Very Fresh Clamatos and Snacks

Came in the other day to try this place out.  It is completely different from anything else you'll find in the area.  It's just the owner and his wife, and they serve a wide variety of urban Mexican snacks.  The signature drink is a Clamato--clam and tomato juice base, with lots of other spices, including a plum and salt based spice for the rim (I think it's called chamago?).  They load it up with all kinds of ingredients--melon, jicama, peanuts, etc.  It's a savory snack all by itself, not so much a refreshing thirst quencher.  Made with beer it's a Michelada.  They serve it with Michelob Ultra (currently a gift, until they get their liquor license), which would actually make that beer drinkable.

I had a Clamato with the shrimp ceviche, a dish the owner brought over from his other venture, TJ Baja Taco Shop, that he sadly had to close.  The ceviche is made fresh in front of you, and you get a portion that would definitely be sharable for 2-4 people with chips.  Amazing flavor.  There are lots of other unique things on the menu, like loaded corn nachos and fruit plates, and they recently introduced a sweet dessert line.  Definitely worth trying.

My Yelp Review

The Backyard Grill

A friend of mine and I attended one of The Backyard Grill's special events this past week--the craft beer dinner.  It was a really good time with some great food and beer pairings.  Here's the kind of thing you can expect if you sign up for one of these:

Note from the start: All the courses are appetizer size, and the beer is about 1/4 of a glass per sample.  But I would say it is good value for the money.  It was hosted by James Simpson from What's On Tap Radio, and he made it fun with a lot of energy and interesting trivia.

We started off with a sample from a test batch of hazy IPA from a local brewer.  Hazy IPA has some depth compared to the regular stuff, which I'm not that fond of.  More later on hazy IPA.  This was paired with a Yuengling ale that included corn in the brew

The first course was a Fred Dog, a hot dog wrapped in bacon and deep fat fried, with coleslaw. This made for great flavor and texture.  It came with pretzel fries--a large pretzel cut into french-fry like slices and baked hard, with a beer cheese dipping sauce.  Crunchy and delicious.

The second course was a pork belly slider speared with a melon ball toothpick.  It was pretty much an extra-fatty BLT, which was quite fine by me--ate it all and loved it.  They paired it with a Southern Pecan brown ale because they couldn't get hold of their preferred one, but it was all good.

The third course was the hit of the evening--Korean BBQ ribs with house-made potato chips.  The ribs were amazing--a very complex, somewhat sharp sauce on falling-off-the-bone tender pork ribs.  They absolutely have to put these on the menu.  Everyone agreed that this was the best item they served.  They paired this with a smoked scotch ale, Smoke on the Bayou.

Next up was a deep-fried cheeseburger.  It was a tasty bite.  Deep frying is interesting but I'm not sure that added much.  Simpson spent some time talking about the pairing on this one.  It was paired with Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA, because the hoppiness cuts through the grease.  They did work together well.

We finished with a kind of deconstructed fruit compote with cookie crumbs.  Nice, not all that special.  But it was paired with Abita Purple Haze IPA, another hazy IPA that really worked well.  I might actually buy an IPA if it's a hazy one.

My Yelp Review

Primo's Venezuelan Street Food

I stopped in the other day to try this new food truck.  I had an Og Pepito with pork, which is a large sandwich with the protein, cole slaw, potato stix, mayo, ketchup, grilled cheese and special sauce, and mine came with an egg on top.  Absolutely delicious!  The pork is tender and flavorful, and the sauces mix and complement each other.  Putting potato stix on a sandwich seems to be a Venezuelan thing (a previous place here, El Kourmet, did the same) and it's brilliant--adds a nice salty crunch.  It's served open faced, but the bun is substantial enough to pick it up if you want.  Loved it.

I also had the Pastelas Andinos, a fried pastry with ground beef and rice.  Nice idea and it was crisp, but it could have used more flavor.  I would have had dessert but they were out of all their dessert items, which made me mark it down a little.  I washed it down with a Frescolita, a South American canned soda that reminds me very much of San Antonio's signature soda, Big Red.  If you haven't had it, think liquid bubble gum.  Not quite my thing, I would try something else next time.

All kinds of delicious options on the menu.  I'll be happy to give them another try.

My Yelp Review

Natalita's #3

We tried this place out for a Mother's Day dinner.  It's very attractive inside, nice and clean with comfortable seating.  My wife and I each ended up with Deluxe Dinners--I had the Deluxe Dinner (which is one of the set of Deluxe Dinners)--a taco al carbon, a flauta and a chile relleno.  My wife had the Superior dinner--a beef taco, chile con queso enchilada, cheese enchilada, and a tamale.

All were competently done.  Overall, the dinners were very light on seasoning--no heat at all, so if you like your Tex-Mex mild (and I know many do) this would be your place.  The fajita meat in the taco stood out for me--it was tender with a great beef flavor, I would consider ordering fajitas next time.

We finished with a fried ice cream, and here, like many places, it's vanilla ice cream rolled in corn flakes.  Nothing special about it.

The menu is huge, with a lot of more interesting choices that would make it worth another trip sometime.  Beef ribs and quail, as well as the usual chicken, pork and seafood dishes, are on offer.  It's hard to know what would be particularly good, and on this evening our waiter wasn't able to help, though service was fine in every other way.

The bathroom was clean and ready, but laid out kind of funny, like they had intentions to do something else.

All in all, it's another good Tex-Mex option for our area.

My Yelp Review

Retrospective

I didn't pick a restaurant to review this weekend--feeling a bit under the weather and didn't think I could be fair to a new place.  I went to one of my old favorites, Laredo Taco Company at the Stripes at 99 and Kuykendall.  Not quite as good as the first time, but that may be because I was not as hungry--the carnitas bravas taco was still excellent.

So far I have visited 135 restaurants in the immediate area of Northampton.  I have yet to venture more than 2.5 miles from my house to do this.  That's a big number, and it indicates the growth in the area.  Of these, 21 have closed, which is about average as far as I know.  There is a statistic floating around that's even been cited in an American Express commercial that 90% of restaurants close in the first year.  That's not true--it's closer to 17%, which is about average, or maybe a little better, than for many service businesses.  And a restaurant closing might not mean it was unsuccessful--sometimes the owners just want to do something else and can't find a buyer.

So far my favorites in the area remain Tony's Street Tacos and The Butler House. Tony Gomez continues to turn out great food in an out-of-the-way location.  I'm a bit concerned that the neighborhood will lose him.  And I just got a recommendation for the Butler House for Sunday Brunch.  It's the only upscale eatery I have been to so far and a great addition to our area.

I estimate that I'll try another 50 places before I get 3 miles out, and start to leave the immediate area.  There are some great places I'm looking forward to trying.  Hopdoddy Burger Bar and Burgerim are fast-growing burger chains.  La Casa de Roberto won the Woodlands Foodies new restaurant of the year award in 2018.  Bluewater Seafood is a neighborhood institution, as is Original Neal's.  Craft Grill is operated by the same folks that run the Butler House.  Many good meals ahead.