Courier gets it right

Jere Downs nails Louisville's problem with Mexican cuisine:

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/li ... y/85820662

(Chances are close to 100% that I screwed up trying to post that URL.)

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/life/food/farm-to-table/2016/06/14/el-camino-docs-cantina-sway-tex-mex-mentality/85820662

Don't worry Ron, I got your back on it! Interesting article thanks for finding it.

Nice piece.

I totally agree that Louisville tastes in Mexican has been flattened by the proliferation of cheap, Americanized Mexican like Tumbleweed or El Nopals. But I don't think it's the public's uneducated palette that haunts Doc's Cantina. When I read those reviews I don't come away with "too hot/spicy" as problems, I read bland and un-noteworthy dishes and sub par service. And personality I would take offense at someone laying the blame on public tastes and dining ignorance instead of getting their restaurant act together. The CJ coming out and saying "You're just too stupid to know good Mexican." isn't making them any friends.

A quote from one of El Camino's owners:

“Mexican food is something that people in this market perceive as cheap. Some people think that if they are going to drop money on a meal, they want a white tablecloth and some steak at Jack Fry’s. They want it to be prissy and fancy and they want their girl to understand they just took her to dinner.”

Give me a break. I'll never step foot in there. "Prissy and fancy"? What kind of adjectives are those?

No mention of the mac daddy of local "curated Mexican" Mayan Cafe. They are light years beyond these Johnny-Come-Latelys.

[Robin Garr]

I'm glad to see a little pushback. No offense to the original post, but I'm just not seeing this as a prize-winning story. El Camino is nice. Mayan Gypsy got completely overlooked. And I'm proud of you guys for not giving the extended Doc's segment the ridicule that it deserved.

I like El Camino, too. In addition to Mayan Cafe, they might have mentioned Israel's Delicias de Mexico.

I don't know if it applies equally to Docs, as I've not dined there, but it nails the issue for El Camino. I think a big problem was marketing. No one balks at paying $28 for lamb in mole at Mayan Cafe, but Bruce very clearly kept his place distinct from "Mexican" or "Tex Mex" branding. El Camino marketing as "surf shack" probably made many expect cheap tacos and drinks on a patio in flip-flops. They weren't prepared for a Frontera Grill type experience and price-point.

at any rate Jere Downs wrote a good article that took a novel perspective. Nice change of pace for the CJ.

I agree with Ron regarding El Camino. Don't stage the restaurant as a suffers paradise with Dick Dale on the guitar and video reruns of The Endless Summer and think that conjures up the need for me to pay premium prices. (by the way, I love Dick Dale on the guitar) It isn't that my palette isn't as sophisticated as the principal interviewed described. I'll gladly plop down money that matches the cuisine and the experience. I don't feel like I got a good return at El Camino in my visits and in fact walking in seemed to actually queue my senses for a taco, even though I had other items as well. Heck, I'm not even saying the food isn't good. It is. I had plenty of dishes the past years since opening that was "fancified". Its just the pricing never seemed to match the environment or the service from indifferent hipsters who were oh sooo hip. It's true that Louisville has a plethora of training on basic Tex-Mex fare but please don't presume to think we can't distinguish a more sophisticated offering AND be willing to pay for it.

On a side note, I just noticed that Doc's is selling T-shirts with a fake John Lennon quote on them. Unless they're paying Yoko for the rights I think that stinks.

It really sounds like baby crying when a business, any business, blames the customers for the business failure.

The customer is the one who determines what is desirable.

Suggestion .. If you want to serve authentic Mexican food to people who are experts, go to Mexico and open a restaurant.

I'm all about quality Mexican or Tex Mex food. I will pay extra. Mayan Cafe is great. The flavors are awesome. The heat is non existent. That's where they dumb it down for the yokels.

I thought Wild Rita's had a good mole style dish for a minute, but the quality is wildly inconsistent. I tried El Camino. Honestly, I hadn't noticed the mole dish mentioned in the article. Wish I had tried it. The tacos I did try were dry and flavorless.

Guaca Mole has some good dishes, but it just misses the spirit that I'm looking for. Seviche hits the mark with their mahi mahi tacos (ask for extra jalapeno rojo) but I got burned out on those (so to speak).

Now, I have retreated into the taqueria and tamale ghetto, and no longer let my hopes get too high.

But I have learned how to make awesome carnitas in my pressure cooker. So, there's that.

Guaca Mole has some good dishes.

I remember going to Guaca Mole when they first opened. We were ordering some fun, unusual (for us) dishes, while we overhead an angry group at the adjacent table ask the waiter, "well, then, what do you have that is sort of LIKE a burrito?"

I guess they learned . . . Guaca Mole today has several burritos on the menu.

[Robin Garr]

I remember going to Guaca Mole when they first opened. We were ordering some fun, unusual (for us) dishes, while we overhead an angry group at the adjacent table ask the waiter, "well, then, what do you have that is sort of LIKE a burrito?"

I guess they learned . . . Guaca Mole today has several burritos on the menu.

That reminds me, with sadness, of Seviche's brief effort to establish a foothold in the suburbs on Goose Creek Road. We noticed at lunch one day that everyone around us was ordering guacamole (which was excellent) and complaining about the overall lack of familiar "Mexican" dishes on the menu.