Tex-mex en route
If you’re driving through Stephentown, Norte Azul offers a great reason to stop the car and grab a bite.
Tacos were the salvation of 2020. Well, tacos and pizza, but the proliferation of taquerias gave us tiny Mexican outposts built around takeout and offering comal-cooked tortillas, some even nixtamalizing their own corn masa dough. We were treated to pork al pastor dripped with pineapple, tacos de lengua respecting the deliciousness of tongue and nationally trending birrias for dipping in broth. So I’m not sending you to Norte Azul Cantina in Stephentown for tacos or transformative Mexican.
But post-pandemic needs hit differently. Online threads are still awash in people looking for outdoor dining with ample space; those still hesitant about dining in; and customers with reasonable concerns about restaurant plates. There are people trying to dine with a larger group or with children — often tricky in small spaces with socially distanced tables. And that’s where Norte Azul Cantina might hit the spot.
Its order-and-pickup window, paper plates and an expansive lot with 20 picnic tables offer something close to contactless outdoor dining with ample room to move and breathe. For now, the restaurant’s small bar and dining room are mostly off limits, except for occasional private groups, but the back bar has a new semi-al fresco extension, with a timber barn dining room scenting the air with freshly milled wood. A retractable garage door is flung open on a gravel patio and fire pit despite the evening ’s rain. Occupying the custom blond-wood booths and wellspaced tables is an older crowd, the majority wearing flannel. In colder temps, an old wood cookstove emits radiant heat and keeps a late-night, one-pot meal hot after the kitchen has closed. Perfect for Jiminy Peak powderhounds seeking après-ski.
Norte Azul Cantina tops its white-boy tacos the Tex-mex way, with lettuce, tomato and cheese; stuffed burritos ooze cheese; doughy fried chimichangas are the size of a small baby; and a full page of syrup-laced margaritas come in flavors from strawberry to prickly pear. I respect the shake of tajin chile-lime salt in the Scotch bonnet-spiced mango. Even if we couldn’t take the sugar high of house sangria, we could slap a lid on it and take it home to a 20-something sitter who could. A quick chat with our friendly server turned up something off-menu: an Oaxacan Old Fashioned made with mezcal and far less sweet.
We knew Rich Matthews and partner Jared Barton, the former chef-and-manager duo from The Shop in Troy, had relocated to Stephentown and landed afresh at Norte Azul. Chef-owner Melanie Hunt opened the restaurant in early 2019 as a
second venture to her popular, long-running Blueberry Hill Cafe in New Lebanon. Hunt describes her business as a group effort: Her brother, local builder Brian
Hunt of Brian Hunt Construction, built the timber-frame barn and hammered together faux light fixtures with those on order stuck in pandemic delays. A local friend milled the wood.
Operations, like so many, have been impacted by the uncertainties of staffing.
Table service is limited to drop-and-go. On busy nights it’s window service only. Hand-cut white corn tortilla chips come in a paper bag, and we eat from cardboard boxes to-go. Hunt moves her line crew between businesses as needed. When we dined, Matthews was working the kitchen; the following week, he was holding down Blueberry Hill.
The kitchen fires out orders quickly: Sweet, sticky seared-tuna tacos are loaded with guava glaze, sriracha crema, avocado crema and cabbage slaw. There’s a lot going on, but I wish the soft flour tortillas had seen some heat. Bite-sized fried avocados are thickly breaded but firm enough to dunk, if you wish, in chipotle ranch; the tortilla-swaddled chimichanga inflated like puff pastry in the fryer oil, making it greasy and stretchy inside. You can have stuffed jalapeños or chicken wings in sweet glaze, or hearty chili and Tex-mex greens. We’re puzzled by a touch of cinnamon in the tortilla chips and guacamole needing salt
or lime, but it’s freshly mashed, and I’m here for that. Better, the kitchen’s slow-cooked proteins shine: Shredded chicken is juicy; slow-cooked barbacoa beef and carnitas pork falls effortlessly apart.
Let’s get this right. Pandemic reviewing is a minefield of gratitude to restaurants for reopening and sympathy for the undulations gripping business, from staffing shortages to COVID -19 protocols. There are Tex-mex joints in most upstate towns — usually a watering hole for locals, priced to fill bellies and convenient for takeout. Norte Azul Cantina has the usual tacos and burritos,
sweet margaritas and a selection of local cider and beer, from Nine Pin to Common Roots. And space.
Unless you’re gliding the smooth miles of Route 22, enjoying the rural landscape of Stephentown en route to Jiminy Peak (winter) or Williamstown, Mass., (summer), you might not go. And that’s OK. Norte Azul Cantina is giving Stephentown quick bites, fast service and cheap drinks. And it’s popular as hell.