(SpoCOOL) A Spokane Blog

It's been a while since we visited El Que, The Elk's oft forgotten about little brother. "People forget about it?!", you may ask, and apparently they do. We were there on a relatively balmy Sunday afternoon, and the place was for all intents and purposes empty. Neighboring The Elk, Italia Trattoria, Pacific Ave Pizza, and even Tully's were hopping, while El Que was kinda just hanging out in the corner, like a detached hipster kid.

That's a bit sad, really, as there are good things going on at El Que. It hasn't changed much since our last visit, but this is a good location as far as porch seating in Browne's Addition goes, and we'd recommend it for a quick drink and some food to go with it.

Other than the selection of tequilas, the beer is served in cans and bottles. I'd personally prefer to see taps, but c'est la vie. That you have to ask for a glass is a bit less awesome, mind you.

The food is still good, though, again, probably not something that'll lure you away from Guerrero. Trying the chile relleno during our last visit, it was pretty good for what it was. That it was served without the standard batter was a bit odd, but hey, peppers stuffed with cheese is nothing to scoff at all the same, and it was fresh tasting.

As for the service, well... That famous The Elk level of it is here. You're not going to want to hug the staff as you leave. Not that they're downright unfriendly, just a bit impatient.

We like El Que. The individual parts of it might not be top of the class, but add them together in the location, and the spot is well worth visiting. 

Original February 22, 2010 review

We took our sweet time getting there, but we finally got around to check out El Que (1931 W Pacific Ave), the Elk’s “taco truck” style restaurant with a crazy amount of tequilas to choose from. And while this in no way replaces spots like Tacos Tumbras for traditional tacos, there definitely is room for El Que in the rotation.

To start with the tequila. I, for the most part, don’t like it much. Other than a delicious Santo tequila liquor, I just have bad memories and associations with tequila. But they do have 23 to choose from, and if you like the stuff, I’m sure it’d go just fine with their food.

As for the food, it’s definitely good. Maybe not great, but good. Their “Vietnamese guacamole” has a nice flavor to it—though it’s a tad too thin—and is served with what has to be De Leon tortilla chips. (Or an extremely close clone.) For $6 you also get a lot of chips, so we’re talking a good bang for the buck here.

Tacos, meanwhile, are $3 a pop, which seems a tad too expensive seeing Tumbras serve better ones at half price. Not that El Que’s tacos are bad, but I did miss a second tortilla with the tacos. The al pastor was good, though, and if you’re hanging out, drinking some Mexican beers or tequila, then El Que’s tacos are worthwhile.

It's April and summer has hit, which probably means you better hurry up and enjoy it before fall hits in July. That we don't have a lot of summer ales available yet might be a problem, but luckily Fremont already has a good one in stores, the imaginatively titled Summer Ale.

This pale session beer -- a mild 5.2% ABV -- is refreshing, with a nice citric bite. It pours a vaguely dark golden color with about a finger worth of crisp, white head. Give it a quick whiff and a light, floral-y maltiness hits you straight up. It's a simple nose, but not in a bad way, particularly seeing how good it smells.

Sip it, and a nice balance of flavors reveals itself straight away. The citrus is right there, but it doesn't overpower the round tones of malts and hops. Together the three flavors create a surprisingly creamy mouthfeel -- almost like a Creamsicle. There's nothing wrong with that when it's warm outside.

Summer Ale was brewed with one grain and one hop and is not an incredibly complex beer. That's a good thing in this case. It's hard to beat Fremont's offering as far as a refreshing summer ale goes.

The Murcia region of Spain is a SpoCOOL Favorite, be it for their cheeses -- Drunken Goat is still available at Main Market -- or their salads. We enjoy moje, more commonly known as ensalada murciana, or just Murcian salad for the rest of us, a tomato and olive oil heavy salad that is easy to make at home.

Based on the traditional way of serving it we put together a simple recipe for moje. Prep time is about ten minutes. (We pretty much add everything to taste, so don't take the measurements as gospel.)

The ingredients

• 12 tomatoes
• A good handful of scallions
• A handful of black olives
• A can of tuna
• 1 cup of olive oil
• Salt
• 3-4 boiled eggs

You probably want to get you tomatoes canned and whole when they're out of season -- they need to be juicy. The tuna should preferably be canned in olive oil, but we weren't able to find that during our short search. (Odds are an Italian market would carry it.)

Preparation

Cut the tomatoes into small chunks, and put them (juices and all) in a bowl alongside the finely chopped scallions. The olives can be added whole (as long as they're pitted, obviously) or more finely chopped. We prefer to chop the eggs up a bit and add them here, but they can also be used as a topping (usually in halves or quarters).

Throw in the drained tuna, then pour in the olive oil, and stir the contents of the bowl. Make sure everything gets mixed well together, the oil should coat everything. Add salt to taste -- a good pinch will do.

Let the salad sit in the fridge overnight for the flavors to really meld. There's a lot of liquid here, so serve with a straining spoon -- there should be enough for about four people

We'd recommend serving the moje with a good crusty bread and a lighter beer, like Oskar Blues's Mama's Little Yella Pils.

We like spots that keep improving, and Taste has done just that, in a slow steady stream. It's our current place of choice to grab coffee in the morning when we're feeling too lazy to make it ourselves.

The espresso drinks, still DOMA, we've had here have been more than serviceable. The baristi working in the morning seem to respect coffee, which, hey, is more than a plus.

The baked goods and deli case items are all excellent, and we particularly like their frittata -- always fluffy and flavorful. For those with different dietary restrictions, you'll find anything from vegan to gluten-free here too. 

What really sets Taste apart from other places that technically opens at earlier in the morning is their preparedness. Too many spots -- many here being a relative term mind you -- in town might open their doors at 7am, but often they'll have nothing ready food-wise. That's kind of too bad. When Taste opens, it truly is open, and you can order food or baked goods for breakfast or lunch. It might seem minor, but the kind of professionalism sets them apart.

In that sense Taste truly excels at being a cafe. That might seem simple enough, but few other spots in town succeed at it. Good on Taste, then, for steadily improving, and for having a clear vision of what they want their business to be.

Original September 2010 review

So we try Taste Cafe again, and this time it looks better than it once did. 

It's not that Taste is super unique, yet we don't have many of its ilk downtown. The typical cafe where you can go for good coffee, baked goods and a sandwich. Seems simple enough, but it has been something we've been lacking.

Taste already did an OK job filling the void, but we always felt something was missing, up until our last visit.

The croissant was excellent: perfectly flaky and just the right amount of butter and chocolate (as this, obviously, was a chocolate croissant). The muffins, too, hold a good quality. Anything but dry, and good flavor of blueberries.

More importantly, Taste also carries DOMA, and the espresso based drinks are about as good as you would expect any DOMA friendly place to be. 

And while I don't go to many baby showers, the gluten free cake we picked up from Taste for one was great.

So. Not much to complain about here. Taste has stepped up its game from being average to being quite good. That's something we can get behind.