Hurry to Taqueria del Sol this week to enjoy the last of this year’s crop of New Mexico green chiles. The chile relleno, available only at dinner for $3.99, is flawless. Fried in panko, stuffed with white cheese and served over salsa frita, two or three make a complete meal.
By the way, they are not on the menu. You have to ask for them.
(Photo by Cliff Bostock)
It’s time for your annual fix of New Mexico green chilies. All locations of Taqueria del Sol are stocked with them and are offering chile rellenos at dinner only. As I recall, the restaurant prepared a set number of these every night during last year’s season and ran out fairly often. So, go early. …
Lance Gummere, chef at the Shed on Glenwood, continues to produce new riffs on the slider every Wednesday night, when the restaurant offers sliders for $3 each. Last night, there was a new one stuffed with cotto ham, tallegio and fig jam. The other newbie featured fried mozzarella with roasted tomatoes. Both delicious and it’s cheaper than cooking at home. …
Are you a Krystal hog? Then be sure to show up at 1 p.m. on Sun., Sept. 13, at Lenox Square:
At the Krystal Square Off VI Atlanta Qualifier,
professional and amateur eaters will battle it out to see who can
consume the most Krystal Burgers and Big Angus Burgers in an 8-minute
eating contest. For the first time in Krystal Square Off history,
eaters will contend with two new rule changes—Big Angus Burger Bonus
Points and a No Dunking policy—that drastically alter the face of the
competition and have forced eaters to rethink their strategies.And once again, five amateur hopefuls will be chosen on the spot an
hour before the qualifying eating contest to go head-to-head and
bite-to-bite against professional eaters. The winner of this event
earns one of the 12 coveted seats at the final table of the Krystal
Square Off VI World Hamburger Eating Championship, where the top
eaters compete for a whopping $50,000 in cash prizes, the largest cash
purse in competitive eating history
Good news release: “McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurants in Atlanta are demonstrating their passion for quality ingredients and commitment to the Georgia’s food and agricultural industry by adding two new items to their daily printed menus featuring certified Wild Georgia Shrimp™ and other locally-sourced products. The new menu items – Wild Georgia Popcorn Shrimp with Vidalia Onion Marmalade dipping sauce and Wild Georgia Shrimp Low Country Boil – are being launched in honor of the restaurants’ 10 year anniversary in the Atlanta market.”. …
Go shopping and have lunch with Chinese Southern Belles this Sat., Aug. 22. Sign up for the event online. For more events, check out their website. …
Get your fresh produce at Danneman’s:
Danneman’s coffee shop in the Old
Fourth Ward has partnered with Fresh Roots Farm, an Atlanta farm
project, to provide weekly baskets of freshly picked produce to
customers. A $25 basket includes five to eight different organic
vegetables and half a dozen free-range organic eggs, and pairs
perfectly with a pound of Danneman’s locally roasted coffee and fresh
pastries. All baskets must be ordered and paid for one week before
pick up, and can be pre-ordered for multiple weeks at a lower cost.Danneman’s is located on the corner of Boulevard and Edgewood Ave. in
the Old Fourth Ward at 466 Edgewood Ave., Atlanta, Ga. Call
404-380-1393 for more information,
I lunched today on one of my favorite specials at Taqueria del Sol, shrimp and grits with a jalapeno-tomato salsa. It’s also available at dinner this week, but another evening special is particularly tempting — a grilled flank steak served on a corn tostada with a relish of fresh corn and huitlacoche, a relative rarity on Atlanta menus.
I got a taste of the relish. Very tasty. And the dish is only $8.99, available at all locations of the restaurant.
My new petty annoyance is restaurants that do not provide wireless internet service (Wi-Fi). Among them is Taqueria del Sol on Cheshire Bridge, where I lunched recently.
I asked owner Mike Klank and manager George “The Taco Nazi” Trusler why the restaurant doesn’t provide Wi-Fi, which costs next-to-nothing.
Mike shrugged and George snapped, “I don’t want it. It will just keep people longer at their tables.”
This is the usual explanation I hear. More questioning almost always reveals that they picture people camping at their tables with laptops like they do at coffee shops. I in turn explain that just about everyone carries a hand-held device today, like my I-Touch, and I’ve never been in any restaurant with Wi-Fi that was full of people dawdling over dinner while chatting on laptops. Mike and George looked at me rather blankly.
Of course, restaurateurs who refuse to install Wi-Fi may be avoiding altercations at the table. Last week, when I logged on to check my e-mail while lunching with friends, they threatened to put a fork in my head. “Are we that boring?” one asked. Hey, at least I wasn’t gabbing on my cell phone.
The Atlanta based Southwestern eatery, Taqueria del Sol, opens its fourth location in Athens tomorrow to eager crowds. (Thanks to Molly for the heads up.)
(Photo from Wikimedia Commons)
I know this doesn’t look any different from your average Tex-Mex enchiladas, but these are topped with a sauce made of fiery New Mexican green chiles.
Taqueria del Sol on Cheshire Bridge Road buys a load of the chiles every year. Last year, the brouhaha over Mexican labor resulted in a small harvest and the year before, floods ruined the crop. But this year’s is a bumper crop.
This week, the restaurant is offering the enchiladas at lunch. In the evening, you can order a chile relleno (filled with cheese) as an appetizer or do as I often have in the past: order two of the chiles as an entree.
While the restaurant got a full order this year, it is selling out of the chile rellenos by 8:30 every evening, so go early.
