Immaculate Infatuation

If you read our review of the cafe and taqueria, you know that we’re fans of the food at La Esquina. It’s easy to like fresh Mexican favorites in a casual environment. But what happens when you put a guy with a clipboard and some very dangerous stairs in between us and dinner? In most cases, nothing good. We’re not big fans of velvet ropes in restaurants. But La Esquina manages to get a pass on that, mostly because once we make our way past the doorman, through the kitchen, and into the dungeon, a race to the bottom of a tequila bottle instantly begins. Yes, we like the food here just as much as La Esquina on the street, but we love the brasserie because it makes us want to drink.

One of our all time favorite La Esquina dinners was the result of an unannounced Tuesday night visit. Smooth talking and a small diversion (smoke bomb) got our group of three dudes down without a reservation, and what ensued was a great meal at the chef’s table and a valiant attempt to drink Mexico into another agave shortage. Those are the nights that make us love this place. Even despite the weekday fashionistas and weekend crowds, La Esquina can still play host to the next great time you can’t remember.

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If the day ever comes when I leave this city – voluntarily, by court order, or otherwise – my last meal in town might very well be a few margaritas, an order of plantains, and 1/4 kilo of pork tacos at Mercadito Cantina. The newest outpost of the Mercadito NY restaurants is all about tacos, and though the fish tacos have been the main focus of raves and praise for Mercadito Cantina, the pork offerings are not to be missed. Most everything on the menu is simple, well executed, and gives you that special kind of gratification you get from eating street food, yet the dishes are anything but pedestrian. The space has the feel of the Momofuku dining room … wood paneled, lively, and has a very similar seating layout. I have always had good luck getting a table on busy nights, and the staff is welcoming. Bring friends and come hungry … ordering the tacos by weight is definitely the way to go.

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You know how you can just tell that some restaurants are money without even eating there? Cabrito is a prime example. Any place with a big-ass pink goat hanging above a space that’s consistently slammed with people enjoying themselves is most likely awesome. Another telling sign? Their smart and effective use of the internet. In today’s world, it remains pretty shocking to us how few restaurants have embraced the internet and social media properly. For the same reasons bands are using their websites, Twitter and Facebook to connect with fans and potential customers, so should the restaurant biz. Your people are out there; it’s simple to get them. Not only does Cabrito have an impressive website with info, press clippings, happy hour details, online delivery capabilities and so on, but both the restaurant’s Twitter and the chef’s Twitter are informative and quite entertaining.

After a recent group dinner here, our initial good feelings were confirmed. Cabrito’s food is top notch and is some of the better Mexican available downtown. They’re famous for their goat, but don’t let that scare you. We passed on goat completely, and still had a successful feast. When it comes to margaritas, they don’t mess around. They’re constantly having happy hour specials (follow their Twitter to cash in on their impromptu drink specials), and even when the drinks are full price, they’re stiff and worth every penny. Added bonus in the form of two flat screens at the bar and NFL Sunday Ticket for those like myself looking for a good Sunday alternative to generally shitty sports bars this city has to offer.

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If you know the Upper East Side at all, then you probably know that trying to find an unpretentious, good restaurant in the area is almost as difficult as eliciting human facial expressions from the overly Botoxed women who reside there. Take a walk in the east 70’s and 80’s sometime and what you’ll find is a bunch of stuffy, overpriced Italian restaurants, a handful of unbearable bars, and at least five stores that sell neckwear for tiny dogs. Not particularly Immaculate Infatuation territory. Luckily, Cascabel Taqueria has come along and opened its doors in the name of good food and making sure the neighborhood knows it’s OK to chill the f**k out every once in a while. We’ve been spending some time there over the last few weeks, and we’re officially obsessed.

Cascabel is primarily a taqueria, a low key spot for Mexican food done with high quality ingredients. It’s about keeping things simple and having some fun with a restaurant, not something you often find in this city where the food scene can be so damn serious. We’ve been fans of Chef Todd Mitgang’s since the B.I. days (Before Infatuation), when he was putting the ceviche treatment on everything from tuna to beef sliders at Crave. He’s now applying his creative approach to the menu at Cascabel, and the result is some off the hook Mexican in an atmosphere that actually feels like a real neighborhood hang. The tacos are unbelievable, there’s Negra Modelo on tap, and everything is made from scratch in house. We recommend you bring a friend and/or a massive appetite – seven bucks gets you two huge tacos, but you’ll want to try a few different kinds, so make sure you’re prepared to get down to business.

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This moment has been a long time coming. All three La Esquinas (cafe, taqueria and brasserie) have been in our heavy rotation since the days when the bridge and tunnel crowd rocked Von Dutch instead of Ed Hardy. It’s about time we got around to actually writing about them.

This review is specifically for the cafe, La Esquina’s urban surf shack – and the taqueria, a prime Outdoor/Patio Situation for People Watching. We’ve bitched plenty about the fact that there is very little in the way of good Mexican food in this city. La Esquina may not be the most authentic Mexican in town, but it is one of the few establishments to properly spin everything we love about NYC restaurants – attention to detail, high quality ingredients and smart flavor combinations – into a taco. Sure, two fish tacos at the cafe cost twelve bucks, but they’re worth every penny. Mexican food also tastes better when you’re listening to mix of funky merengue interspersed between choice favorites from The xx, Miike Snow and Florence + The Machine. Infatuation Approved grub to go along with Infatuation Approved tunes. That’s how we like it.

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