Sabroso, Byzantiium, El Meze

December 19, 2008

Eat, Drink And Be Merry

I don't know about you, but when winter creeps in during the Holiday Season, I start thinking about being cozy. That goes for the nights I choose to eat out as well as the ones spent beside the fire, eating a home cooked meal. Cozy is important these days, when everything around us is unstable and in a state of transition, and during a Christmas Season where consumers are spending less and gift giving is being scaled down, people will still gather with friends and family to eat, drink and be merry. In one way or another, the Holiday spirit will prevail. To take the edge off the stress of the season—a simple thing like family visiting from out of town can send some of us to Bedlam—there is nothing better than to take the night off from sink and stove, and instead, gather around a table at one of these fine establishments.

If you and your visitors have spent the afternoon on the mountain, why not stop at Sabroso, possibly home to the coziest dining atmosphere in Taos. You could sit in the bar, as close to the fire as possible, sip a brandy and order from the tapas style menu—it’s December and the oysters are perfection. I love the calamari with a New Orleans remoulade and the crab cakes are delectable. The salads that were served at an adjoining table looked great and our French Onion Soup was an excellent spin on the traditional potage. But if one of the dining rooms is more to your liking, then you are in for a treat! Do have the bouillabaisse—it is superb and chock full of shellfish—and then order from the wood burning grill. The smoky flavor that permeates the great cuts of Angus beef—the rib eye and filet mignon are equally tasty—is what takes a steak from good to great! Sabroso has several vegetarian items on the menu as well, so no one will leave hungry.

Byzantium is a nice spot if there are two to four of you. It’s a two-man operation that stands on no ceremony yet surprises at the table with a brilliant presentation and taste bud orgasm. Order the mussels, which are prepared Indo-Dutch style; a tureen of tomato based sauce, filled with shelled mussels and Sweet Potato Curly frites; along with thick slices of toasted bread to soak up whatever sauce remains. The selection of beer and wine is good and the service, personal and efficient. The Prawn filled Dumplings are delicious, the Feta and Red Cabbage salad, both beautiful to look at and as good to eat. The menu is subject to change but if they are still serving the Dover Sole—do try it. It was buttery, flaked off the fork and melted in the mouth. The duck, too, was divine. Do not leave without ordering the Toblerone for dessert. A huge wedge of chocolate nougat surrounded by a butterscotch and berry sauce tastes as decadent as it sounds and just a bite or two will leave your taste buds reeling. According to one of my dining companions it was “the best dessert ever.� Byzantium, too, rates high on the cozy barometer; the room is very small and the night I last ate there, only one table was empty.

Caveat: If on a budget, you and your companions could split the check and stick with the bar menus and/or appetizers. None will set you back more than $20.00. If you're in the mood to splurge—recession be damned—all the restaurants covered are competitive price-wise. Expect to spend $30.00 per entree and add on from there. —L.R.

El Meze
Nuevo Moorish

Fred Muller is one of many in the restaurant biz who’ve had to put their best-laid plans for expansion on hold. Back in March, Dining for Dollars reported, in a first look at Muller’s new place, El Meze, that Fred had bought the Torreón Hacienda. He needed to have a room for a tapas bar, a gallery, space for performance art, and patio dining in nice weather.

Woulda been lovely. As it’s turned out, the long-term trend of dwindling visitor traffic to Taos continued through 2008, and then, ka-bam! There went the national and international economies.

So the space intended for the tapas and wine bar is now occupied by the Bill Davis Photography Gallery (see P/Reviews, p. 16). Kore Gallery occupies the opposite wing on the north, which J Fine Art will soon fill with some of their contemporary art.

Fred and partner Annette Kratka continue to serve tasty Nuevo Moorish food in the back dining rooms, warmed by a fireplace and by the art on the walls. The pesky diners, Steve and Donna, dropped in last week to try some different dishes, nine months after we first ate at Fred’s new place.

Donna ordered Pasta with Elotes, a Spanish term for green beans. Before it came, we each had a Little Green Salad, which was full leaves of butter lettuce with a sherry vinaigrette. A bit of garlic and mustard gave the dressing a pleasantly spicy aftertaste.

Donna’s pasta was a light and zingy bowl of sauce-less penne. It was tossed with the elotes, mint and fennel sprigs, crimini and shiitake mushrooms, and 1� x 3� paper-thin slices of Manchego cheese. That’s a more tangy relative of Parmesan. Ranger Donna buzzed right through it happily, offering me tastes that I greatly enjoyed.

Never one to pass up any form of French fries, I ordered Herb Frites, dusted with thyme and lavender, with a roasted garlic aioli (like a mayo) for dipping. There were plenty of them in the container and they were good, but like all fries, should be eaten before they cool off. For my entrée I ordered Kefta, grilled spicy ground lamb with cucumber yogurt and cilantro dipping sauces. Our server, Isaac Gonzales, was always quick with details, and described the Kefta as “a lamb popsicle on a stick.� It was bigger than satay sticks or shish-kebab, measuring about 1x2x6�, grilled to a light brown crust, and great with the cucumber sauce. For me, the other dipping sauce had too much garlic to taste the cilantro.

So our meal was a satisfying mix of crunchy and soft, salty and cool. We asked Annette, the dessert chef, about our choices. “Well, I had thought that the chocolate truffle was going to be my signature dessert�—which Donna and I shared the last time, and it was killer—“but no, now I think the Lemon Mousse Raspberry Napoleon is becoming my signature.� She described it as filo dough, flaky and light, dusted with ground pistachio, layered with raspberry purée and sweet and savory crèmes flavored with cardamom and coriander. It’s a rare day I turn down chocolate, but Annette was right: it was terrific, a great palate cleanser after our meal.

The tab came to $66. —S.F.