I went to Arcelia's for lunch on a recent visit to St. Louis but found that it was closed.  It closed either late in 2010 or early 2011.  However, I found out that the restaurant has been purchased by Pat Shelton who said she hopes to have the restaurant open by Labor Day.  Arcelia Sanchez's granddaughter, Kim Reid will be on board running the kitchen using the original recipes from Arcelia herself including that outrageously great Empanada.)

(Update March 2012 - I stopped by Arcelia's this past fall and while there were people inside the restaurant, they were not open.  According to their web site, they say they are opening soon.  I understand that some of the building renovations they had to do took a little longer than planned, primarily due to the fact that the Lafayette Square area house that Arcelia's is housed in is part of a historical district and needed to adhere to strict renovation guidelines.)

Ponak's Mexican Kitchen - Kansas City, MO

I love Mexican food and I don't seem to eat it all that much when I'm on the road.  The problem is that most of the great places in a given area are usually only known to the locals.  All the touristy places - the chains - are OK, but not what I'm looking for in Mexican food.  I want real, authentic Mexican.  And they're usually in places that are tough to find.

Fortunately, on my last trip to Kansas City, a couple of the guys from one of my dealers took me to Ponak's Mexican Kitchen, southwest of the downtown Kansas City area right near the I-35 overpass (see map).  Ponak's is owned by John Ponak.  I know, you're thinking - How can a guy with a Croatian name cook great Mexican food?  Actually, it was John Ponak's Mexican grandmother who started the restaurant.  He took it over about 20 years ago and continues to run it today (when he's not at his second home in Florida).

One of the guys I was with knew John Ponak from years before and said he liked to drink his beer.  I was told, "Just like all of us, I'm sure he's slowed down." 

Well, not me...

Ponak's interior is more reminiscent of a Northwoods lodge with a lot of knotty pine walls and basic tables and chairs.   There's a bar area as you walk in - that's the smoking area - and then the main dining room is to the left of the bar area. 

We sat down at a table in the half-filled dining room.  It was around 8:15 in the evening and I understand that Ponak's can get pretty busy during lunch and dinner.  Since it was a Wednesday night, it wasn't too bad.

We were given a basket of homemade chips and some of their spicy and tangy homemade salsa.  They were very good.  The guys told me their margaritas were very good and I ordered one of those.  One of the other guys said, "Why don't we just get a pitcher?"  So we did.

There's a lot of authentic Tex-Mex food on the menu.  I was looking at a lot of different things, including their deep fried shredded beef flour tacos, pork enchiladas, and chili rellenos.  I couldn't make up my mind as to what I wanted, so I ordered all of them al a carte. 

One of the guys got the combo fajitas - shrimp and beef.  The other guy ordered a combination platter of a burrito, enchilada and a beef tostada.  Refried beans and rice came with the meals. 

After we polished off the pitcher of margaritas, the waitress came back and asked if we wanted another.  I said, "Well, if you guys want another one, that's fine.  But I'm going to have a beer."

I asked the waitress if they had Sol, and she said they did.  One of the guys said, "Sol?  I've never had that before.  Is it good?"

I said, "I like it better than Corona and it's more authentic than Corona, I think."

So, he ended up ordering one, as well.  And bowing to peer pressure, the other guy said, "Well, sign me up, too." 

Almost simultaneously, the food and the beer showed up.  Served on huge plates, the portions were large, but manageable.  I dug right into my deep fried shredded beef flour taco.  I'm a sucker for deep fried flour tacos.  The shells puff up and they're so light and tasty.  The shredded beef was seasoned in a machaca-like style with chiles, cumin and garlic.  It was wonderful.  As was the pork enchilada.  It wasn't all that large, but the pork filling was tender and flavorful.  And the chile relleno was very good, as well. 

Our bill for the three of us with the margaritas and a couple beers each came to just under $50 bucks with tip.  A lot of food and good drinks for a little bit of money. 

There's a lot of good Mexican restaurants in the area around Ponak's, but according to one of my guests it's the best of the best.  Not having tried some of the others yet, I'm going to have to take his word for it.  Ponak's Mexican Kitchen was damned good.  I highly recommend giving it a try if you're in the greater Kansas City area.  And I'll be back, you can bet on that.      