I lunched at Taqueria del Sol on Cheshire Bridge Monday. (This week’s special is one of my faves — a burrito made with carne adovado).
Eddie Hernandez insisted I sample the pimento cheese he was experimenting with in the kitchen. It was made with pecorino, cheddar and cottage cheese, with some diced red jalapenos. Very tasty. Eddie is famous for playing with southern dishes; his turnip greens are legendary.
I also learned that the restaurant is expanding to Athens. That means the Taco Nazi, George Trusler, won’t be around much in the next few months. He will be supervising the new restaurant’s construction and opening.
(Photo by Cliff Bostock)
I ran into chef Eddie Hernandez at Taqueria del Sol (Cheshire Bridge) today and lamented that the restaurant’s lunchtime specials seem to have recently taken a decided turn toward Tex-Mex. (This week is an exception.) He agreed, saying that efficiency and public tastes have mandated the change, although evening specials still remain more creative, in the vein of the defunct Sundown Cafe, the original full-service restaurant from which the taquerias were birthed.
Coincidentally, I recently ran into Lucero Martinez-Obregon at Zocalo Taqueria (Grant Park), which she owns with her brothers Marco and Luis. They closed their full-service Zocalo in Decatur recently, although the original 10th Street location remains open. I wondered if they too are headed toward a taqueria-only style.
“I would love it,” Lucero replied.
I don’t understand why creative Mexican food in the Diana Kennedy tradition doesn’t do well in Atlanta. Yes, we have Rosa Mexicano, but it doesn’t hold a candle to Oh…Maria!, the gourmet restaurant Lucero and her brothers opened in Buckhead almost 10 years ago. Between some kitchen problems and public tastes, the restaurant didn’t last long.
Oh well. I guess business is booming at Taco Bell. Anyone got a favorite Mexican restaurant that does more than takes on taqueria-style food?
Some updates: David Sweeney has set hours at Dynamic Dish. They are 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday. I returned for lunch there today and had a delicious pumpkin soup intense with ginger and an amazing pate of butternut squash and sunflower seeds. …
I mentioned in an earlier post that Matt Rupert of the Big Gay Supper Club (and grad student in French lit) is opening a cafe in the Sweet Auburn area. Actually, it will be an Italian deli with prepared dishes. …
Check out Sawicki’s in Decatur (250 W. Ponce de Leon Ave., 404-377-0992) . It’s a butcher shop specializing in grass-fed meats and fresh seafood. Salads and sandwiches are available, too. …
Taqueria del Sol is serving one of my faves at lunch and dinner this week: boneless fried chicken over ancho-mashed potatoes with low-country gravy and siracha sauce. Check out the site. …
New Mexican green chiles are in season and Taqueria del Sol is stuffing them with cheese and frying them to make the best chile relleno around town. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the restaurant isn’t likely to have any after Wednesday.
The reason? The immigration brouhaha has created a labor shortage and there’s nobody to pick the chiles, which are rotting in the fields, according to folks at the restaurant. The folks at Taqueria have placed another order, so it’s not certain they won’t get more, but you better go now. They are only available at dinner.
Note: The chiles are not actually on the menu. I had stuffed myself with three of David Waller’s mustard-style barbecue tacos at the Cheshire Bridge location before I noticed one of the chiles going to a nearby diner. They are posted on a board above the bar.
Here are some notable food happenings from the city’s PR folks:
Taqueria del Sol’s specials this week include one of my favorites — a burrito filled with brisket under a tomatillo sauce. There’s also a taco featuring shrimp fried in a nut crust, served with honey-habanero mayo….
On Thursday, Aug. 9, from 6:30-8:30 p.m., Whole Foods Market at 2111 Briarcliff Road is celebrating the arrival of EARTH University bananas and pineapples. The event will feature live music, samples and cooking demonstrations with the fruits that are now available in all Whole Foods stores in Atlanta.
EARTH University is a sustainable agriculture school in Costa Rica dedicated to educating students throughout Latin America holistically in the areas of entrepreneurship, sustainable agriculture, ethics and human relations. For more information, visit www.earth-usa.org….
Downtown Atlanta Restaurant Week, Aug. 13-19, is coming up soon. The participating restaurants will be featuring three-course meals for just $25. Among the participants are newbies French American Brasserie and Luckie Food Lounge, as well as great old-timers like Trader Vic’s. It’s best to make reservations now!…
I eat lunch at Taqueria del Sol (2165 Cheshire Bridge Road, 404-321-1118), nee Sundown Cafe, at least once a week. I long ago gave up any hope of anonymity there, since I usually know someone at the bar, where I always eat.
Indeed, one of those I’ve often run into there is Nancy Roquemore, one of my editors years ago at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and a freelance food writer in recent years. I learned today that Nancy, who was also a fixture at the Colonnade, died a few days ago. I extend my condolences to her family and friends.
Taqueria del Sol’s feature attraction, after its terrific, inexpensive food, is manager George Trusler, long called the “Taco Nazi” (after the “Soup Nazi” of “Seinfeld” fame). George (pictured here in the striped shirt) earned the nickname for his sometimes abrupt manner when confronted with rudeness or a failure to honor restaurant rules. I suggest, for example, that you not approach him while talking on your cell phone.
I asked George a few questions today:
What’s your favorite food?
Tacos, of course. After that, I like the Southern cooking I grew up with. I like chicken-fried steak — not country-fried steak — for example.
That’s a Texas dish, not a Southern dish.
Whatever. Texas is on the southern part of the map.
