Cafe Ole offers new, streamlined menu
For Mehdi Khezri, taking over Cafe Olé was something of a labor of love. Tulsa restaurateur Mehdi Khezri has purchased Cafe Olé, a restaurant serving Southwestern American cuisine for nearly four decades. The restaurant has been serving its traditional Southwestern cuisine at its Brookside location for nearly 40 years. Khezrri, who also owns the two Ti Amo Ristorante Italiano locations in Tulsa, purchased the restaurant earlier this year and plans to offer a smaller menu and more streamlined offerings. The Queso Olé ($8 for a small, $11 for a large) and the Mexican Pizza ($14) were ordered for lunch. The reviewer was impressed with the new menu, which includes the Stacked Blue Corn En1313 with the QuesaBirria ($14).
Опубликовано : 10 месяцев назад от James D. Watts Jr. Tulsa World, james d. watts jr. в Lifestyle
Cafe Olé has been serving its version of Southwestern American cuisine at its Brookside location for close to four decades. But until recently, I had never dined there.
One of the main reasons is that my late wife was very much a fan of old-school Tex-Mex, with its refried beans and orange rice, its flour tortillas and ground beef, and its ever-present blanket of molten yellow cheese.
She was also a great proponent of air conditioning and central heating, and the prospect of having a meal in the relatively wide-open space that is the main dining area at Cafe Olé was something at which she would look askance.
It took a change of job responsibilities, as well as change of the restaurant’s ownership, to get me through the door of Cafe Olé for the first time.
Tulsa restaurateur Mehdi Khezri purchased Calf Olé earlier this year, along with another property in the same Brookside block that he recently opened as MK Bistro. Khezri also owns the two Ti Amo Ristorante Italiano locations in Tulsa.
For Khezri, taking over Cafe Olé was something of a labor of love.
“It’s always been a favorite restaurant of my wife and me,” Khezri said. “It wasn’t the sort of food you found everywhere else — it was Southwestern, rather than Tex-Mex. It reminded me a lot of place we love in Santa Fe, called Cafe Pascal’s.
“My idea was to bring the restaurant back to the way we remembered it being,” he said. “After I bought the place, I reached out to Paula (Underwood, one of the restaurant’s original owners) for input. She came and offered to help with the recipes.”
In a 2006 interview with the Tulsa World, Underwood said she and co-owner Candy Dunn had been inspired by another Santa Fe restaurant called Josie’s, and that originally they would order ingredients from there.
“We might have been the first restaurant in Tulsa to have real blue corn tortillas,” Underwood said.
To provide some context, I met a former colleague, who I knew to be a long-time fan of Cafe Olé, for lunch.
Khezri has said he would be offering a much smaller menu than before, and my friend expressed some surprise at how the menu had changed since her last visit.
Complimentary chips and a chilled cruet of salsa arrive soon after one is seated. Executive chef Colton Selberg said he had tweaked the salsa recipe slightly, using roasted tomatoes to give it a greater depth of flavor. And he succeeded — the salsa has a touch of smokiness to it, a lingering bit of heat and enough texture to remain in place on a tortilla chip.
We ordered the Queso Olé ($8 for a small, $11 for a large) and the Mexican Pizza ($14) to share. The queso was a unique preparation of cream cheese with onion, peppers, and garlic. My friend remembered it being whipped to creamy smoothness; the texture of the bowl we received was closer to pimento cheese, with a not-unpleasant chunkiness. The flavor, however, was mostly that of cream cheese with the barest hint of onion.
My friend described the Mexican Pizza, an item she ordered frequently in times past, as “basically a taco salad on top of a tortilla,” which was a spot-on description. The base tortilla was loaded with black beans, tomatoes, onions, blended cheeses, jalapeños and a guajillo chili sauce, along with chunks of chicken tinga. Dollops of sour cream and guacamole were placed at the center. The blend of vegetables was tasty, although the chicken was badly overcooked and dry.
For entrees, she chose another staple of the Cafe Olé menu, the Stacked Blue Corn Enchiladas ($13), while I went with the QuesaBirria Tacos ($14) from the Small Plates section.
Blue corn tortillas are coated in a chili Colorado sauce, then layered with black beans, green chilis and cheeses. My friend said it wasn’t quite as she remembered it, but the generous bite she shared with me was rather good — and certainly more memorable than the birria tacos.
The three tacos had a fair amount of shredded beef and a scant amount of cheese; one wished that more of the citrus-marinated onions had been on the plate, as they brought a brightness to the dish. The consommé contained bits of onion and cilantro, but was bland.
I returned a few days later with my companion, who also was a newcomer to Cafe Olé. We happened to arrive when the restaurant was still offering its brunch menu (available Saturday and Sunday).
We ordered the Shrimp & Grits ($15), while my companion chose the Queso Blanco Enchiladas ($16). The enchilada came with black beans and rice studded with kernels of corn; she found the rice acceptable, but thought the beans were underdone. The blend of ricotta and jack cheese reminded me very much of the Queso Olé in flavor, but she found the tortillas a bit tough, especially the part in contact with the very hot plate on which they were served.
The cheddar grits were the best thing about the dish I chose; they had a bit of texture, and the cheese was well-incorporated. About eight or nine small shrimp, and along with a scattering of crumbled chorizo sausage and chopped cilantro, and a cup of warm ranchero sauce completed the dish. Unfortunately, the shrimp were way overcooked, to the point of being crunchy.
The temperature and humidity were high the two times I visited Cafe Ole, but there was enough of a breeze each day to keep the patio area pleasant. Khezri said he plans to upgrade the insulation to help make the patio area cooler in summer and warmer in winter.
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Темы: Food & Drink