The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
El Carnicero has cool vibes, serves a hot tamale
Momocho sister eatery in Lakewood offers tasty ‘mod Mex’ in bigger space
Ever since The News-Herald reviewed Momocho (bit. ly/1kO4wO7) — a modernMexican restaurant in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood — I’ve been dying to try it.
But Momocho is small. And very, very popular.
I once walked in with a friend on a Saturday night and was told the wait would be about an hour and a half, if memory serves. Having worked out shortly before we’d headed west for the night, my friend was in no mood for that kind of wait. I’d blame my not eating there that night on her, but the packed placed didn’t seem an ideal place to kill an hour and a half of our lives. So it was a no-go.
When another friend recently suggested we try El Carnicero in Lakewood, Momocho’s newer — and bigger — sister restaurant, I was decidedly on board, even though I knew I would have trouble sticking to my lowcarb diet for the night. (You gotta have priorities, people.)
We met for some “mod Mex,” as they call it, around 7 on a recent Saturday night, and when I’d arrived in the fairly spacious eatery, I found Erin at the back bar, where she’d procured us a couple of seats. (This was already going better than my Momocho attempt.)
We did have to wait for a table; Erin was told it would be about 45 minutes, but it ended up being about an hour. Hey, it’s a Saturday night, and they don’t take reservations, so you kind of have to expect that. It was a pleasant wait, as a friendly bartender let me sample one of the draft beers, 5 Vulture, a red ale made with, among other ingredients, roasted ancho chile. Sounded great — and it was — but I was happy I didn’t have to take a blind five-dollar plunge for the brew that seemed appropriate for the meal ahead of
me.
The bartender also helped me steer Erin to a better beer choice after the wheat beer she initially ordered did not agree with her palate.
El Carnicero has a handful of draft and bottled beers and lots of tequilas. I didn’t ask about the availability of, say, wine or whiskey, but neither is on the menu. Again, though, if you want to try an unusual tequila, this is your place. They have tequila with hints of vanilla, or cherry, or caramel. They have aged tequila. They have fairly expensive tequila.
With a 35-minute drive waiting for me around the corner, I stuck with beer and water.
As we waited, we took in El Carnicero’s pleasant decor. There’s some pop art here and there, a wall of colorful Lucha libre masks and a lot of wood. It’s a sort of a rustic-meets-modern vibe, and it works.
We finally got our small table in the middle of the restaurant near the end of the restaurant’s main bar, which starts near the entrance and wraps around into the second of three rooms.
Having had time to construct an appetizer strategy, we immediately put in an order of the guacamole sampler ($17.50), which allows you to pick three of the restaurant’s four guacs. Erin, not being an especially adventurous eater, voted for the traditional, and I filled out the order with the goat cheese-tomato-and-chile poblano guac and the smoked salmoncorn-chile chipotle variety. (Were I a dictator, the traditional would have been left out in favor of the orange-sesame-chile habanero — and, to be honest, I’m not sure how the goat cheese beat that out in my mind.) Our server warned us it was a big appetizer for two people — I believe he said we’d be “swimming in guac” — but I wanted to try a few. (And swimming in guac sounds like a beautiful dream, no?)
Well, there soon was plenty of guacamole on our table. And though none blew us away, all were very good. My fave was, as I expected, the smoked salmon-cornchile chipotle. While the salmon taste wasn’t overpowering, it came through the strongest in the tasty treat. As our entrees arrived, we had plenty of guac — and chips — left, and I had the quacs boxed up and incorporated them in all three of my meals the next day.
When it came time to choose our entrees, Erin and I had much to discuss, even though there are essentially two main choices to make — tamale or taquito. I wanted to get both between us. So when she got the taquito because the salsas came on the side, allowing her to be non-salsacommittal, my choice was clear.
We were both confident in our meat choices, I selecting the machaca ($14.50), a coffee-and-ancho-braised beef brisket, she the bistec ($14), a grilled butchers steak.
When our meals arrived, neither of us saw what we were picturing, but that’s not a knock. Both presentations were interesting, especially my tamale, the food sitting atop the cornhusks in which it was cooked. We were surprised there was some assembly required with her taquitos, which came with the small corn tortillas on the side — making this dish far from the cheap frozen food you might conjure in your mind.
We were especially happy with each of our beef selections. I love coffee flavor, and it came through nicely in the machaca without being overpowering. Hers was delicious, too, if a little less unusual.
I was sort of ambivalent to the remainder of what was on my plate, mainly the queso cotija.
I had meant to order one of El Carnicero’s many sides, likely the pork belly and pinto bean refritos or the green beans, which are done “almendrado style,” whatever that means. However, I was so wrapped up in catching up with my friend and trying to decipher what items on the menu actually were that I forgot.
That our server didn’t ask if we wanted sides is the only reason I can think to ding him. But, to be fair, he may have figured after “swimming in guac” we may not have needed more food. Really, the service was very good all night.
(I also forgot to buy a bottle of the restaurant’s fantastic hot sauce, which boasted an unbelievably deep smoky flavor and the exact amount of heat I want. Oh well).
Opened in July, El Carnicero is, like Momocho, owned by chef Eric Williams, one of Cleveland’s highly regarded food visionaries. I’m glad I’ve finally sampled some of his food, even if the fare at El Carnicero couldn’t quite live up to my arguably unrealistic expectations.
Fortunately for Williams and less so for me, I’m still dying to try Momocho, which looks to have a bit more of a varied menu. For those wanting a bit of a more convenient experience, though, El Carnicero is well worth a visit.