Wednesday, October 27. El Mesquite Grill Rocks. To the West Bank to try some untried places. I had in mind the Three Happiness, but my mental map had it misplaced on Manhattan Boulevard (it's on Lafayette Street). I headed that way up Gretna Boulevard, where I saw a few new restaurants--most of them Mexican--that I don't think are on my open-restaurant list.
Then I saw El Mesquite Grill, and changed my mind about dinner. People have been speaking highly of El Mesquite since it opened some months ago in the former Visko's, on Gretna Boulevard at Belle Chasse Highway. Many restaurants have come and gone since that once-popular seafood restaurant stumbled and closed, including a post-K attempt to revive Visko's itself.
El Mesquite seems to be doing much better. The large back parking lot was nearly full. Near the door, music too loud to be from just a sound system burst out. A live band was playing a mix of Mexican music, sixties oldies, and some standards in the larger of the main dining rooms. They're here every Wednesday, said the host, who apologized for having no tables available in the music room. Fine with me. The band was plenty audible in the smaller room.
I understand that El Mesquite is owned by people who have other restaurants somewhere else. This is credible, because this is emphatically not a family Mexican café winging it on a shoestring. The place looked good, the staff was sharp and efficient, and the menu well composed and full of variety.
What caught my attention was the report from a radio listener that El Mesquite has mole poblano. That's the brilliant sauce made of unsweetened chocolate, sesame, chili peppers, and literally dozens of other ingredients. It's one of the world's greatest sauces, but for some reason few Mexican restaurants here have it. The best is at Taqueros when Bill Peters gets around to making it. El Gato Negro has mole, but not a very good one. And that's it.
And now here it is at El Mesquite. Sort of. The dark brown sauce is paired with its most traditional partner--grilled chicken--and it looked good. Tasted good, too. Trouble was, it didn't taste a lot like mole poblano. Not the kind I'm looking for, anyway. (My most recent good version was at Hugo's in Houston.)
After eating far too many chips with the house's excellent, spicy salsa, I got to work on a boat of queso con chorizo, a dish I can't seem to pass up. Hot Mexican sausage in flowing white cheese. Better than most, it was enough for two people but I about killed it by myself. Then a guacamole salad, which--fortunately--was of very modest size. I accompanied this with Negra Modelo, which lately has become my favorite Mexican beer.
And the band played on, until they stopped playing. I never got a look at them, but they were very good. No wonder the parking lot was full. What else is there to do in Gretna?
I finished up with a good flan, and promised myself to come back here again. The Marys might even like it.
El Mesquite Mexican Grill. Gretna: 516 Gretna Blvd. 504-361-8686.
