Trend-Center

Revolucion
7959 Broadway

(in the back of the shopping center at Sunset)

The atmosphere in this coffee shop brings to mind huarache sandals and folk music. None of those things were in evidence when I visited with my friend Rick the other morning. We found instead a more-or-less ordinary new-age coffee shop with all the usual drinks available, plus a short menu of light, interesting-sounding foods, all variations on the tamale, including vegetarian and vegan options for those who like to talk about their food choices at length to uninterested listeners.*

The woman at the counter was extremely polite, explaining what she was doing in great detail as she entered our orders in her high-tech system. While the technology is still new enough (to me) to excite some mild curiosity, I could frankly care less about what buttons she was pushing, or why; as a customer, my interest extended no farther than hearing my order repeated back to me correctly (as it eventually was) and the correct charge assessed (as it was, in the end). I suspect she was talking as much to herself as to me, but the entire experience was more like a lesson, and one being given to a particularly slow group of third-graders. 

no city inspection listed

The coffee we both ordered took a remarkably long time to arrive, considering that what we had ordered was just plain ol' coffee. Turns out they don't have a pot of plain ol' coffee sitting ready; she had to brew it, and when it came she told us that if we wanted more, we could just let her know and she'd brew us each another cup. They must not get a lot of orders for, you know, regular ol' coffee.

I can't say I'm surprised, since it was assuredly not something I would want a second cup of. But then, my taste in coffees tends towards the weaker end of the spectrum than is popular in the Starbucks Era. I don't like coffee that dissolves utensils, though that seems to be what drives the market.

The food we ordered was certainly interesting. I chose a tamale filled with pork al pastor. Though it was not as big as I'd been led to believe in conversation at the counter ("about the size of a burrito," I'd been told), it was large enough to satisfy an unusually modest appetite. The masa was excellent, as was the filling, with a reasonable amount of meat in an adobo seasoning. The tamale was wrapped in corn husks and served on a small wooden platter. 

Rick chose a tamale of beef tinga, a sort of carne machacado wrapped in banana leaves. As the waitress put the platter down, she cautioned him that the dish was very hot. The masa on his much larger tamale was lighter and moister than on the tamale al pastor. Surprisingly, given the waitress's warning, we found that the filling of the tamale was still frigid. Having been reheated in the microwave at the back of the restaurant, the outside was steaming while the inside was nearly unaffected. Still, the flavour was reasonably good, though I think we both considered sending it back for another zapping. In the end, we didn't bother.

The utensils used at Revolucion are made of wood. Cheap wood. The first few bites, until the fork gets wet from your saliva, are kind of like licking a dry popsicle stick. Distinctly unpleasant. After the fork gets moistened, it's not so bad, but I'd have been happier if they'd spring for some eco-unfriendly plastic, or maybe some genuine metal. 

Coffee shops like this cater, naturally, to people in the local area; few customers are going to cross more than a mile or two of city to reach a place and make it their hangout; I certainly am not going to go back to Revolucion on a regular basis; and frankly, given the mediocrity of the food and strength of the drink, I probably will not go back even when I'm out that way. 

on Yelp!

* as distinct from those of us who prefer to write about it. You don't have to read what I write, but too often you have to listen to what people insist on saying.

Sushi By The Big Hole

Piranha Killer Sushi
260 East Basse Road

(in the Quarry Market, on the side by the Hole in the Ground)

Somebody spent a big pile of money outfitting this place. The cost of turning the old Sugarbakers pink-and-puce estrogen farm into a nearly-elegant über-chic vaguely Asian hard-surface sushi bar must have been enormous, as restaurant start-ups go. The result may prove worth the cost, if the boom in sushi outlasts the stylishness of the place. Though I am a late-comer to the sushi craze (another sure indication, if one is needed, that the fad has just about run its course; for most people, the inclusion, a couple of years ago, of sushi at the all-you-can-eat Asian buffet was sufficient omen), I appreciate the artistry of the compositions, the delicate and often complex weave of flavours, and the grace of dining in these mock-Edo halls. Sushi, as a cuisine, is on the verge, I suspect, of becoming mainstream, which will mean a loss of the marginal excess profits that have been drawing capable restaurateurs to the genre for the last ten or fifteen years. That in turn will mean the closure of some over-extended restaurants, and the middling continuation of the better-financed (or luckier, or timelier) ventures. 