Pepitos - Minneapolis

Pepitos in Minneapolis is one of the finest and best known Mexican Restaurants in the Twin Cities.  The original Pepitos on Chicago Ave. in southern Minneapolis (see map) has been around since 1971 serving up some of the best Tex-Mex food in the Midwest.

Pepitos was started by Joe Minjares and his wife, Sue.  When Joe got out of the army at the age of 25, he had a wife, four kids and little money, but he wanted to own a restaurant.  Joe got some financial help from his father and he bought The Colonial Inn, a long-time bar and pizza place that had been in existence since the 1930's. 

Beer, burgers and pizza were still on the menu a year later when they decided to begin to sell tacos using an old family recipe passed along by Joe's mother, Lupe.  The tacos were an immediate hit and more Mexican food found its way onto the menu.  By 1975, Joe had changed the name of The Colonial to Pepito's - Joe's nickname.  Pepitos quickly became the place to have Mexican food in Minneapolis.

I first ate at Pepitos in 1987 when a colleague I was working with at the time took my then-boss and me out to dinner.  The food was very good.  It was completely authentic Mexican fare. 

When I first started to travel back to the Twin Cities for my present job, one of the first places I sought out was Pepitos.  The place had been renovated and added on to since I'd been there years prior, and it had more of a Mexican restaurant feel to the place. 

In the Twin Cities recently, I decided to head to Pepitos for dinner.  Pepitos is in a small neighborhood business district and most parking in the area is street parking only.  Pepitos has valet parking if you don't want to walk a block or two after parking your car. 

I got into the place around 8:30 and the hostess sat me at a table next to the big fireplace that had survived all the remodeling and renovation over the years.  On the mantle were Mexican religious artifacts and small family pictures.  It was like I was eating in Joe and Sue's living room.

I was given a basket of chips along with a bowl of spicy salsa.  It was smoky in it's flavor and had a nice little kick to the taste.  The chips were large and didn't last long in the basket.  I also ordered up a margarita while I decided what to order. 

The menu (click on menu on the Pepitos home page) is vast and varied.  As I said, it is authentic Mexican with many dishes made with spicy pork, shredded beef or chicken, and mole sauces.  The tacos that Joe's mom first served up over 30 years ago are still on the menu - either soft-shelled or deep fried with your choice of meat filling. 

I'm such a sucker for deep fried tacos I had to get one.  I also ordered a chimichanga stuffed with spicy pork, black beans and rice.  I knew it would be a lot of food, but I was ready for it. 

The margarita was OK, nothing special.  Not good enough to get another one, so I ordered up a Dos Equis XX Amber on tap.  The waitress asked me if I wanted a big one and I said, "Yeah, sure.  What the heck?"

She brought me out this massive beer glass filled with 24 ounces of beer.  I knew with the spicy pork, I'd be taking large gulps of beer to cleanse the hot spices from my tongue.      

About 10 minutes after I ordered my food, out came my spicy pork chimichanga and the deep fried beef taco.  I had to try the taco first.  While I didn't think it was quite as good as some deep fried tacos I've had in the past, it was still good.

The chimichanga, however, was outstanding.  It was huge and stuffed full of the spicy pork, rice and black beans.  The spicy pork did have a kick to it and my large beer was definitely helping to keep my mouth cool.

I couldn't finish the meal and the waitress asked me if I wanted a to-go box.  No way - this was a chimichanga that definitely wouldn't be as good if it was heated up again.

There are two other locations for Pepitos in the Twin Cities, one on Nicollet Ave. in Minneapolis (see map), and one out in southwest suburban Eden Prairie (see map). But both are much smaller and are called "Pepitos Deli".  I'm guessing a lot of the same menu items from the original location are available in the smaller restaurants. 

The bill with tip came to about $32 bucks.  Service was great, food was excellent, margaritas were OK, but not outstanding. Pepitos is definitely on my places of "must eat at" when I go to the Twin Cities. 

Don Pablo's - Carmel, IN

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know that I am dead set against going to chain restaurants when a local establishment will do for dinner.  Unfortunately, sometimes I have to suck it up and get a meal at a chain because A) I'm not familiar with the area; or B) It's late and I need to get something in my stomach.

