Las Brisas Pomegranate and Goat Cheese Tacos picture
Las Brisas Pomegranate + Goat Cheese Tacos recipe
By Maya Dollarhide
Move over chips and salsa. Appetizers are returning to their tapas roots, as chefs turn out vibrant, small dishes that are big on Latin flavor.
“At Taco Rosa we greet each diner with complementary botanitas instead of chips and salsa,” shares Ivan Rogelio Calderon, founder of Taco Rosa, Taco Mesa and the soon-to-debut Taco Mesa Tortillería Orgánica & Café — all in Orange County, Calif. “This gives us the opportunity to introduce new flavors to our diners.”
Those “new flavors” change daily, giving Taco Rosa multiple opportunities to tempt diners at the restaurant’s Newport Beach and Irvine locations with dishes and ingredients they otherwise might not have tried—things like moles, huitlacoche, or de calabaza, sopes, huaraches, and the battered stuffed tortillas called peneques, Calderon says.
Exploring the Small Bite Phenomenon
Sharing several appetizers, tapas-style, has become common practice for diners at Mexican and other Latin-inspired restaurants.
As Calderon says, “Small, bite-sized menu items make the perfect sharing meal that brings families and friends together for conversation and celebration. Sharing gives them the opportunity to talk about their food and flavors together.”
“Tapas and appetizers by the piece can be very good for couples to get a variety of items to taste. It is also a great option for large parties to get an array of appetizers for each guest to taste and to increase sales before moving on to dinner options,” Chef Ron Von Hattan (aka Chef RV), executive chef and co-owner of RJ Mexican Cuisine in Dallas, echoes.
That shared appetizer phenomenon dovetails with data from Technomic’s “2017 Consumer Trends Forecast” showing today’s diners are interested in creating community.
“Concepts will increasingly be positioned as places for people and communities to connect, give back, recuperate, and foster diversity and inclusivity,” Technomic reports.
Focus on Fresh—With a Global Twist
Today’s consumers are seeking more local, organic, and vegetarian menu options when dining out, according to the “What’s Hot 2017” trend report from The National Restaurant Association (NRA).
And they’re projected to continue through this year and beyond. In addition, global flavors and street food fare—street tacos in particular—remain consumer favorites.
Calderon is one restaurateur paying attention to trends. For example, he appeals to Taco Rosa’s health-conscious crowd by using GMO-free corn tortillas in what he describes as “a variety of small tapas-style street tacos that ‘wow’ the palates of our guests.”
Rubio’s Fresh Mexican Grill in San Diego and Z’Tejas Southwestern Grill also menu appetizer-sized tacos.
Rubio’s offerings (which vary seasonally) include mini tacos lled with carnitas, chicken or steak topped with guacamole and cilantro, while some of Z’Tejas’ street tacos are filled with seared beef tenderloin, diced cucumbers, avocado, cotija cheese and a drizzle of chipotle cream sauce.
Seafood is also a frequent star in creative, tapas-style appetizers.
Wild salmon and lobster are among the creative taco fillings Calderon uses.
And one of Von Hattan’s favorite creations is the Mejillones a la Marina, black mussels with chorizo, roasted tomato, garlic, fennel, cilantro, serreno, and bolillo bread.
“This item has just a little kick of spice and the fennel is so refreshing,” he shares.
Another favorite, Levanta Muertos, combines shrimp, octopus, tomato puree, lime juice, onion, cilantro, hot sauce, avocado, and saltine crackers. “This also a refreshing item on a hot summer day,” Von Hattan says. “Loaded with shrimp and octopus, it is sweet, but tangy with a fiery tomato puree and topped with avocado cream.”
Boost Check Averages
Not only do appetizers boost your restaurant’s appeal to customers; they can boost profits, too.
“Appetizers, just like desserts, are added-on sales,” says Von Hattan. “There are only so many ways to boost check averages with add-ons to entrees, so this is the key to great check averages.”
Another plus: small plates are economical for customers, shares TABASCO Corporate Chef Jud McLester.
“An appetizer affords the consumer the opportunity to experiment via a reasonable portion size and price without sacrificing their meal via the entrée,” McLester notes.
The trick is to keep them simple enough so they don’t ruin customers’ appetite for the main meal, Calderon advises.
“Appetizers will boost your check average as long as they are tasty and light. The key is not to overtake the entrée you are serving,” he says.
Happy Hours
The idea of a post-work happy hour may seem like bit of a throw-back...but today’s chefs are re-engineering the concept to offer creative small bites to complement cocktail menus.
A happy hour-style atmosphere prevails at Las Brisas in Laguna Beach, Calif., where executive chef Johannes Bernau turns out small, tapas-style plates for the restaurant’s “Sunset Celebration” Monday through Friday from 5 p.m. “until the sun goes down.” Bernau says the Sunset Celebration menu allows him to be creative and utilize higher-end ingredients like black volcanic sea salt, “which is crazy expensive” and caviar. Because he uses those ingredients in small amounts, he says he isn’t restrained by food costs—a plus for any creative chef.
The special menu reflects the California lifestyle: Pomegranate Goat Cheese Tacos with baby kale, quinoa, granny smith apples, spiced pepitas and pomegranate seeds in crispy rice
paper-like shells; Blistered Shishito Peppers with cotija cheese, shaved radish, habanero horseradish crème sauce and micro cilantro; Hamachi Sashimi with grapefruit, ginger lime, pickled carrots, serrano peppers, and black volcanic sea salt; Baked Fundido in puff pastry with chorizo, queso Oaxaca, cotija, charred corn, roasted pasilla chiles, corn tortillas; Oysters Las Brisas with charred corn, roasted poblano peppers, mascarpone, chorizo, toasted panko; and one of Bernau’s favorites—Chicken Oysters.
“I use what is considered the best part of the chicken, a piece that is often neglected because it is hard to cut—it’s a little section of the back side of the chicken,” he says. “It is delicious and it was fun to create a dish around it,” he shares. “I serve it on crispy chicken skin with a charred tomato jam.”
The restaurant also offers drink specials—one each day of the week— to complement the dishes.
“People can share a few plates, have a drink, and then when they are ready for supper, they can move on to the dining room, or simply order from the main menu in the cantina,” Bernau says.