During our vacation out in Steamboat Springs earlier this year, my wife and I had just come back from a morning outing to one of the beautiful lakes found in the area. It was just after the lunch hour and my wife - who has to have three squares a day - was famished. She said, "I know exactly where I want to go for lunch." She had me stop the car and park just down the street from Salt & Lime, a taqueria in downtown Steamboat. (see map)
Salt & Lime is part of the Rex Family of Restaurants owned by Rex Brice and features local Steamboat Springs restaurants such as Mazzola's Italian Diner (click here to see the Road Tips entry on Mazzola's), as well as Rex's American Grill & Bar located in the Holiday Inn on the southside of town. Brice - a trained chef and former restaurant consultant - also has restaurants such as Big House Burgers and Bottle Cap Bar, Lil' House Country Biscuits & Coffee, the Laundry Kitchen, and Creekside Cafe in and around Steamboat.
For 13 years, the very popular Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant occupied the spot where Salt & Lime is today. "The Rio", as it was known to the locals, was famous for their margaritas and roof-top dining. In August of 2015, ownership of the Rio Grande decided that it was too far to manage from their main restaurant in Fort Collins and closed the place much to the dismay of the locals. However, Brice stepped in to turn the full-menu Mexican restaurant into a taqueria while continuing the tradition of great margaritas at the restaurant.
For help at his new restaurant, Brice turned to Vicki Connacher who had been the chef at both The Laundry Kitchen and Rex's American Grill. Connacher came over to Salt & Lime to fashion a menu consisting of regionally-sourced ingredients combined with traditional Mexican cooking techniques. Many of her ideas for tacos at Salt & Lime come from numerous trips to New Mexico in the years past. Connacher - who was named Colorado Regional Chef of the Year in 2019 - is helped out in the Salt & Lime kitchen by Chad Whitaker, who is locally famous for his award-winning Smokey Colorado Chili.
In April of 2019, a kitchen fire caused extensive damage to the restaurant and it was shut down for a few weeks for clean-up and remodeling. The restaurant came back as strong as ever and announced earlier this year that it would be taking over the space next door that housed a longtime gift shop/local-artist cooperative until this past October adding another 2,000 square feet of dining space to Salt & Lime, effectively doubling their seating capacity in the restaurant.
It was just after the lunch hour rush when we walked into Salt & Lime. We had noticed that on nice days they had an outdoor patio area with a walk-up window where people can order street tacos and burritos at the Burrito Bar right next to the main building that houses Salt & Lime. However, that and the rooftop patio were closed that day as it was a little brisk and it was a weekday lunch crowd - as in, not too busy. The restaurant's tables were spread out for COVID-19 restrictions and every other booth was open.
We were greeted by a hostess who showed us to a small table along the back wall of the dining area and gave us a couple of menus. Our waiter for the day brought out a couple glasses of water and almost immediately I moved the table with my elbow and found that it was wobbly. As in, unstable. The top part of our water glasses spilled all over the table and onto the floor. The waiter came back and I said, "Well, this table is pretty wobbly. We need to put something under one of the legs to steady it."
He sort of looked at me and said, "OK, yeah."
I was trying to be nice about it and I said, "Yeah, if you have any beer coasters or napkins or something that can be put under one of the legs to keep it from wobbling. I mean, we've already spilled our water glasses from it."
The waiter couldn't have been more indifferent. He sort of acted like it wasn't his problem. He found some napkins and laid them on the table. We cleaned up the water spill on the table with the napkins and he just sort of stood there watching us do his work. Then I said, "Can we get more napkins or something to stick under the table?" I jiggled the table a bit to show that it was definitely unsteady.
"Uh, sure," he said in sort of an uncaring tone.
He brought back more napkins and laid them on the table. The waiter started to walk away and I said, "Can you help me with this?" I was starting to get a little pissed at this kid.
I held the one leg of the table up as the waiter put the napkins under the point. It was clear that there weren't enough napkins as the table continued to wobble. The waiter sort of disgustedly said, "I'll get more."
I said, "Hold it! Wait a minute. Let's be smart about this. Take the napkins out, fold them in half and see how that works." I held up the front of the table again, he folded them over in half and put them under the suspect point. Voila! It worked! Then the waiter walked away again. My wife was incredulous. "Now where's he going," she asked with a bit of exasperation in her voice. "I want a margarita!"