The "B" scenario came into play recently as I got into Indianapolis late (and I lost an hour because of the time zone change).  I got to my hotel around 9:30 p.m. and asked if anything was open and serving food.  The desk clerk directed me to an area in the Carmel area north of Indy and he said a number of restaurants should still be serving food past 10 p.m.

He was right - there were a number to choose from.  There was an Applebee's, a T.G.I. Friday's and a few others.  But I saw a familiar building in the parking lot of a small mall area - Don Pablo's. 

Don Pablo's is a chain of "Tex-Mex" Mexican restaurants that started in Lubbock, TX in the mid-80's.  Although there are still a few in Texas and Oklahoma, most of the restaurants are situated in the eastern part of the country. 

In the mid-90's, Don Pablo's was bought by Avado Brands from Georgia.  Avado Brands went on an aggressive campaign to add more Don Pablo's restaurants, as well as developing the Hops Grill and Brewery restaurants along the east coast. 

Growing too quickly, Avado Brands had a financial set back which caused them to scale back or close a number of Don Pablo's and Hops restaurants a couple three years ago.  At one point there were 72 Hops restaurants in 16 states.  There are now something like 22 in seven states.  And Don Pablo's totaled well over 100 restaurants, but are now down to 95 restaurants in 19 states. 

I knew that the food would come quickly after I ordered, so I parked the car and went in.  I walked in at 10 till 10 that evening and they close at 10 p.m.  There was no one at the hostess stand.  Finally a bartender came over and I asked, "Is it too late for dinner?" 

She said, "No, as long as you order in 10 minutes."  I just walked over to the bar and sat down.  She handed me a menu and I quickly looked it over.  I ordered a Dos Equis Amber on tap and got one of their combo meals of a spicy beef taco (deep fried), a spicy shredded beef enchilada and a chile relleno stuffed with spicy beef. 

I feel bad walking into places like that 10 minutes before they are going to close up, but as many times that I apologized to the bartender, she would have nothing of it.  "I don't get out of here until about 11 o'clock anyway.  That's when I'd have to kick you out."

Another bartender brought my food out and it was a plate full. The chile relleno was big and cheesy, the enchilada had a lot of meat in it.  But I was disappointed in the "fried" taco.  I think they just take a hard corn taco shell and deep fry it before putting the filling in.  It was crispy, but the taste was nondescript.

But overall, the meal was good.  The food at Don Pablo's is somewhat Americanized, but compared to a number of other Mexican food restaurant chains I've eaten in, it's not bad.  The food leans a little more to the spicy end of the scale, which is fine with me.  The meal I had that evening, I wouldn't call it a spot hitter, but it worked that evening.  Total cost of the meal with one large Dos Equis beer (23 ounces) and tip came to about $16 bucks. 

Don Pablo's isn't great, but it's not bad for a chain.  Especially for something on the quick - and for a later in the night meal.  It is one of the few chains that I'll go to in a pinch.   

Maria's Mexican Restaurant - Springfield, MO

When I was in Springfield, MO recently, I had to stop and have dinner at Maria's Mexican Restaurant. It's one of my all-time favorite Mexican restaurants in the world.

Maria's is located in the heart of the downtown area of Springfield (see map) - the most non-descript downtown area of any city with a population of over 150,000 in the United States.  I'm not kidding. Downtown Springfield is not much - no large buildings, no distinguished features.  It's as "blah" as any Midwestern downtown area that you can see.

Maria's is run by Chris and Monica Guest (right). They started Maria's as a small "hole-in-the-wall" take out place in Springfield in 1996 using a lot of authentic Mexican recipes gleaned from Monica's grandmother.  Chris Guest (not the actor) had been in the restaurant business for a number of years and they moved Maria's in their present location in 2001. 

The decor of Maria's gives you the feel of an authentic Mexican cantina.  It's colorful and festive, and the lighting isn't overly bright so it's not to overbearing.  There's a small bar area that always seems to be packed with college students from Missouri State University, which is just down the street. Behind the bar is an impressive selection of top shelf tequila ready to pour. 

I sat in one of the spacious booths and ordered up a house margarita.  And as always, I have trouble figuring out what I want to eat at Maria's - it's all very good.  They have excellent deep fried tacos with your choice of ground beef, shredded beef, chicken or pork.  And their burritos and enchiladas also feature the above fillings. 

