January 10, 2015 Dinner at Indian Pueblo Cultural Center’s Pueblo Harvest Café and Bakery

January 10, 2015 Dinner at Indian Pueblo Cultural Center’s Pueblo Harvest Café and Bakery

We wanted to go to see the 1491s, an Indian comedy group, appearing at a benefit concert at the Indian Pueblo Center.  To get good seats we went a little before 5:00 and when the doors opened at 5:00 we staked out seats with coats and magazines and then ran to the café for dinner.

I ordered Bison Short Ribs and Suzette ordered the Chipotle Wild Boar Tenderloin.

Each entrée came with the choice of a mash potato and a vegetable.  There were either green chili mashed potatoes or regular mashed potatoes, which each of us chose and either asparagus or some other vegetable and we each chose asparagus.

When the dish came I was amazed by the portions.  There must have been over a pound of bison short ribs smothered in a rich green pepper corn demi-glace sauce laid next to a pile of mashed potatoes garnished with a bundle of charcoal grilled asparagus. Suzette’s received an equally impressive dish with two boar tenderloins marinated in apple cider brine smothered in a spicy and sweet chipotle fruity demi-glace sauce.  Unfortunately, Suzette’s mesquite grilled boar was a bit over-cooked and grey while my bison was moist, red in color and tender enough to fall off the bone and fall apart upon the touch of my fork.  The long strands of meat were delicious when mixed with a bit of mashed potatoes and the demi-glace sauce.  We commented that we make the same mistake with pork and how hard it is to grill pork compared to stewing a piece of beef or bison in this case in a large pot of liquid for eight to ten hours and tendency is to overcook pork, because people demand that it be fully cooked to grey.

We liked both dishes but we both agreed that the bison was the best and completely delicious and worth another trip.  We even agreed that we could have easily split the order of bison; a bargain at $25.00.  The two grilled boar tenderloins were $28.00, still a very good value.  

The wine selection is a little weak, with mostly those special moderately priced wines that wineries make for restaurants, Suzette chose a Kenwood Merlot because that seemed to be the best winery selection ($6.00 per glass).  The merlot was fine but not great.  I chose a Stella Artois Cidré ($4.50) served in the traditional tulip shaped Stella Artois glass) that was delicious with both dishes and because apple cider seems to be the same wherever you get it.     

We loved our meal and when we finished around 6:00 we ran back to the comedy show and enjoyed an clever comedy show presented by an American Indian comedy group to a mostly American Indian audience with what seemed to contain lots of inside Indian jokes and skits directed toward Indians and dealing with American Indian issues..

Bon Appétit