November 16, 2012 Two New Restaurants in One Day - Rose’s Table Café and Vinaigrette

November 16, 2012 Two New Restaurants in One Day - Rose’s Table Café and Vinaigrette

I went with Mike Verhagen to Rose’s Table Café for lunch.  Rose is originally from Merida on the Yucatan Peninsula, so she knows Yucatán cuisine.  The café is located on the first floor of the shiny new three story glass and steel building located at the southern end of University Blvd. across from the Albuquerque Sound Studio in Mesa del Sol, three miles south of the Rio Bravo exit on I-25.  The menu is simple, but interesting; lots of black beans and slow roasted meats in banana leaves.  I tried the fish tacos and Mike tried the pork tacos (cochinilla pibil).  Mike’s tacos were served with a large round cylinder of rice covered with black beans shaped by inverting a timbale.  The fish tacos were excellent.  According to Richard, the Chef, they are Swai filets thawed and battered in a flour and corn meal and baking soda and Modelo ale mixture.  The batter was crisp and toothy and the fish flesh soft and white and flakey.  The taco was a warm corn tortilla and the pieces of fish were garnished with both pickled red onions and cabbage in a mayonnaise sauce.  Lovely.  Each taco plate was also accompanied by a thick red salsa for dipping and sprinkling on the meat.  Mike’s pork tacos were shredded pork with a subtle pibil flavor.  We each chose Mexican cokes to drink and enjoyed their assertive cane sugar sweetness.  For dessert Rose served us fresh baked pumpkin cookies; large mounds of soft pumpkin flavored cookie dough coated with a thick soft white icing.  Pretty wonderful.  www. rosestablecafe.com/

 We and two couples in the neighborhood (the Colliers and the Souder/Grafs) with whom we have been friends for over twenty years as our children grew up and played together, made reservations at the newly opened Vinaigrette restaurant (www.vinaigretteonline.com).  When we arrived the newly remodeled building at 1828 Central Ave. SW we found ourselves in a large well lit dining room with reclaimed pine floors from Dixon and high efficiency LED track lights.  The atmosphere was clean, yet cozy and comfortable and a bit noisy if you do not like the bistro-like intimacy of a large room with lots of tables of people eating and drinking and talking merrily.   The menu appears to be the same as the one in Santa Fe with garden fresh ingredients served in a wide variety of soups, salads, sandwiches and large and small side dishes.  We tried a variety of dishes including beautiful salads, such as the gorgeous Nutty Pear-fessor with its Grilled Bosc pears, bacon crumbles, toasted pecans, and Maytag blue cheese  served on a bed of greens and dressed with a ruby port vinaigrette, shown on right ($11.95), a warm Reuben sandwich ($10.45), a grilled Cuban Torta (Sandwich), shown below ($10.45). 


 

Suzette tried the stuffed cabbage roll with cumin and garlic flavored beef rolled in a tomato stewed cabbage leaf with a chive and sour cream sauce and some marinara sauce also, shown to the right  ($7.50) (Suzette thought the meat had too much cumin and the marinara sauce rather bland).  The sandwiches are filled with generous portions of meat and each has its own unique dressing.  You can add meat to the salads for $4.00 to $7.00 extra.  I ordered my favorite salad the French Frisée with extra lardons ($9.95 plus $1.00) (lardons are diced pieces of fried bacon).   The standard portion of lardons is generous and the extra lardons are overkill unless you love bacon, which I do.   The salad is a plate of frisée topped with a poached egg and dressed with a warm shallot dressing.  I cut up the egg and let the liquid of the yolk mix with the warm shallot dressing to coat the frisee and lardons.  Heaven.  Bread and olive oil is served upon request and it is a delicious soft Italian loaf, worth ordering.  My overall impression is that the Albuquerque restaurant is as good, or better than the Santa Fe restaurant.  The other thing I noticed is how much care and creativity goes into the sauces and dressings on the sandwiches, sides and salads.  Viniagrette's has a wonderful sous chef.  

I am so glad that Vinaigrette is in my neighborhood.  Now I do not need to go to Santa Fe for my favorite salad.  We all ordered Marble Brewery beers because we had had appetizers and wine at the Collier’s house before dinner and the wine list did not look exceptionally interesting, although I did see a Ramón Bilbao “Valiñas” 2011 Albarino for $6.75 that loved interesting and would be great with fish or diver scallops, but not tonight's fried lardons.   Vinaigrette’s menu is stuffed full of interesting dishes, so I look forward to several more trips to one of Albuquerque’s best new restaurants.   Open MONDAY through SATURDAY, 11 am to 9 pm, tel. 505.820.9205 or info@vinaigretteonline.com     

Bon Appètit