I ended up wanting to try their shredded beef burrito - downtown style.  That's a burrito topped with sauce and cheese for $1.29 extra.  And because I love them so much, I had to have a deep fried shredded beef taco.  Within five minutes, my order was on the table, fresh and hot. 

The burrito was HUGE!  One of the biggest burritos I've ever seen on a plate.  I let it cool down a bit and ate my shredded beef taco - which was excellent, as always.  I ate as much of the burrito as I could, which was a little over half.  And it was excellent, as well.  Next time, I'll have to bring a bigger appetite. 

By the way, Maria's Mexican Restaurant should not be confused with a small chain of restaurants - Maria's Mexican Restaurant - located in NW Arkansas and SW Missouri.  The Maria's in Springfield is a single location, much better and way more authentic than the other Maria's. 

I've eaten at Maria's about four times now and each experience was great.  The food is about as close to authentic Mexican that you can have in the U.S.  If you ever get down to the Ozarks, it's worth the visit to Maria's Mexican Restaurant.

Maria's Mexican Restaurant - Ralston, NE

One of the things that I love are the little out of the way places to eat.  And I was just at one recently called Maria's Mexican Restaurant in the Omaha suburb of Ralston (see map). 

I went out to eat with a buddy of mine one evening while I was in Omaha recently.  His wife actually suggested we go to Maria's.  Although I was in the mood for a good ol' Omaha Steak, he talked me into going to this little Mexican food place on the south side of Omaha. 

Maria's isn't much to look at from the outside.  It's a pretty non-descript building, but it has a lot of parking around the place.  And according to my buddy, the parking lot is pretty packed most of the time.

The main dining room is bright and loud.  There's a large mirror on one end of the room and a big screen television on the other end.  I thought the dining room was too bright and too loud for my tastes.  We asked if we could eat in the bar - much quieter and with a lot less light.  The hostess kind of looked at us funny and said, "Well, sure, if you want to!"

Amanda was our waitress and we immediately started out with a couple of gold margeritas.  They were OK - I've had a lot better margeritas. 

Maria's is famous for their deep fried flour tacos - soft flour tacos loaded with beef, then deep fried for about 30 seconds, pulled out and garnished with cheese and lettuce.  It's very similar to the old Raul's or Lil' Nips in Des Moines.  I just love that style of tacos. 

I ordered two beef flour tacos with an enchilada.  My buddy ordered up one of the dinner specials - a taco, enchilada and burrito.  Less than 10 minutes later and another margerita, we were eating. 

The tacos were good - I don't think they were as good as what I remember from Raul's or Lil' Nip's.  They were definitely much better than the enchilada.  The sauce they used was nothing special and it sort of detracted from the taste of the beef in the enchilada.

All in all, Maria's tacos were very good, but the enchilada was so-so.  The margeritas were average (and expensive - $9 bucks a shot).  If it weren't for the tacos, I probably wouldn't go back to Maria's.  But the tacos are worth a repeat visit.   

Las Fajitas Mexican Grill- Springdale, AR

On our recent vacation to the NW Arkansas Ozarks area, we were driving around the Bentonville/Rogers/Springdale area after we checked into our hotel.  There's really not a lot to see - there are signs for "Historic Downtown Rogers" and "Historic Downtown Springdale".  And, of course, downtown Bentonville is the home of the first Wal-Mart store. But after visiting the supposed historic downtown areas, I didn't think of them to be historic any more than most middle American small town downtowns.

One of the things that caught our attention was the amount of Hispanic laborers in the area.  Now, I'm not too concerned about the amount of illegal immigrants in the U.S., there seems to be enough jobs for those who want to work.  But, it seemed to us there was an inordinate amount of Mexican laborers in the area. 

What that also told us was that there were a large number of Mexican restaurants in the area, as well.  We saw a few - some looked like tourist trap places, while others looked like authentic Mexican food joints. 

We had a number of options for dinner that evening and Cindy suggested that we try to find a good Mexican food place in the area.  We went down to the front desk and I asked the two guys there what they thought was the best Mexican restaurant in the area.  They both looked at one another and almost simultaneously they both said, "Las Fajitas." 