Meanwhile, let's enjoy it. If you like seafood, and raw vegetables, and rice, and cream cheese, and tangy sauces in exotic combination, you like sushi. The novelty may have worn off, or nearly so, but the artistry continues, and while the meals produced at Piranha may not be Rembrandt or Titian equivalents, they are at least as good and as attractive, in the way of food, as the quality art that hangs on the walls in the living rooms of successful corporate officers, or provide gasps of surprise to fans of Antiques Roadshow. 

last city inspection: June 2012
perfect!

Service at Piranha is very good. Our waiter was ready with recommendations — good ones, as it turned out — and his light, conversational tone complemented his professional efficiency. He attended to everything a good waiter attends to, and anticipated our wants with the sort of expertise that speaks of experience. His work, the food, and the quality of the décor (the last marred only by the ubiquitous televisions on the walls, and to a lesser degree by the apparently obligatory scowls on the faces of the sushi chefs) made for a relaxing and enjoyable lunch.

I chose a bento box with grilled salmon; my friend Rick went for a dish of noodles with shrimp and chicken. Both meals were tasty, and larger than they need to be to satisfy. The amount of oil on Rick's noodles seems to be a requisite of Asian-style cooking, but I still don't like it: I would only want enough oil to keep the noodles from sticking, which I suspect could be easily done, without sacrificing flavour, with half as much.

Pennzoil Place, Houston
photo by Anders Lagerås

The salmon was very nicely grilled, though it, too, had too much oil on it for my liking. Still, the hint of grilled flavour went nicely with the innate flavours of the fish and the tangy sauce in which it lay. A large spring roll unlike any other spring roll I've ever had was artfully halved at an angle and served standing end-on, like the buildings of Pennzoil Place, in a thick, slightly sweet sauce. The tasty contents of the roll were oddly granular, and slightly crunchy.

A proper serving of white rice and what appeared to be two small salads rounded out the bento box.  The meal also came with a choice of (another) salad, or miso soup. I can honestly say that the soup was just like every other miso soup I've ever had, because I've only ever had it at one other place. I'm not sure it's something I really, really like, but what would I do with a third salad?

Not a Paradigm Shift, But a Revision

Cheesy Jane's
4200 Broadway Avenue

(just south of Hildebrand)

Just after this place opened, I tried it for lunch with a friend. I was utterly and completely unimpressed, not least because my burger happened to contain an unpleasantly large and undesirable piece of cow, on which I nearly broke a tooth. I also thought the burger was in the nothing-special category, and so it was no trouble for me to not go back.

Until the other day. I have a good friend who works in that part of Broadway, and he and I meet for lunch often enough that we are kind of running low on new and interesting places to try. You might not think so, just based on the restaurants I've reviewed in this blog — only four in that area — and regular readers will find it hard to believe that I've ever had an unexpressed thought where food is concerned; but the fact is I've been to almost every place around there and have had to repeat visits to most of them, and I usually don't write about them. Shocking, I know, but there it is.

So: Cheesy Jane's it was. It was, after all, time; they've been there for years, and while that's not a guarantee of real quality (see Chris Madrid's), it's an indication that something is being done right.

