The history of Mexican food in Spokane isn’t necessarily a pretty one. Granted, these days we can enjoy high-quality choices like De Leon up north (and downtown) to Guerrero in the Valley, but as a whole, we can look back at a world filled with giant burritos with dull salsa and cups of sour cream.
One of the spots that fairly early on was closer to being authentic than most places in town was La Katrina Tacos. Sure, it wasn’t De Leon, and probably not the first place to make decent Mexican food for that matter, but they did serve up some very nice carne asada, as well as nopalitos. Then ownership changed, La Katrina went downhill, before it finally closed.
Now new owners are giving it another try in La Katrina’s old space. Hacienda las Flores does not seem interested in following the current trend of being big on authenticity, but rather aim at serving everything as large as possible. And I mean everything. Even the water and horchata are served in some of the largest glasses I’ve ever seen. And the burritos? Well, it’s back to the traditional American-style burrito, at least size-wise.
Yeah, there’s a lot of sour cream there, and the guacamole isn’t something that will set the world on fire. That’s not to say the burrito is offensively bad as such—the chile colorado actually had a bit of flavor to it—but when there are places are starting to pop up around town that actually feel like individual and unique experiences, I can’t help but wonder if Hacienda las Flores will fall between the cracks. This particularly when Guerrero and Tacos Tumbras are relatively close by.
Hacienda las Flores, then, is not awful, just a bit forgettable. The service is OK (although a waiter just looked strangely at us when we asked what “jamaica” was, and just replied it was a Mexican word) and the lick of paint spruced up the location compared to its La Katrina days.
But yes, if you’re seeing any strangeness with the new design—and remember that Internet Explorer 6 is no longer supported particularly well— then let us know. And yes, things have been changed a bit around, and new things have been added. So from top to bottom, these are some of the many things you can look forward to on Spokane Food Blog:
Traffic signs! European traffic signs! The ”!” on the left takes you here, the knife and fork to Taste Everything Once, and the “i” to iluvspokane.
Farmers markets map! Directly from Spokane County. (Via yearofplenty.)
Improved “our friends” section! Instead of a list of blogs with their latest updates (some of which were six months ago) you now get a list of the ten latest updates from all the blogs.
RSS fixed! Hopefully. With some luck you will be seeing the full post in your RSS reader now.
And there are more, but that covers the basics. We will be back to our regularly scheduled halfway on topic blog posts again tomorrow!
O-M-G, we’re getting a new design! So if we’re running around like phesants with our heads cut off on Monday, and nothing on the site is working… Well, then you will know the beta version of our new design will have launched! It’ll all be good, though (unless you run IE6, which will flat out not be supported), and there will be plenty of new features for you to love.
Congratulations to @jreilly4261! He was the first person to send us a Tweet! And in case you don’t already follow us, we’re @SpoCOOL. Speaking of Twitter, make sure to use the Spokesman endorsed #SPOEATS hashtag—it will be implemented into the aforementioned new design.
There’s, apparently, an alphabet battle around Catacombs. A doesn’t want to go back. C says it’s better than ever. Agree? Disagree? Let the world know. Bonus question: What is Catacombs better known for—pizza or s’mores?
And yes, feast is the only way to describe it, and if you missed it, you certainly missed out on quite the event. Not that SFB was represented during the actual event, but we did get to check out the menu the next day.
There are, at least as far as I am concerned, two important points to take home after the dinner. First, not once did I think I was eating a vegetarian meal. This is important, as so many vegetarian options in town is the standard replace-meat-with-portobello. Or tofu. Or… Well, you know the deal. Eating the borscht with a beet bread pudding, the torta, and the lentil mole, I did not once feel like anything was missing. The same went with the rest of the dishes in the six course dinner. The food, in other words, was a runaway success.
One thing we lucked out with over the actual event was that we could choose wine from the actual wine list. The previous day’s festivities had included only organic wines, which… Well… I can see the thought behind it, but I think it was more of a well intention than something which would perfectly compliment the meal. How many times have you had an organic wine that really blew your mind? I’m not saying that it’s impossible to find good organic wines, but when it comes to having three glasses with a $60 meal. Seems that non-organic wines would have made more sense.
More importantly is that events like this give chefs a chance to do something more creative than what is usually on the menu. Six course meals like this—vegetarian or otherwise—is a great way to have menu items perfectly paired with eachother, something we don’t see much of around town. With all respect to those who like lots of choices, I do believe a chef is better at picking out these kind of things than the customer. Why don’t we see more events like this? I suppose it could be something as simple as owners not thinking it’ll be profitable with Spokane’s customer base. And honestly, it would probably take a bit of time to get something like this penetrated into the market.
Still, good on Latah Bistro for taking a chance, and dishing up a very successful dinner.
