Friend J. keeps talking about “that Mexican place over near Oakland Cemetery.”
I tilt my head to one side and try to picture it. “Tin Lizzy’s? We have one of those near the house.”
“No, no.”
“Mi Barrio?” I ask. I’ve seen photos of Mi Barrio, which does seem to have that family-owned, hole-in-the-wall ambience I tend to like.
“No, no.”
So we find ourselves in the back seat of J&J’s Ford Focus, driving past the monuments and magnolias of Oakland Cemetery. And I’m thinking, “With Senior Patron and El Azteca and even Willy’s just steps from our front door, this place better be something special.”
And this is how we wind up at one of two locations of Mescalito’s. If you stick to Oakland Avenue, you’ll never see Mescalito’s, which is hidden on Memorial Drive back behind Tin Lizzy’s. It’s in a building that, not so long ago, looked like this:
Instead of tearing that beautiful specimen of an urban quonset hut down, Mescalito’s owners preserved the bones of the place and gussied up the inside, creating an arched and airy interior that gives Mescalito’s a unique atmosphere:
Once inside, I’m already in love with the saturated lighting — a nice contrast to the blue, cloudy, blustery weather outside. The decor’s a fusion of “urban eclectic” and “Day of the Dead” (the Mexican holiday, not the movie by George Romero). Hardwoods on the ceiling give what could have been a cold, noisy space an unexpected warmth.
But the food’s the thing, yes? J’s talked about quesadillas so stuffed with chicken and cheese they resemble tortas (thick Mexican sandwiches), so I’m all about a quesadilla … but in the mood for something spicy. I look up at the waiter — a good natured kid with a scruffy beard — and ask, “Can you do a chorizo and cheese quesadilla?”
He doesn’t miss a beat. “Sure, sure, sure.”
What’s delivered not long after that is, indeed, a chorizo quesadilla … with no cheese.
That’s a little disappointing, given that a chorizo quesadilla with no cheese is pretty much two tortillas with a thin layer of chorizo between them. Even so, the result is pretty tasty — but I do have to doctor it up with a lot of the side salad fixins (lettuce, diced tomato, green rice) that come along with the dish.
Everyone seems content with their food — and not inclined to share! — so I’m thinking “This place is a keeper.”
But the real star of the show doesn’t arrive until the dessert course — the in-house constructed tres leches cake:
Now, I love me some tres leches cake — so much so that a variant of it (a cuatro leches cake) showed up as one of our wedding cakes. Most places in Atlanta serving a tres leches cake don’t seem to get that a tres leches cake should be moist to the point of saturation — soaked in sweetened milk until the baked layer almost collapses under the weight of the sweet, white frosting.
Mescalito’s does it right, though, plating a chilly, sweet, soft, moist slab of perfectly respectable tres leches — with a nice bit of pineapple garnish on top. Our four spoons make short work of it.
So: J. leads us to another great find — and in a price range that allows us to add this joint to our “any Tuesday night” dining repertoire, no less. If you’re in the mood for something savory, spicy, and fresh, skip the standard chips and salsa joints tonight and cozy up in Mescalito’s for a change.
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