Parking is tight. I got the last place out front, though there may be places on the side street or perhaps in another lot I'm not aware of. This may be a problem for a lot of people in the area, but my friend is just old enough to remember how to walk to lunch. The atmosphere inside is diner-casual, and the place is exceptionally clean. There's a vaguely '50s air to the whole operation, but I don't think it's an intentional theme; certainly not heavy-handed like so many places would opt for. I was seated promptly between a family of four and a couple of AT&T employees discussing corporate politics. The seating was tight enough that I could have followed the entire conversation of the phone-company people, had I so desired, but owing to the general noise level of the place, it would have required a level of concentration that I wasn't willing to attempt. Besides, the conversation of a couple of pre-teen girls on the other side would undoubtedly have been more interesting. Luckily, though, my friend arrived before I became immersed in whatever it is six- and eight-year-old girls discuss on a weekday when they should be in school, and I was able to enjoy an adult conversation about nothing at all. It was truly a Seinfeld moment.

Service was prompt, despite the density of the lunch crowd, and our waiter was only slightly harried, giving the impression that he was just this close to bursting into flame, yet still completely in control of things. Before my friend arrived, I had time to study the menu, and noticed the little legend on the back that said their milk shakes and malts, of which they seem very proud, are available with non-fat yogurt. That, and the array of flavour choices, convinced me that this was a time to try a peanut-butter-and-jelly yogurt shake. For my meal, I chose the Cheesy Jane Sampler, a tray of miniature burgers of different sorts, served with french fries. Well, thought I, what better way to find out what's kept this burger joint afloat for so many years. My friend, who seems to have an inexplicable aversion to beef, ordered some la-di-dah sandwich made with some other kind of meat. It's been a few days, and I don't remember if it was tuna or chicken or what. And let's be honest: who cares? 

Last city inspection: November 2011
3 demerits (excellent)
(the city's health department mis-spells
the restaurant's name)

The milk shake was surprisingly good. It actually did taste like peanut butter and jelly, and it had a very good consistency and no unpleasant yogurt taste or aroma. (I don't actually like yogurt, but I can live with it. It's like cauliflower or rye bread, only I wouldn't want either of those in a milk shake.) It's not quite the grand-slam home run like a shake at, say, Olmos Pharmacy, but it's pretty close, and you get the metal mixing cup with that extra bit that makes you feel like you're getting a little lagniappe. Always a good feeling.

For my meal, I was expecting tiny sandwiches that would be crushed in the ring by a White Castle hamburger. We call them "sliders" these days, an unpleasant name to refer disparagingly, I presume, to sandwiches that were considered full-sized in my youth, but are now barely an amuse-bouche. You can order a basket with one or two sandwiches, but I went for the full three: "sissy, porky, and bean burger." The "sissy," I deduced by the process of elimination, is a plain ol' hamburger with plain ol' accoutrements. It was good, but still in that nothing-special category: the bun was soft and yeasty, the meat was well-cooked, and the trimmings were reasonably fresh. 

The "porky" has a piece of Canadian bacon, a few sautéed mushrooms, and an appropriately-sized piece of Swiss cheese. These ingredients added a pleasant layer of flavour to the otherwise good-but-ordinary sandwich. The bean burger was a still more interesting creation, despite being just a little hamburger with some refried beans and Fritos on it. The combination of simple ingredients — ordinarily not my favourite by any stretch — was actually quite pleasant, to the point where I may someday order a bean burger on purpose. It was easily the best of the three I sampled. 

All of these sandwiches were accompanied by a reasonably sized portion of well-made french fries, and I think everybody knows just how hard it is to find well-made fries. These were, I suspect, twice-cooked, as they should be, in clean oil at the right temperature for the right amount of time. They were salted enough that I was satisfied, but not so salty that most people wouldn't add more to them. (I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I've added salt to anything at a restaurant since I started writing this blog three years ago, and still have three fingers left over.)

The prices are reasonable for this type of food. My meal, including that delicious milk shake, was right at fifteen dollars with tax and tip. If you forego the milk shake, you can no doubt get out for considerably less, but you might want to think hard before going that route. Definitely a good milk shake.