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Chili meets chilly
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by Asher Streets
Monday, December 3, 2001
Eldorado Grill 744 Williamson St.
“Fine Texan dining” may be outside the vernacular of most Wisconsinites, but a rare Texas gem has been unearthed on Willy Street, in Madison, with The Eldorado Grill.
Kevin Tubb is part owner and manager, bringing his 16 years of experience as a chef in Austin, Texas, to the icy Midwest. Tubb was hand selected to pioneer the restaurant a few years ago and considers the assignment a “perfect match” for his background in Mexican, Texan and French cooking.
The cowboy theme with an upper-class style was the brainchild of designer Monty Schiro and a company called Food Fight. About four years ago, Tubb opened the restaurant with a diverse menu, which is in near-constant flux as he continues to create salacious new specials.
In addition to mouthwatering buzzwords like “portabello”, “aioli” and “lime,” the menu boasts a few newbies that turn the head, such as “achiote,” “pasilla” and “Nortenia” sauce. These ingredients accent a spectacular array of high-quality steaks, poultry, vegetables and seafood.
Some of the taste combinations Tubb creates are spectacular. For example, French bleu cheese with Mexican chile pasilla is a superb combination of rich dairy with hot peppers. Pasilla peppers are thin and flavorful Mexican dark peppers, a staple ingredient for moles (pronounced mó-lays).
No, these moles aren’t six times 10 to the 23rd anything, they’re fantastic sauces blended from peppers, chocolate and spices. Other featured peppers include green chiles, jalapeño, chipotle (a smoked jalapeño), poblano, ancho (a smoked poblano), guajillo and sambol.
I didn’t have the pleasure to sample the mole, but I did try the stuffed Oaxacan chiles and Texas Torpedoes. Peppers are ubiquitous at Eldorado Grill, and they define these two appetizers.
The stuffed chiles ($6.26) were intense and amazing. This is the hottest standard menu item and comes served with achiote pork, sesame lime-honey vinaigrette, sweet vinegar and spices.
Achiote is a bush that produces the annatto seed, a bright orange Mayan spice sometimes used as a dye. Tubb soaks the seeds in vinegar with spices and purées them, resulting in a salty, tangy and tart paste.
The peppers were cooked to perfection, and the pork was smooth and tender. Pink pickled onions and slivers of green onion not only beautified the plate but also provided a tart offset to the flaming mouth experience. I loved every minute of it, although I had to space my bites with a quaff or two of water.
Texas Torpedoes ($8.49) are a signature appetizer upon which Tubbs claims the restaurant was built. These grilled, pickled jalapeño peppers are wrapped with crisp, meaty bacon and stuffed with a subtle shrimp and Monterey jack cheese filling. They were well-garnished with cool sour cream, lime, and diced tomatoes and onions.
Next time I plan to sample Maria’s hand-made tamales ($6.29). Tubb’s friend Maria is a native Mexican and helps him out with the tamales to provide an authentic, special touch with her corn masa, fresh chiles, and traditional cornhusk wrap. They’re served with an incredible chipotle purée, which I had the pleasure of sampling with another dish.
The entrées, house specialties and Trail Blazers (“where southwest meets the rest”) are eye-popping. From an elegant take on the common quesadilla ($7.99) to a bold crispy game hen with pineapple and cascabel chile sauce ($16.99), the menu is spellbinding.
Boldly, Tubb lists the ingredients of his mole for the braised lamb shank ($16.99): poblano and guajillo chiles, onions, garlic, pecans, cherries, cranberries, cumin, chocolate and chicken stock.
Tubbs also dares to combine more French and Texan foods, such as his “Southwestern Blackened Catfish” ($15.99), rubbed with ground cumin, green chiles, coriander, white pepper, allspice and dark chili powder. He is a master of the spice cabinet.
I ordered the “Pan Seared Tenderloin with Chipotle Blue Butter” ($19.99). The steak was scrumptious and surpassed my expectations for quality Texas beef. It was hard to say if this was due to the cut of meat, the cooking-par-excellence of head chef Adam Brousil, or the innate brilliance of Tubb’s recipe.
The chipotle blue butter was another rousing juxtaposition of smoked hot peppers and blue cheese, blended with butter and Dijon mustard … another successful French-Texan-Mexican amalgam. This expensive, yet fairly priced, tenderloin came with spiced collard greens and blue corn cake, an incredible meal that satisfied the palette, the stomach and the intellect.
Almost a third of the options are vegetarian, including grilled spinach enchiladas ($12.99), four-cheese chile relleno with salsa Veracruz ($12.99) and the quirky Thai vegetable fajitas ($10.29).
The décor is rife with wood, yet not as you would expect. Instead of splintered oak, the wood is polished mahogany. Nearly everything is made of wood: the floor, the blinds, the menus, the sculptures, and nearly all of the furniture. Only the waitress wasn’t made of wood.
The horseshoes, cowboy boots and “O Brother Where Art Thou” soundtrack formed a perfect backdrop to this hot new dining spot. Although the price is high, so are the quality, service and ingenuity; Eldorado Grill receives my highest accolades and recommendation.
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