The one desk clerk explained to me that there were two Las Fajitas in the area, one in Bentonville (closer to our hotel), and one in Springdale (about a 20 minute drive).  He said, "If you're up for a little drive, the one in Springdale is excellent." 

He gave us directions and away we went.  We pulled up in front of the place on N. Thompson in Springdale (see map) about 20 minutes later and Cindy said, "Oh, I remember seeing this place earlier today and thinking that it was interesting."

The building was sort of a non-descript flat-roofed building that looked like it could have been any type of family restaurant years ago.  We went in and the decor was typical of a Mexican restaurant - bright colors, Mexican paintings, sombreros, etc.  We sat in the middle room of the restaurant (there was a small eating area up front, then a larger middle room, then the bar area was in the back of the restaurant). 

And the menu was nothing special - same things you can find at most other Mexican restaurants.  But the food did look good, so we thought we'd give a few things a try.

I went with a plate that consisted of a taco, an enchilada and a tostada.  Cindy got one with a burrito, enchilada and rice and beans.  For good measure, she also ordered a chicken tamale.  It wasn't long before the food showed up.

And the food was good - very good, in fact.  Cindy thought that the chicken tamale may have been the best one she'd ever had - and we had authentic homemade tamales when we were in Mexico a few years ago.  My food was outstanding, the meat was flavorful, there wasn't that rubbery microwave taste that you get at most Mexican restaurants.  It was as close to eating in Mexico as you could get in Arkansas.

When we got back to the hotel, I purposely went to the front desk and thanked the guy for steering us to Las Fajitas.  It was one of the better Mexican meals I'd had in my life.   Two thumbs up from both Cindy and I on Las Fajitas.

Mi Cocina - Kansas City, MO

During our recent trip to Kansas City we came across Mi Cocina, a somewhat upscale, trendy and cosmopolitan Tex-Mexican food restaurant in the Country Club Plaza (see map). 

Mi Cocina is part of the M-Crowd group of restaurants based out of Fort Worth, Texas.  The first Mi Cocina was opened in 1991 in Fort Worth by Michael Rodriquez and his wife Carolina.  There are now 15 Mi Cocina locations - 14 of them in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. 

We stopped in for lunch and it wasn't too busy as it was after 1 p.m. when we got in there.  We took a spacious booth by the window and ordered up a couple of their margaritas.

The decor in Mi Cocina is sort of an art-decoish interior, complete with a nice bar area.  Actually, it looked more like a martini bar than a Tex-Mex restaurant.

There were many things that looked interesting on the menu.  A guy next to us got the fajitas, which looked good.  They also had a thing called a "Lucy Changa" - a chimichanga with either fajita beef or chicken - that looked pretty good.  I almost got that. 

I went with the Mama Tacos, grilled beef in a crisp corn shell.  Cindy went with the beef burrito lunch special.  Both were served rather quickly and we dug in.

The food was good.  I think it was a little over-priced for what we got, but it was good, nonetheless.  We had three margaritas between us and a beer and the bill came to $56 bucks including tip.  But what the hell - we're on vacation! 

If you're in the Plaza area and looking for good Tex-Mex food, Mi Cocina is worth a stop.  However, there are better and a lot cheaper Mexican restaurants in the Kansas City area.   

(Update - Mi Cocina lost its lease in 2008 and closed the Plaza location.  There are still a number of Mi Cocina locations in Texas and Oklahoma.) 

La Rosita - Crystal Lake, IL

This is one that I didn't know whether to put it in the "Restaurants" category, or in the "Grocery Stores" category.  So I put it in both.  Actually, this place was more of a grocery store that served food than a restaurant that was a grocery store.

During my last trip to the Chicagoland region I was in a number of Mexican supermarkets, or mercados, looking for chili paste for a recipe that Cindy found in a magazine.  I figured that Mexican grocery stores would have chili paste, but none of the three or four I looked in had it.  (Cindy thought it was Asian in nature, but I wasn't certain about that.)

I was in northwest suburban Crystal Lake and I passed this place - La Rosita - in the downtown area that looked like a pretty substantial Mexican grocery store (see map).  I parked the car and went in.  As I went in, I looked to my left and there was a small restaurant within the store. 

