Los Paisa

Los Paisa is one of my happiest discoveries in recent years - it's a Mexican restaurant I could have easily never set foot in if it wasn't for this project (writing about Mexican restaurants) as it is so far north - located at 600 W. Brown Deer Rd. in Bayside - it's almost out of my jurisdiction - indeed, bordering on BF Canada. It has long been my habit it ride my bike up here to the car-dominated corner of Port Washington and Brown Deer Roads for the inexpensive breakfast at Maxfield's Pancake House, or if was later, lunch at a Pho place, now sadly gone. One day I was late for breakfast so I explored a little, and on the one corner of the four not dominated by shopping plazas, sat this odd little structure looking like the Chateau from Hell. It is confusing, because it shares the stone and tile-roofed house with a bar called the Speakeasy (which is in the basement) and there is nothing in appearance (other than the small sign that says "Los Paisa") that suggests Mexican restaurant. Upon closer inspection, of course, it's quite obvious, but getting close to it requires you to cross these suburban nightmare arterial roads that are among humans' most shameful inventions.

But I did, and now I've returned a half dozen times or so, and will return again because the menu is diverse and extensive, the food tastes like home cooking, it's inexpensive, the service is good, and the decor is among my favorite of places I've visited on this journey, with an ever changing salon-style smorgasbord of Mexican folk art - the good, the bad, and the weird. I could easily just populate a review with images from the dining room, but I'm going to stick with not getting too picture crazy here.

The dining room features a large interior window which I first took for a mirror, until I noticed that it didn't show my reflection, and not thinking I'd turned into a vampire anytime recently, I figured out that it's actually a window to the Speakeasy below, which wasn't open at lunchtime, thus dark. I'm curious what it will be like to dine here in the evening with Speakeasy open. (People watching, anyone?) As far as I know, it might be a real speakeasy, and calling it that is a brilliant strategy to fool the G-Men.

On this visit I tried Manolos Tacos, which are blackened chicken and avocado and "special sauce" - noted on the menu as "Bam-Bam Style," which, until I take the time to do the proper research, I will gringo-ignorantly assume means: delicious. This is an automatic chips and salsa to the table place, but the salsa includes also a ramekin  of hot bean dip, so good that we finished two of them before ordering. I suggested we just get one more of these then announce we are only getting cokes, after all (just kidding!) This is a place worth ordering Guacamole because they prepare it at your table with fresh ingredients, and if they're out of avocados, no guacamole - which is infinitely better than settling for the canned stuff which comes across as green mayonnaise. OK, I did look up Bam-Bam style, and assuming it doesn't refer to the Flintstones rugrat, the Milwaukee band, or the Thai rapper, I need to do more research.