BelAir Cantina - Downer

Located at 2625 N. Downer Ave. in Milwaukee, this is one of, I believe, five BelAir Cantina's now open, expanding faster than my taco budget, and you have to ask the hard question, how many is too many for a local chain? One answer could be, "Can't have too many taco restaurants,"—fair enough—and I think the important thing is that each place have its individual personality, to some degree, rather than each being a cookie-cutter version of each other. This seems to be their approach, at least as far as the spaces go, I guess I'll look forward to checking out all of them. It took me awhile to make it here, actually, because I'm often not in a mood for crowds, and based on my experiences with their original location, in the distant past, on taco Tuesday hipster nights when it's like the Columbus zoo in there, I passed by this Downer Ave. location many times, not feeling like waiting, based on the appearance outside with the sidewalk dining chaos. I'm over there on Downer a lot too, it's a great neighborhood, with an old arthouse theater, some fine local restaurants, an actual independent bookstore, a local grocery store, a hardware store, and a couple of chain establishments where you can stop and pee without buying anything, including a Starbucks that has great employees. It's a great neighborhood, and my only complaint is there is a LOT of empty storefront space, which usually indicates that the greedhead landlords are holding out for the big money a gross place like Applebee's would bring.

So when I finally steeled myself enough to face the crowd on a late brunchtime Sunday, I was pleased to find out the bulk of the masses were congregated outside and there was an enormous, comfortable dining room with plenty of elbow room, and they didn't act like I was a weirdo to spend a couple hours in there, writing, eating, calling a few friends to join me. They were also serving the brunch menu until 3pm I believe, and I ordered breakfast (I love when I can get breakfast all day)—Huevos Rancheros, which was not the best I've ever had, but miles and decades from the worst, and I ate it all, ate too much, was satisfied, and pretty all around happy.

Here is a photo from where I was sitting, you can get an idea of the expanse of this place, very nice feeling in there, breathing room. I kept wondering what it said in the wall, there, however, what word or words preceded "go if you go" and what it all meant. I intended to check on my way out, forgot to, so now I have an excuse to return, not that I need one. There was also at least one surfboard hanging on the wall, maybe more. It took me awhile to figure out the spelling—BelAir (capital B, capital A, no space between)—and I'm not even sure, but it's like that on their website. They make a point of their California influences, which is an honorable approach to Mexican cuisine (it's fine to be authentic to a region of Mexico, or someone's mom's home cooking, or SoCal, or SF, or New Mexico, or Tucson, or TexMex, or Rick Bayless, or _______taco, or foodtruck, cart, or horseback—it's all legitimate approaches as far as I'm concerned, and the bottom line is it delicious). I always liked the name Bel Air, even though it's an LA neighborhood where rich people live (and no doubt other places I'm not aware of)—it's kind of got an old-fashioned vibe to it, like you'd expect to find some eccentrics there, stuck in the past. I'll look forward to visiting all locations of this place, even the ones in BF Cheeseville, and see what tastebuds and braincells get liberated.