Now, some of the best Mexican food I've found over the years has been in Mexican grocery stores.  There's a couple of them that Cindy and I found over in Muscatine, IA (which sports a large Hispanic community) that have outrageously great Mexican food.  Actually, I don't know if those places are still open, we haven't been back here for a few years.  There's not much to Muscatine - other than the food - to keep us going back. 

Anyway, I noticed that a lot of people were in line to get food from this little restaurant.  It had 8 booths and a little cooler that held a lot of Mexican made drinks (including Mexican Coca-Cola - much better than the American version of Coke). 

The two guys cooking the food were moving quicker than a tourist with Montezuma's Revenge.  They were flinging soft corn taco shells, throwing meat on the grill, making tacos right and left.  I watched them for awhile, then went looking for the chili paste.

As with the other two stops I made, this place didn't have chili paste.  In fact, when I asked a girl at the check out counter if they had chili paste, she looked at me like I was from Mars.  "We have chili powder," she said in a helpful manner.  "We have red and green chilies in cans, too."  Sorry, not what I'm looking for. 

During all of this, people were still coming in to the restaurant part of the grocery store.  It was around lunch time and I was kind of hungry, so I thought I'd join the line and see what all the excitement was about.

I ordered two tacos carne asada (steak) with everything (which is onions, goat cheese, lettuce, guacamole and sour cream).  I got a Mexican Coke (which comes in a distinctive green-tinted bottle) and waited for my order to come up.

I got my tacos and took 'em to a booth.  The steak was a little over cooked for my liking.  They leave the chunks of steak on the grille after they've cooked them.  A little dry, but nothing that Mexican Coke couldn't help wash down.

At La Rosita, they have two different types of salsa.  The red sauce was pretty bland and didn't have much of a bite to it.  However, the green sauce, which was an avocado blended sauce, had a great little burn to it after about five seconds.  It was absolutely killer!  I put some of that on my tacos and they were just great!!   Some of the best I've ever had.

With the Mexican Coke ($1.50 for a 12 oz bottle) and the two tacos, it was around $5.50 plus tax.  It was well worth it.   

I'm always looking for new places to eat when I go into Chicago, and I think I just found one at La Rosita.   

(Update - La Rosita closed at the end of March of 2011.)

Tejas - Minneapolis

Tejas is one of the better - if not the best - Southwestern/TexMex restaurants in the Midwest.  Located in the Minneapolis suburb of Edina, Tejas is a part of the upscale shopping and restaurant area around 50th and France (see map). 

Tejas started in 1987 in downtown Minneapolis and moved to their current location in 1994.  Tejas is part of the Cuisine Concepts group of restaurants, owned by Tejas founder Mark Haugen, John Dayton and Wayne Kostroski. 

Tejas has a nice Southwestern decor and it sort of looks like a modern adobe inside.  There is Southwestern artwork and pottery throughout the restaurant.  And because the floors are laid brick and the tables are heavy and wooden, it can get sort of loud and echo-y in there. 

They have about 25 to 30 different tequilas to choose from and they make about a dozen signature margaritas.  I especially like the Tejas margarita - middle shelf tequila with a shot of grand marnier and fresh lime juice.  Oh man! 

Their beer selection is a little to be desired.  I think they only have something like four Mexican beers to choose from among the 20 or so they have either on tap or in the bottle.  It's sort of a "yuppie" Southwestern cuisine restaurant. 

I was in Minneapolis recently and stopped in for dinner at Tejas.  I started out with their tortilla soup - blended with chunks of chicken, tomato and avacado with jack cheese melted in.  It's topped with a slice of lime and just squeeze it in and it's heaven.  The tortilla soup is a must at Tejas.

I like to get the grilled flank steak, served fajita style, but this time I opted for the wood grilled tenderloin on a bed of horseradish whipped potatoes and topped with cajun spiced onion rings.  Oh, baby!  It was killer, just killer.

Tejas is a little pricey, but I think it's worth it.  I think you'd like it if you gave it a shot. 

(Update - I stopped by Tejas' location in the summer of 2010 and found that they were closed.  The owners shut the doors on December 30, 2009 due to a significant rent increase by their landlord.  Reports are that they are looking to re-open again at a different location, but so far I've not heard if that's going to happen or not.  Too bad - Tejas had some great food.)