I have been craving Tex-Mex lately. A couple years working as a bartender in a Mexican place left me with an unshakable addiction to home made tortilla chips, salsa and guacamole. Luckily I sort of shook the addiction to tequila and home made sour mix, or else I probably would be typing this from the gutter...or not typing it at all I guess.
So I stopped into my old haunt Mesa Verde for a happy hour drunk and an appitizer. First let's get some expectations out of the way. You go into Mesa and you're not going to get fine Mexican cuisine culled from generations of deep family tradition. You're going to get cheese, salsa, guacamole and a variety of vegetables melted on flour tortillas in a variety of ways. If you want you can add chicken or beef or something in there, but really there are only a few ingredients needed for a whole universe of Mexican-American food, and MEsa Verde has them all (the Saloontown graphic designers are working on a chart for this...). So don't expect to be blown away by the food, because what you're really going there for is consistency, atmosphere and the prices. And the few flag ship items that Mesa not only does well, but exceedingly better than a lot of places in town.
First up is the home made salsa and guacamole. The salsa ranges from mild to medium, and always has a pretty strong garlic component. It is tasty and fresh 90% of the time, and I love it. Last night's batch was probably the best I had in a while. I know they make it in bulk, so if you can hit it in the next couple of days I would.
Next the guac...delicious. The tried and true recipe is perfect. Just enough citrus to take you to awesome taste town. What I didn't like is how they stuffed lettuce in the bottom of the serving cup (I assume to give less guac), which kind of sucks. But I have also noticed that this technique varies from server to server.
The chips were basic, and a few were undercooked, which I typically don't mind in other varieties of home cooked chips (i love mooshy dogfish potat chips for example) but a couple were kind of gross...but if you salt the shit out of them, who cares right?
I also had a margarita, which I will contend is the best god damned margarita in town. The home made sour mix kills any I ahve ever tasted. I regret daily not writing it down before I stopped working there...Mesa has the booze to make you a pretty high end marg too, I would recommend the patron anejo if you're in the mood (and have the cash) but being cheap myself, I found the house tequila just fine. Just limit it to one or two or else you're gonna have one hell of a headache the next day.
My plate of nachos was good, a little less cheese than I would of liked, but it was loaded with so many other toppings I didn't care much. Everything was fresh and crispy, any undercooked chips being straightened out by the oven.
Afterwards I sat around with my date, tubing Newcastle (on tap!) after having my fill of margarita. The bar is colorful and the joint was packed. I was brought back to the many saturday nights I spent slinging tacos and drinks. I have to say I missed it just a little bit.
I have to mention the drink prices, which during some of the happy hour specials are ridiculous. I would recommend the wing and pint specials on Wednesdays and check out the Tues-Sunday happy hour. Mesa Verde knows exactly what it is, and what it does well. Once you clue into that too, there is no reason you shoouldn't love it.
In other ST news, our graphic designers are working on the much anticipated "burger matrix" which our reviewers use to evaluate Portland's ham and cheese burgers. This should be up in the next week or so.
