In early May, a friend of mine had posted on Facebook that he was at a soft opening for a new Mexican restaurant in North Liberty, IA. He had been part of the crew who installed the sound and video system in the restaurant and the owners were celebrating with many of the people who worked on getting the restaurant up and going. The actual opening date was still a couple weeks away and I sort of filed it away in the back of my head to go there at some point. My wife and I were up in North Liberty watching her grandson play soccer one recent evening and after the game we took her daughter, granddaughter and grandson out to dinner at XOLO.
The people behind XOLO (pronounced SHOW-lo, and named after a hairless Mexican dog breed called Xoloitzcuintli) are the same people who run Cafe Tacuba and Mextizo in Cedar Rapids - Ozzy Aguirre, Ariel Barrios and Raul Gomez. With the success of their restaurants in Cedar Rapids, the trio set their sights on the Iowa City area to offer their home-style Mexican fare that Aguirre's grandmother made when he was a young boy. Many of the recipes that Aguirre uses for food in their restaurants are old recipes that have been handed down through generations of his family.
While their Mexican comfort food-style of food was established in Cedar Rapids, the trio was surprised to learn there really wasn't a restaurant in the immediate area that focused on true Mexican cuisine. Most featured American-ized Mexican food and with the success they were having with their restaurants in Cedar Rapids - a city that has over 35 Mexican restaurants - they felt they could penetrate the market in the greater Iowa City area that also features a number of Mexican eating establishments.
Pictured right - Ozzy Aguirre, Raul Gomez and Ariel Barrios. Photo courtesy City of North Liberty.
After considering the nearby town of Tiffin for their restaurant, a Mexican restaurant by the name of El Patron went out of business along the busy Iowa State Highway 965 corridor, the main drag through North Liberty. El Patron was basically a Mexican restaurant that had been plopped down inside a defunct sports bar. Undeterred that the space had already had a sports bar and two Mexican restaurants that had gone out of business, the trio took a look at the space and knew they could make something special out of it along the lines of how they decorated both Cafe Tacuba and Mextizo. With North Liberty growing at an astonishing clip (the town has more than doubled their population over the past 20 years), they felt their new restaurant would be perfect for the area. After a complete renovation of the space over a period of time, XOLO opened on May 13 of this year. According to my step-daughter, the place has been packed almost since Day 1 with people from the Iowa City area who suddenly didn't have to drive the extra miles to Cedar Rapids to enjoy home-style Mexican food.
To get to XOLO in North Liberty, it's a little confusing. They have an address on Jordan Street, but you actually take Ashley Ct. off Highway 965 and pull into their parking lot from the south side. (see map) Right in front of the brick facade building was a small patio are with bright yellow umbrellas and Edison lights strung above the tables. It was a warm evening and my wife was more interested in getting into the air conditioning after watching a soccer game in the sweltering late afternoon heat.
Just inside XOLO and to the left is the bar area. Stone arches were along the back bar with a couple flat screen televisions inside the arches to the side. They had a number of beers on tap and offered over 30 different tequilas. The front of the bar featured black tile rectangular squares with seating for 16 people.
It was just before 8 p.m. when we got there and we found that there would be a short wait to get a table cleaned off for us. The dining room had a high ceiling and suspended over the tables was a wrap of flowers similar to what they had at Cafe Tacuba. The semi-circular booths along the wall were similar to the ones found at Mextiza with similar stone arches to what they had behind the bar. There was a second level in the back of the restaurant space for overflow or private event dining.
The colorful murals on the wall reminded me of the ones at Cafe Tacuba. The murals were airbrushed by Ozzy Aguirre's cousin Milton Chacon and each has a significance to the owners and their Mexican heritage. The murals, alone, are worth going in to XOLO.
They had cleaned off the table of one of the booths and we were led over by one of the staff members. Our server that evening was an energetic young man by the name of Brandon. He was really good - up to the end when we couldn't find him to pay the bill and personally hand him cash for the tip. Quite actually, they were still working out many kinks in the system that evening as I ordered up an Ozzy's Margarita - Cazadores tequila with fresh lime juice, a splash of fresh orange juice, and finished with an orange liqueur - and it took nearly 10 minutes to get the drink to the table, long after we had already ordered our meals. After a few moments, I looked over to the bar and saw that Brandon was making the margarita himself. And the margarita was just all right - nothing special. I thought about getting a second one, but I knew that it would probably take just as long to get it. So I ordered a Dos Equis Ambar that they had on tap. And THAT one took some time to get to the table.
The food menu at XOLO mirrors the menu at Mextiza in Cedar Rapids - various taco platters, enchiladas, burritos, and fajitas, as well as grilled chicken and beef dishes. They had a number of seafood selections, and they had down-home Mexican entrees such as pork carnitas marinated in a chile verde or a chile roja sauce; chicken in a chipotle sauce, and gorditas with a choice of protein.
The little turds went with the basic tacos and burritos while my wife and my step-daughter split the chicken verde enchiladas. I did something similar getting the pork verde enchiladas - Brandon said that they could put some of the marinated pork meat in the enchiladas even though it was just chicken enchiladas with the green sauce on the menu. A side of refried beans and Mexican rice came with the dish. It was topped with some shredded lettuce, chopped onions, sour cream and fresh chihuahua cheese and finished with a wonderful green chile sauce. And the chile verde packed a bit of a spicy punch. The pork was tender with full and wonderful flavor, and along with the green sauce had an outstanding taste. The enchiladas weren't all that big, but they were filling. The rice and refried beans were your basic Mexican-style sides, but the green chile enchiladas were very good.
As I said, we wanted to pay Brandon in cash for his tip and my wife always likes to hand it to our server to make sure they get the tip and it doesn't go into the pocket of someone else. But Brandon sort of disappeared after he had dropped off the bill. We don't know if he was done of the evening or just ghosted us. It was just another little blip that we encountered during our visit to XOLO.
But that doesn't mean we won't go back at some point. The pork verde enchiladas were excellent. Everyone at the table liked what they got - the burrito was so big my step-grandson could only eat half and he took the other half home with him. And that's highly unusual because he has the appetite of a horse. We just want the XOLO staff to work out the kinks of getting the restaurant up and running before we head back there again at some point later this summer.