Dinner. Five-course tasting menu:
"Tetelas Oaxaqueñas - fresh corn masa triangles filled with avocado leaf-scented black beans, cooked to a rustic crispness on the griddle; served with first-of-season local morels and grilled ramps, and Oaxacan pasilla-tomatillo salsa." Delicious, like little empanadas or samosas, with a great salsa sauce.
"Sopa de Espinacas a la Poblana - creamy soup of organic Snug Haven spinach and roasted poblanos with smoked chicken, roasted parsnips, epazote and crispy potatoes." Delicious, the littel crunchy potato strings were super.
Fried halibut fillets: delicious.
"Puerco en Pipián Verde - slow-roasted Maple Creek Farm pork loin with classic pumpkinseed-thickened green pipián, pepita-crusted white bean cakes (studded with serrano chiles) and shoestring chayote salad with wood-roasted poblano rajas." Delicious, but not the best.
Dessert: Three samplers, all delicious.
What a great place. Super friendly, super accommodating, not at all snooty. Not everyone at the table has to get the tasting menu, and if you want to swap something off of the tasting menu for something else on the regular menu, go right ahead. And no charge for iced tea and hot tea - wow! Plus a free sampler cup of the other kind of coffee, just for comparison to the first. Wow!
Rick Bayless was there. At first, he was checking on the kitchen, then later he was wearing street clothes, dining at a corner table with his wife (?).
What a great place!
Topolobampo
445 North Clark Street
312-661-1434