Jan. 21, 2005

Red Mesa Grill
There's more to Latin-America than Tex and Mex
Much as we'd like to tell you about this hot, new restaurant on TC's East bay strip, we just can't because it's not really new. It's a virtual clone of the original in Boyne City. So let's drop the "new" part and simply say we thoroughly enjoyed our first trip to TC's Red Mesa Grill.

A lot of others must like it, too. We were more than mildly surprised, at 6 p.m. the Tuesday after New Year's, to find a jam-packed parking lot and a 20-minute waiting line. The Red Mesa's owners -- Fred Moore, Mary Palmer, and Jim Cartwright --have a knack for keeping patrons happy. The style, atmosphere and menu at the Boyne City original, still brings 'em back after eight years.

Red Mesa might seem at first glance to be just more Tex-Mex, and the menu does offer burritos and quesadillas to comfort the timid. But the real specialties come from all over Latin America, and we think you'd be making a mistake if you just went in an ordered nachos and tacos. The best bets are things like Brazilian skirt steak, Peruvian armadillo eggs, crisp Cuban black-bean cakes, and an Argentinean version -- with pork -- of a Spanish fried-steak churrasco.

Sitting in the slightly elevated bar area, we could see generous portions on tables all about us, so we opted for but one shared entrée -- the skirt steak -- and began with two appetizers, one of which was those bean cakes. They were drop-dead flavorful, crisply fried and served in twin pools of red-pepper and jalapeno cream sauces. But the hit of the meal was something called "jack stuffed shrimp" in honor of the jack cheese that the pizza oven melts down around four herbed, bacon-wrapped shrimp on a flour tortilla. Like the bean cakes, it's served both as an appetizer or entrée, and hearty eaters might prefer the six-shrimp, main-dish version.

The skirt steak dish consists of an ample supply of quarter-inch slices, done to order and buried in a flurry of crisp fried onion, next to chile-smashed potatoes drenched with spicy, beef-based guajillo chile sauce (oh, let's call it gravy).

Red Mesa takes tequila to encyclopedic lengths, providing a tequila list the way others offer wine lists, and serves up specialty margaritas we never knew existed. The ones we had were quite orthodox, but they were generously mixed and poured. They don't just splash a little tequila into a ton of limeade. This place gets it.

That surely accounts for some of that popularity. So does the very happy atmosphere that marks both the Red Mesas and Magnum's Elk Rapids favorite, Pearl's. They're bold, brassy, funky and fun, and full of people having a very good time. Background music sets the tone - jazzy, infectious, exciting  (and it seemed to mellow out as we dined, as a welcome aid to digestion). It's family-friendly, too, with a kids' menu  that runs from Mexican hot dogs and pizza to something (we can only guess) called a "hamburguesa."

We've always found the service at Magnum's restaurants to be smooth, practiced and friendly, and this is no exception. Yes, we've heard a few tales of long waits at the new Red Mesa, but we certainly saw none of it and are content for now to chalk it up to the kinks of a new operation. One measure of efficiency we noted was that the crowd in the waiting area on our arrival had been seated well inside the 20-minute estimate. (If you're like us and hate to wait, just ask if you might eat in the bar. We did, and were seated right away. It's a ploy that almost always works.)

Price is no doubt another reason why Red Mesa has fans. The specialty entrees top out at about $16 and average under $13. Appetizers and salads run $4 to $9 or so, and are generous enough that four of them make a nice grazing meal for two. Those yummy bean cakes are a mere $3.95. Our meal was but $22.85 (plus tax and tip, of course, and $5 apiece for those marvelous margaritas).

Next time, we'll try some Peruvian armadillo eggs, and if you think that sounds like fun, you're probably right, because "fun" is what this place is all about.