They had a short, but interesting bar drink menu at Salt & Lime including margaritas, specialty cocktails, beer - local, domestic and Mexican imports - and wine. When our waiter finally did come back, my wife had changed her mind. She got a Paloma - Dulce Vida grapefruit tequila (I didn't know there were flavored tequilas, but there are.), along with lime juice, grapefruit bitters and grapefruit soda. I ended up getting just the house margarita made with blue agave tequila and triple sec with a bit of lime juice mixed in. I thought about getting a shot of Grand Marnier on the top of my margarita, but decided against it at the last moment. My wife thought her drink was great and I thought mine was very good. I'm glad that I didn't get a shot of the Grand Marnier because it would have been a waste as the margarita was already top notch.
After we got our drinks, the hostess came by and said, "Didn't you guys get any chips and salsa?" I told her, no, and decided to throw our waiter under the bus.
"He's been a little indifferent with his service," I told her. She sort of looked over at the waiter lingering at the computer screen inputting orders and I could kind of tell from her facial expression that it probably wasn't the first time she'd heard that - probably today. She offered to get another server for us, but I said, no, it wasn't necessary. She then went over to speak to our waiter who stood there impassively while she talked to him. He disappeared for a bit and came back with a basket of chips and some salsa verde. He laid them on the table without saying a word or asking how our drinks were.
(No more dwelling on our service while at Salt & Lime - you get the picture. Spoiler alert - it didn't get any better.)
The chips were warm and crisp, and had a seasoning on them to make them a little zippy in taste. But the salsa verde covered that spiciness with its own bit of lively seasonings that was sneaky spicy on the back end. The chips and salsa were very good.
The tacos menu at Salt & Lime is also pretty short, but also rather interesting. They had nine different tacos to choose from, as well as a chicken enchilada or a barbacoa quesadilla. They had chicken burritos and a bison burrito also on the menu. Salt & Lime also featured a family-style menu with a choice of tacos or enchiladas for four people.
My wife settled on a couple tacos - the Chicken Tinga where the chicken is marinated and cooked in a combination of tomatoes, onions, garlic and a chipotle or adobo sauce; and the grilled fish tacos. The Chicken Tinga taco came with an avocado slice, pickled onion & cabbage, cotija cheese, cilantro and topped with a dollop of lime mayo, while the grilled fish taco was topped with a house-made slaw, pineapple pico de gallo, and also finished with the lime mayo.
I was not all that hungry after a pretty hearty breakfast earlier in the morning, but figuring the tacos were small I decided to give a couple a try. I was torn between the ground bison taco, the al pastor taco, the grilled fish taco, the carne asada or the barbacoa tacos. In the end, I went with the grilled fish taco and the al pastor - grilled pork in an adobada sauce, topped with a salsa verde, fresh pineapple, and lime cream topping.
Like my wife, we were both underwhelmed with the grilled fish tacos we got. We thought they were just OK, but didn't seem to have much pizzazz to the taste. The slaw was sort of basic and the pineapple pico sort of overpowered the taste of the fish - of which there didn't seem to be much flavor in the fish.
But the Chicken Tinga and the al pastor tacos were both off the hook in flavor. The pork on my taco had a wonderful flavor with just enough spiciness on the back end to get your attention. The chopped pineapple was a nice compliment and gave a cooling taste versus the somewhat spicy al pastor. It literally stomped all over the fish taco in terms of flavor and zest.
My wife thought the same thing about the Chicken Tinga. It really jumped on her taste buds and released a lot of flavor. She didn't think it was all that spicy, but there was something definitely in the Tinga sauce that made her taste buds stand up. We both were sorry we didn't try something other than the fish tacos.
Quick synopsis of our visit to Salt & Lime - very good margarita and paloma, good chips and salsa verde, great chicken or pork tacos, disappointing grilled fish taco, and a waiter who either didn't want to work, or had absolutely no clue as how to wait tables. Service with a smile is always appreciated, helping a customer with a problem - this time a wobbly table - is a no-brainer. But this guy had nothing in the tank when it came to even a modicum of service. And that was a shame because Salt & Lime was the perfect lunch spot for us. It wasn't too filling, the tacos were interesting, and it was a nice place to hang for a little while. If you make it to Steamboat Springs and want a nice light lunch consisting of some interesting tacos, Salt & Lime would be a good stop. I just hope you don't get the indifferent waiter on your visit.
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