La Esquina. The brasserie is downstairs.
So as you might know, we’re opening a tequila bar called Mosto at our soon-as-we-can-open space on Valencia (between 18th and 19th). But conceiving of something fully takes doing some R&D. After talking to a few serious bartenders in town that I respect, they recommended I get myself to New York which has lead the way in the bar movement.
During our three night trip, Telmo, Mike and I made our way in 18-degree snowy weather to a lot of restaurants, from mixology-centric Mayahuel to Hecho en Dumbo (where we met a great bartender and native of Mexico City named Kevin Sampson, of all names), not to mention one of my all time favorites for oysters and steak frites Balthazar and a dumpling and noodle place in Chinatown called Nice Green Bo. Like palette cleansers, you need breaks from Mexican and tequila.
But of everywhere we went, the two most memorable experiences were at two very different places.
La Esquina is by no means new. In fact it’s at least six years old. On a Sunday night at 10:15 pm we made reservations at the brasserie, which is one of those “speakeasy” kind of spots where you’re lead through the kitchen of La Esquina, down the stairs into a dark restaurant. Except nothing’s illegal. I was rolling my eyes at the bullshit pretentiousness of it all before we even got there. Downstairs, we saw Calvin Klein and Donna Karan eating dinner, but that wasn’t the cool part. It also wasn’t the brick walls, concrete floors, mismatched chairs and wood tables.
I think what I loved about it was simple: It was surprisingly without attitude. And they’ve done their homework. They have a version of the Contramar tuna tostada that we have on our menu, for one. The music was good, they had great frozen margaritas and a version of the cheesy corn on the cob you get all over Mexico (I tried to explain to our server that you’d be skewered for this kind of unseasonal behavior in SF but he didn’t get why). While the tequila selection was fine, it made me realize that tequila starts in California and travels East—we simply have access to such amazing tequilas here. (Apparently Adrian Brody frequents La Esquina too, as I discovered watching this new Stella Artois ad.)
And then there was Momofuku. Not a Mexican restaurant, not a drop of tequila, and a restaurant I visit every time I’m in New York because I love it. But lo and behold, this time, amongst the ramen and pork buns, there were tamales on the menu. Wrapped in banana leaves, they were small, simple and served with a perfect salsa. With the tamales, we had a yuzu soju slushie and though it wasn’t everything, it was was still fun to drink and solidified my plan to bring frozen margaritas to Tacolicious. Proves you never know where you’re going to find inspiration.
Momofuku makes tamales
I immediately ordered a slushy maker and since we returned we’ve been playing around with it, making piña coladas and margaritas and all sorts of delicious fresh-fruit driven frozen cocktails. Next week, we’re putting them on the menu at our Chestnut Street location. Come in and try them and let us know what you think.