BURRITOS IN THE BELFRY.Byline: ROB DEWALT El Campanario 3136 Cerrillos Road, 474-4300 Breakfast 7-11 a.m., lunch & dinner 11 a.m.-9 p.m. daily Table service Seasonal patio dining Beer & wine Vegetarian options Takeout Ample on-site parking Handicapped-accessible Noise level: moderate, with piped-in Mexican music and talk radio en Espanol Credit cards, no checks [yen] The Short Order Despite looking like a faux-distressed Alamo-gift-shop snow globe from the outside, El Campanario -- an offshoot of local treasure Adelita's restaurant -- offers affordable and (mostly) delicious regional and American cuisine as well as a cozy atmosphere and friendly wait staff. The kitchen's strengths are its sauces and bread items, and portions are generous across the board. With a few adjustments in service and more care at the stoves, El Campanario is sure to give its older sibling a run for its money. Recommended: huevos ala Mexicana and the chile-smothered beef and bean burrito. Lately, many of the small family-owned businesses along Cerrillos Road have been easier to locate by their proximity to unique arrangements of orange road-construction barrels than by their telltale banners and signs. The road is a vital municipal artery trapped in a vortex of simultaneous repair and decay, clogged with as many hidden treasures as construction crews, lost tourists, and frustrated commuters. (Check out cerrillosroad.com for updates on road reconstruction.) It also happens to be home to the mother lode Mother Lode, belt of gold-bearing quartz veins, central Calif., along the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada. The term is sometimes limited to a strip c.70 mi (110 km) long and from 1 to 6 1-2 mi (1.6–10.5 km) wide, running NW from Mariposa. of Santa Fe's independently owned and operated Mexican and New Mexican New Mexico Abbr. NM or N.M. or N.Mex. A state of the southwest United States on the Mexican border. It was admitted as the 47th state in 1912. restaurants. One of my favorite spots along the boulevard that Beelzebub apparently built is Adelita's, a dynamic temple of menudo, barbacoa, and mole poblano po·bla·no n. A cultivar of the tropical pepper (Capsicum annum) having a mild or fairly pungent dark green, thick-skinned fruit used in cooking. situated next to one of the ugliest McDonald's franchises ever conceived. Adelita's enjoys a strong local following -- so much so that waiting for a table for more than 10 minutes there is common. Last autumn, the owners of Adelita's found a way to accommodate their near-constant overflow: they opened a new restaurant right down the road. El Campanario -- which means "the bell tower" -- possesses a garish, near-comical facade. From the outside, it resembles a Taco Bell Taco Bell Corp., a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., is a Mexican-style quick service restaurant chain based in Irvine, California, United States. The restaurant has locations primarily in the United States and Canada, but also operates outlets in several other markets. restaurant that has been vandalized by disgruntled dis·grun·tle tr.v. dis·grun·tled, dis·grun·tling, dis·grun·tles To make discontented. [dis- + gruntle, to grumble (from Middle English gruntelen; see set designers from the film Zorro, the Gay Blade Zorro, The Gay Blade is a 1981 motion picture. This comedy features George Hamilton in a dual role as both Don Diego de la Vega (Zorro) and his gay twin brother Ramon. . Curvaceous cur·va·ceous adj. Having the curves of a full or voluptuous figure. cur·va  ceous·ly adv. white stucco
walls sporting a glut of shiny black-iron accents mask all traces of the
building's previous tenant: Burger King. But just because the
former Home of the Whopper Whopper - WarGames now looks like an overly ostentatious os·ten·ta·tious adj. Characterized by or given to ostentation; pretentious. See Synonyms at showy. os hideout for (degrees)Three Amigos AMIGOS Advanced Mobile Integration in General Operating Systems ! villain El Guapo doesn't mean that what's happening within its walls should be immediately discounted. Don't look for an El Campanario sign when trying to locate the restaurant. When it opened in October 2008, it was called Tres Campanas ("three bells"), and the large stucco-monolith sign at the corner of Cerrillos Road and Calle de Cielo hasn't been updated to reflect the name change. Unlike Adelita's, El Campanario's menu focus is decidedly un-Mexican, leaning instead toward Northern New Mexican, Tex-Mex, and American-diner mainstays like enchiladas and burritos smothered smoth·er v. smoth·ered, smoth·er·ing, smoth·ers v.tr. 1. a. To suffocate (another). b. To deprive (a fire) of the oxygen necessary for combustion. 2. in red and green chile, burgers, chicken-fried steak, and the classic BLT 1. BLT - /B-L-T/, /bl*t/ or (rarely) /belt/ Synonym for blit. This is the original form of blit and the ancestor of bitblt. It refers to any large bit-field copy or move operation (one resource-intensive memory-shuffling operation done on pre-paged versions of ITS, WAITS and . Breakfast offerings include pancakes, French toast, omelets, huevos rancheros, and fried eggs draped drape v. draped, drap·ing, drapes v.tr. 1. To cover, dress, or hang with or as if with cloth in loose folds: draped the coffin with a flag; a robe that draped her figure. over carne adovada. Some of Adelita's solid culinary expertise spills over into its new venture. Incredible house-made corn and flour tortillas, pillowy sopaipillas, and flavorful chile sauces signal the kitchen's adherence to the cardinal restaurant rule of not fixin' what ain't broke. Every component of my gigantic ground beef and refried bean burrito smothered in vegetarian red and green chile was perfectly executed, bested only by a generous portion of tender, pork-laden posole po·so·le n. 1. Kernels of corn that have been soaked in lime water, hulled, and dried. 2. A stew or soup made with posole, pork, chili, and other seasonings. . And thank goodness: no oily globs of cheese to sully its excellence. My partner's trout enchiladas with green chile sauce and ripe avocado were equally delicious, but there wasn't as much of the flaky flaky - (Or "flakey") Subject to frequent lossage. This use is of course related to the common slang use of the word to describe a person as eccentric, crazy, or just unreliable. , flavorful trout as we would have liked. His vegetarian pinto beans were well seasoned and firm though a little dry. Wine and wine-based cocktails are available, and domestic and Mexican beer is served ice-cold in the bottle along with a frosted glass. For breakfast, try the huevos ala Mexicana plate: two large eggs scrambled delicately with diced fresh tomato and heat-seeking jalapeno and served with hash browns, pinto beans, and your choice of toast or those amazing house-made flour or corn tortillas. The potatoes were an institutional flop. Ask the kitchen to put some crisp edges on 'em. My partner's fluffy chile relleno omelet smothered in red and green chile would have been better if the relleno had been less browned. We definitely felt the burn, but we didn't expect to find it in the batter as well. The service at El Campanario is always friendly, but it's attentive only up to a point. During my dinner visit, I ordered an iced tea. Halfway through the meal, around 8:55 p.m., I requested a refill. The waitress took my glass, but she returned empty-handed five minutes later. "Sorry," she said with a smile, "the kitchen is now closed." Apparently, iced tea is a dish that only the kitchen can muster, and the bells within it stop ringing -- rather precisely -- at 9 p.m. Check, please Dinner for two at El Campanario: Beef burrito plate $ 8.00 Side sour cream $ 1.00 Trout enchilada plate $ 9.95 Negra Modelo $ 3.75 Iced tea $ 2.00 TOTAL $ 24.70 (before tax and tip) Breakfast for two at El Campanario: Relleno omelet $ 6.75 Huevos ala Mexicana $ 6.95 Orange juice $ 2.50 TOTAL $ 16.20 (before tax and |
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