La Fuente - Bluemound Road

This is one of three (I believe—I'm going by their menu) La Fuente's, located at 9155 W. Bluemound Rd., in Milwaukee, out by the zoo, in what's informally known as the "Cat's Head" neighborhood, because if you look at it on a map the street layout forms what looks like a giant cat head. You could do worse than to live out there in one of those round apartment buildings with this place as your neighborhood too-tired-to-cook spot.

The sign out front is mysterious, because it is pretty much a large "M" with "La Fuente" draped over it. What does the M stand for? As this restaurant was formerly Frank Monreal's El Matador, one might assume the M is leftover from the old sign and could stand for either Monreal, Matador, or both. Or perhaps, as this area is kind of the western gateway to Milwaukee, perhaps it's just that. Or maybe it stands for Mexican food, that would make plenty of sense. Or Margaritas, something they sell plenty of here. But if you look closely you'll notice it's also an upside-down "W" more than it is an "M"—which could mean Wisconsin, or maybe something more mysterious like the "Big W" in that Mad Mad World movie, where the treasure is buried! Now before anyone goes digging holes in the parking lot, I want to insist that the treasure here is a warm, welcoming restaurant with some hearty, large portion, tasty Mexican food.

La Fuente is an enormous establishment, and on this one visit I didn't take in even a fraction of its capacity, but I think you can schedule ridiculously large groups here. What the place really reminds me of more than anything, in its decor and size, is a classic supper club. I'm not sure if under the "supper club" definition, Mexican restaurants are ever included, but I'm going to insist, now, that this place fits pretty much all criteria of supper club: large capacity, quality food at affordable prices, traditional cuisine (in this case traditional Mexican cuisine) (but in this case also including dramatic, sizzling dishes like fajitas), live music entertainment, copious alcoholic beverages, lots of kind of nutty older people dining there, including those from the Cat's Head neighborhood and also from far beyond.

On this visit I enjoyed two steak tacos with generous, ripe and not musty, slices of avocado. Very fine tacos. Along with the usual rice and beans. But here, something struck me about these refried beans, was it just me, or were they somehow more delicious than any refried beans I'd ever eaten? Nothing unusual about them, it's just that they were perfectly what you'd expect, but somehow just that little bit more tasty—I'm not sure why. Maybe it was a bit more lard than usual, or maybe something in the seasoning, or the beans themselves, but these beans rose to a level of gourmet, for me, on this day, and I can't stop thinking about them. Which makes me think they know how to cook at this place, in large capacity, but also at a high quality level, and makes me want to go back and try more of the menu, and just kind of hang out with the kind of nutty people, like myself, dining there.