Mary Leigh found herself in Denham Springs recently and she went to La Caretta. She returned with a report that The La Caretta she went to there was much better than the one we are used to in Covington.
I have always regarded La Caretta as an ordinary “Mexican” restaurant, but it is such a long standing tradition with the two of us that we continue to go anyway. We love the choriqueso, and we usually stop there. It works as a place for girl talk, and all the servers are like family.
But her report of a La Caretta with better food and even a different menu intrigued me. We decided to do a La Caretta tour around the area to compare experiences at the different locations. Not all of them, just the ones that seemed more interesting. I found one in Amite that was also a cut way above our regular haunt. These are all owned by the same guy, not franchisees, so I wonder about these differences. A dine around seemed like a fun little lark. Not the same day, of course.
Today seemed like a good day to start. We went to the Denham Springs location, because she was still thinking about the nachos a month after the time she last had them. The ones she gets at the Covington location are so hit-or-miss it’s almost bizarre. Half the time she eats only a few bites because the pork is so mushy .
I was curious about these nachos that had so captured her fancy. I also love nachos but it is so rare to find any worth eating I never get them. After a longer drive than I expected, we arrived at a handsome place in Denham Springs, which was clearly a new construction. The inside seating was small in comparison to the outside under roof dining. A nice bar was in the rear of the outdoor space, with plenty of tables and a few waterfalls and pots of plants. Television screens and fans made it a little noisy in there, but it was quite pleasant otherwise.
Our waiter was terrific. He couldn’t have been more helpful. I was disappointed that the menu didn’t really seem any different than in Covington, but there was no question that the offerings were much better. The nachos in front of ML were beautiful A pile of dark almost crispy pulled pork under a covering of carefully placed jalapeño sliced lengthwise covered a generous amount of crispy chips. There was simple queso under the meat and grilled onions as well.
Because we were trying something different I ordered the duck empanadas with a Salsa Roja and more queso. These triangles were deep fried with a cheese sauce inside as well. This was served with a large glob of sour cream and some wilted pico de gallo. It was difficult to find the duck in these but they were tasty enough.
Mary Leigh has no outer limit to Scoville tolerance, so she ordered smoked tomato salsa. I have sometimes felt that smoking something seems to cut down on the spice level, but it doesn’t always seem like that. This salsa did not subscribe to that obviously flawed theory. It was smooth, smoky, and downright fiery. ML couldn’t even do much of it. That one is not offered in Covington.
I’m not sure if there is enough fun in this little adventure of dining around the La Caretta universe, but I remain curious as to why 12 restaurants bearing the same name with the same owner should be even different enough to provoke the thought of dinng around an area in the same restaurant family. Mystifying.
