During our little trip to Louisville earlier this year to go and do and see things that I don't get the chance to when I'm there on business, we decided to go to a Mexican restaurant not far from our hotel in downtown Louisville that we had passed earlier in the day - Wild Rita's.
The partners behind Wild Rita's - J.D. Rothberg and Shane Hall - have a somewhat long history with Louisville area restaurants. Rothberg was the owner of the upscale Napa River Grill since 1999 while Hall was his general manager. The two started a local breakfast spot called Wild Eggs in 2007 and it quickly became one of the hottest restaurants in Louisville. By 2011, the Wild Eggs concept had grown to three locations in Louisville with an eye on expanding even more. Rothberg sold his stake in Napa River Grill to local restaurateur and entrepreneur Junior Bridgeman in October of 2012 to focus fully on the Wild Eggs concept.
In 2013, Rothberg, Hall and their Wild Eggs executive chef Tony Efstratiadis were brainstorming about a new restaurant concept for lunch and evening dining. Setting their sights on doing traditional Mexican foods with a modern twist, the three came up with the idea of Wild Rita's, a Mexican cantina-style restaurant that also served a large number of different types of tequila. But before they could open Wild Rita's, the group decided to go into the heart of Mexico to experience the foods and tastes of authentic Mexican food and a wide variety of tequilas.
It was during their culinary explorations that they also found a unique hand-made piece of art - a mosaic mask that depicted a face that was half-human and half-jaguar. The locals called the mask a "were-jaguar", it roughly translates into "man-jaguar". Dating back to the early history of Mexican civilization, the were-jaguar was folklore that represented a supreme being where man meets animal, guiding the civilization to live a life of adventure and happiness. When Rothberg and Hall opened Wild Rita's Modern Mexican & Tequila Bar in the spring of 2014, the were-jaguar was a prominent piece of art in their restaurant.
(In 2015, Rothberg and Hall received an investment of capital from a local equity group to help with further expansion of the Wild Eggs concept. The two stepped away from the day-to-day operation for Wild Rita's to concentrate on their expansion plans for Wild Eggs. Tony Efstratiadis has stepped in to oversee operations at Wild Rita's for Rothberg and Hall.)
Wild Rita's is located at the corner of E. Market and S. Jackson on the east end of Louisville's downtown area, near the I-65 overpass. (see map) Some may call it an "iffy" area as the overpass is a gathering place for Louisville's homeless and drug-addled. It was sad to watch the world they were living in literally across the street from the restaurant. It wasn't the nicest part of Louisville, but it was safe enough.
We were greeted by a host who took a bit of time to figure out where we needed to be seated. He seemed sort of confused where to put us, but we were eventually seated at a four-seater table next to the front windows of the restaurant. (It turned out that he had a large party that came in about a half-hour after we were seated and he needed to figure out who to put where as to accommodate the large group.) The large windows looking out onto the corner of Jackson and Market afforded us a prime view of the people across the street doing their "thing". It was a shame that they were doing it so close to a nice restaurant.
The restaurant dining area was large and open, and it got considerably louder in there when the large group showed up not long after we were seated. There was a small counter area behind the dining area that looked like it may have been used for cooking demonstrations or small groups.
There was also a small, but very nice bar area with a full selection of tequilas. We were definitely up for tequila that evening. Our server for the evening, Johnathon, came over to greet us and took our drink order.
Of course, we had to have one of their signature margaritas made with Don Julio Resposado tequila and Grand Marnier with squeezed lime juice, just like I like to make them at home. They were small, delicious and somewhat expensive.
The artwork throughout Wild Rita's was sort of a wild bit of contemporary and traditional Mexican artwork. Many items were evidently picked up by the group of owners during their culinary trips to Mexico. But the wildest things on display were chihuly light fixtures that were handblown at the Flame Run glassworks in downtown Louisville. They had a number of these interesting fixtures hanging throughout the place.
I was kind of confused about these figures on the shelf in the picture above to the right. I knew these were some sort of Mexican-designed artwork, but I didn't know if they were Incan, Mayan or something completely different from both of those. I never closely followed along in art class in junior high when the teacher would talk about the different styles of artwork.
We started out getting a basket of chips and salsa, along with a small bowl of their guacamole in which they put some chopped jalapeños to give it a spicy kick. We also got three of their housemade salsa - a salsa verde that was mild with a small spicy kick at the end, a salsa rojo that had a bit of a bite along with a taste of fresh cilantro and garlic, and a pico de gallo that featured very fresh chopped tomatoes, onions, garlic and cilantro. The chips were crisp and fresh - everything we started out with had that just made taste quality.
Looking through the menu, we found a number of items that piqued our interest. The fried pork shoulder caught my eye, as did the enchiladas that you could get with beef, chicken, chorizo or shrimp inside. The Cochinita Pibil is a Yucatan-style barbecued pork rubbed with achiote spice to give it a peppery taste. They also had a skirt steak that they would flame table side with tequila.
They also had street tacos on the menu and my wife ended up getting some of those. She got a chicken taco, a braised short rib taco and a blackened cod taco. Also on the taco menu was a carne asada (steak) taco, a crispy pork belly taco, a tempura-fried cod taco, and an achiote rubbed braised pork al pastor taco. For her side, she got some kale that was braised with chopped jalapeños, onions and tomatoes. My wife declared that everything was very good and offered me bites of the blackened fish taco, as well as the short rib taco. And I had to agree with her. They both were very good in their flavor.
I was torn in different directions about what to get, but I ended up gettin Wild Rita's version of their chile relleno - a cream and cheddar-jack cheese-stuffed poblano pepper topped with ground beef and a salsa verde (my choice for both). It came with Mexican rice and black beans - I'm digging the fact that many contemporary Mexican restaurants are serving black beans more than refried beans. And the chile relleno was very good. It was large and plump with a fried egg-batter coating around the outer shell of the pepper. The cheese was oozing out with each cut and the seasoned ground beef with the salsa verde tied the flavors all together. We still has some of the salsa verde left from the "tres salsas" we ordered and I just put more of that great salsa on top of the chile relleno along as mixing it in the rice.
We liked pretty much about everything about our visit to Wild Rita's. It was a nice place with interesting decor in a section of Louisville that borders on the "not-so-nice". Still, it was safe enough that we didn't worry much about the neighborhood. The food we had at Wild Rita's was fresh, flavorful and interesting. And it was tough to beat the wonderful top-shelf margaritas they had to offer. Along with some very prompt and professional service from Johnathon, our overall experience at Wild Rita's was top-notch.
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