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El Meze, Rellenos, Oregano’s
Fred and Annette Do Moorish Rellenos Shrinks - Still Shines, Oregano’s Opens in El Prado March 20, 2008
By Steve Fox
Can you get Fred’s Place classic burritos at his new place at El Torreon? No! Don’t ask! “I got burned out on making those. That’s why I left Taos,” says Fred Muller. “I thought I’d just get out of restaurant business for good after 12 years at Fred’s Place. But I came back, ate at Graham’s and then worked as night chef there, met Annette, and we worked a year and a half planning a totally new place.”
That would be El Meze, a Moorish-Spanish word meaning “table.” Fred and Annette Kratka, who worked with her sister at Graham’s Grille, have taken over the El Torreon compound in El Prado, at 1017 Paseo del Pueblo Norte, on the east side of the main drag.
Right now, they’re presenting their “modern interpretation of Moorish Spain” in the southeast quadrant of the compound, but they have plans: “I needed a compound so we could have patio dining in the center when the weather’s nice, performance art like flamenco, a gallery, and a wine and tapas bar,” says Fred.
The night the pesky diners were there, Fred was wearing a cool chef’s suit all in black. Annette was wearing a sharp red dress. Server Cameron was wearing all black too. That dress code worked well with the red room and green room and the colorful myth-like art on the walls by Pierre Delattre, Bill Rane, and Thom Wheeler. Very warm, very classy, very cozy.
Donna and I decided to share one of the Small Plates, then a soup, then a little green salad, then a Large Plate, and finally a dessert.
The Small Plates were all $10 to $12. We chose Buffalo Short Ribs Adovada. Four short ribs came in a large bowl with a great adovada that was spicy but not fiery. Fred makes it from Chimayó Red, Mexican oregano, and garlic. The meat was fall-off tender. We wiped the bowl with the hot grilled flatbread that came in a basket with the ribs. There are ten Small Plates on the menu, from Grilled Prawns to Jamón Serrano to Kefta, which is grilled spicy ground lamb kebabs with dipping sauces.
We each had a Pomegranate Cocktail ($4)—blood orange slice and juice, lemonade, and seltzer.
For our soup, we ordered Calabacas y Garbanzos (not calabacitas NM style) for $12. A huge bowl held butternut squash, chick peas, and collard greens surrounding a smoked ham hock in the middle. Delicious! The ham was meaty and fall-off tender, the squash was firm, and the collards were velvety.
Our “Little Green Salad” for $5 was a bowl of butter lettuce leaves with a subtle vinaigrette. Then we faced the Large Plate choice: Chilean Sea Bass, Grilled Trout, Grilled Ribeye Steak, Grilled Double-Cut Lamb Chops, or Duck Confit. Prices ranged from $18 to $32, sides extra at $4 each. We got the lamb chops and were stoked at the crispy exterior and rosy middle, with long curving ribs left on as handles. The chops came with mint, arugula, and fennel greens, little fried garlic chips, cracked black pepper, and lavender vegetable au jus.
Everything so far had been terrific. Then Cameron and Annette described the Chocolate Truffle Soufflé, which was baked with a homemade truffle in the center. (Annette made all the desserts at Graham’s.) It came in a china ramekin, baked to order at 400 degrees, which gave the chocolate a roasted, almost coffee-like edge.
We enjoyed the conversations with Fred, Annette, and Cameron, and we absolutely relished the food, but at $80 for two, sharing single orders without alcohol, it’s on the pricey side. Once they get the wine and tapas bar and performance art in the other quadrants of the compound, it should be quite an experience for the high-end crowd.
Rellenos, the best food in town at the most modest building, has lost its back dining rooms, but Antonio and Sarah Matus still make some of the finest Central Mexican dishes in town. They are the only restaurant to offer all-organic, wheat- and gluten-free ingredients. Until spring weather, they’ll be restricted to their hole-in-the-wall place at Quesnel and Paseo Sur. With nice weather, the patio dining area will once again become a forest of sunflowers and hollyhocks.
The pesky diners had lunch there last week and once again salute Antonio’s Veracruz and Puebla cuisine. One of his signature dishes that shows the subtlety and salty/sweet combinations of that region’s cooking is the Chile Relleno en Nogada that Donna had: a poblano pepper filled with ground beef, diced apple, pear, raisin, tomato, onion, and spices, smothered with a walnut-brandy cream sauce. This is so very different from the cheese-filled, chile-smothered style common in Northern New Mexico, although Antonio also offers that style.
I had pork enchiladas with green chile, and Antonio’s Veracruz touch is also notable in the preparation of the pork: it is marinated in lemon, lime, orange, and grapefruit juices, plus ancholte chile paste. It is cooked all afternoon and steeped all night. It is fork tender and carries the sweet, spicey flavors from its marinade. Rellenos also serves five seafood specialties, chicken mole and Tampiqueña-style carne asada. Their half-pound organic burger and fries may be the cheapest in town for lunch, at $6.75.
Nathalie Sarrieu has joined the craze for naming restaurants after an ingredient with an apostrophe as if it owned the place. Her Oregano’s opened two weeks ago in El Prado across from the Chicano barbershop as a gourmet sandwich place offering prices for working-class locals. “All these new restaurants opening in town charge $8, $9 for sandwiches,” she says in her super-animated way. “I wanna be the place where locals tell locals, ‘here’s where we go!’”
Nathalie was raised by restaurant people in Montreal and has worked in restaurants and bars all over town for eight years. She bakes her bread every day and makes 8” deli sandwiches with a pound of meat and cheese each for $5.50. She’s adding pizza for the same price next week and wi-fi “as soon as we can hook it up.” She’ll also have patio seating soon.
Her “Sub Club” sandwiches include ten varieties at $5.50 with free onions, lettuce, tomato, alfalfa sprouts, mayo, Dijon mustard, cucumber slices, oil and vinegar, and oregano at $7.50. If you’re not faint of heart or arteries, you can get “The Kitchen Sink” with salami, ham, capicola, roast beef, sliced turkey and provolone. Nathalie is a trip and already has regulars from the neighborhood.
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