It’s been a few years since NOCHI started their pop-ups showcasing the talents of their graduates from each of the three 100- day sessions offered every year. The students gather and vote on a concept, then see it through to completion, switching roles between kitchen, bar, and service in the three weeks of the pop-up. Usually, these themes are too exotic for my traditional tastes, but every time I have gone, I found plenty to eat from the menu and have been thrilled with my choices.
The entire thing is the height of professionalism: service is friendly and knowledgeable, and the food is exciting and delicious.
And each time I talk to them on the show, I beg for a New Orleans food version or a simple American food or Southern food concept. The last one was American, and I enjoyed it tremendously. I was just as excited to see that the current one is another personal favorite. Deux Fuegos is Mexican infused with Creole flavors.
The menu was going to be tough…too many things I love: tamales, carnitas, empanadas, oxtail, Mexican rice ,and housecut fries. I got some fries, boudin tamales (oh yeah) and Maiz Ribs as starters. I was thrilled to see oxtail on the menu online, but it wasn’t there when I tried to order it. I keep saying that oxtail is the new short ribs, but when I remarked about its absence to the waitress, she explained that the oxtails were not braising enough in the time allotted, so they replaced it with…short ribs. I switched my order to the Carnitas Poor Boy because I get short ribs everywhere. And I got the empanadas because I get those everywhere too, and even though these were chicken mole inside, they were still empanadas.
The fries came first, and these are consistently some of the best housecut fries in town. They were served with an herbal aioli, which didn’t thrill me, but these fries are always great.
The Maiz Ribs have nothing to do with pork. They are something I’m seeing more of, and it seems silly, but the taste was there. Elote, or Mexican Street Corn, is usually served on the cob, but here the corn cob is cut into pieces, hence the “ribs.” These little nuggets of corn on the cob were terrific, really buttery with a great spice profile.
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I also loved the tamales, which were long and thinner and filled with boudin. I liked the masa enclosure and the peppers and crema topping. A great idea for tamales.
The Carnitas Poor Boy was fine, but unexceptional. It was the perfect size, with nice bread, but the carnitas itself was more of a debris, which works better with beef. Red tomatoes were on this sandwich, which always gets extra points from me.
The only thing that was disappointing, and just mildly so, were the empanadas. I was a little concerned about the mole, but there wasn’t enough stuffing to make much difference. The crust was exactly what I like, a dryish and flaky real pastry crust. This detail gave them such potential it’s a pity they missed the mark by not having enough in them. A red bean puree I would describe as "meh" was plated between these two little handpies, with a tiny pile of very nice shaved and pickled mirliton. A heavy drizzle of crema made this an extraordinarily messy dish.
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It wasn’t just this dish that made me think that the execution of these creative dishes just isn’t what it used to be. I remember being blown away by the first few of these pop-ups, but the last maybe three have dwindled, not in creativity, not in ambition, but in execution. There’s been a slide in service too.
These are definitely still worth experiencing, and at their height, these lunches were indistinguishable from any top-tier restaurant. But too many of those aren’t what they used to be either.