Mesa Verde Restaurant: Best Way to Start a Day Off

The key ingredients for a delicious day off from work are, no doubt, margaritas and salt. They just make the day better (and pass by quickly, if that's what you're going for).

The concept of wasting the day away with Margaritas goes back even further than Jimmy Buffet. Though the drink's origin is widely disputed, some people say there's a woman to blame. One of the most popular claims traces the mixer back to Margarita Sames, in 1948. In this tale, the popular socialite created the drink at a poolside Christmas party in Acapulco. Another well-circulated legend involves a showgirl named Marjorie King, who, quite strangely, was allergic to all hard liquor except tequila. Carlos Herra, a bartender at Rancho La Gloria in Rasarita Beach, Mexico, where she visited sometime in the 1930s, fixed her a special tequila cocktail, allegedly naming it after the Spanish translation of her name.

Another story dates back to 1942, when a bartender named Pancho Morales supposedly could not remember the ingredients in a magnolia drink, substituted, and named the drink after the daisy instead. Still another involves a bartender named Red Hinton, who is said to have named the drink after his deceased girlfriend, Margarita Mendez, who died in bar crossfire.

Whether it arrived via party or pain, the drink is here, and Mesa Verde has a long straw in it. Its happy hour begins just when you roll out of bed at 2 pm, and features house margaritas for $3.95 and a dollar off all other drinks. Good margaritas are important, but cheap margaritas are a necessity.

Mesa Verde is located at 618 Congress Street, in Portland. Phone: 207.774.6089

Review of Mesa Verde Restaurant

Despite the obvious space, (a former retail store), Mesa Verde has a distinct Mexican feel to it, painted in bright colors and with good Spanish music playing on the sound system. The restaurant is decorated well, except for a couple cheap, pre-fab booths, which really stick out in the decor. For some reason, these booths really bothered me… until our food arrived, and I could think of nothing but putting more if it into my mouth.

We tango-ed our way to a table with "Buena Vista Social Club" groovin' from above. Our amiable waiter immediately delivered a basket of nacho chips and homemade salsa and gave us time to decide on a drink and appetizer. As every Mexican restaurant should, (but not always does), Mesa Verde has a good selection of Mexican cerveca. Along with the omnipresent Corona (and Corona Light), they offer Dos Equis, Negra Modelo, and Tecate. (They also have Pete's, Rolling Rock, and Sam Adams in bottles, as well as three wine selections by the glass). I asked for a Dos Equis, while my date chose to sample a margarita. The margarita was nothing to shake your maracas about, weak, and not made with fresh lime juice. Not only is Mesa Verde a Mexican restaurant, but it's a juice bar as well. We expected a much better margarita.

After seeing us scarf down ("scarf," a technical culinary term) one basket of chips and salsa, our waiter promptly brought another. Then arrived our Queso Fundido appetizer. Form a conga line behind this dish! Mild melted cheese with roasted peppers and herbs is served with warm tortillas for dunking, scraping, piling, and stuffing this incredible concoction into your mouth. Our waiter didn't hesitate to bring us more tortillas so we wouldn't leave a drop of cheese in the bowl.

Our entrees arrived while we were still accosting that bowl for Queso Fundido. My date chose the Spinach Mushroom Quesadilla, which was a generous size, and flavorful. I ordered a burrito, always a good gauge of a Mexican restaurant, and it was delicious. (From chicken, beef, tofu, veggies or just beans, I chose chicken.) The side dishes of organic rice and beans were not all that flavorful, which I've learned is somewhat in keeping with authentic Mexican food. It's up to the individual to add salsas, and hot sauces for flavor, but these rice and beans seemed more bland than they should be. The bottled hot sauces and homemade salsa were good, and spiced things up nicely.

Other appetizer selections included a hummus and veggie plate; nachos; and Mexican mushrooms sautéed with Mesa Verde's own seasoning and white wine ($5.95-6.25).

Fresh soup and chili (beef and vegetarian) are made daily ($2.25/cup, $3.73/bowl), and Mushroom miso was the soup of this day. Garden salad, rice salad, and taco salad are available with chicken, beef, or tofu ($3.75-$6.95).

Among the other entree selections are: Tomales; Jaunita's Calabasitas, (yellow squash, zucchini, and mixed veggies sautéed with cheese, salsa and sour cream, served with warm tortillas); Steak Ranchero, (grilled NY sirloin in mole sauce, organic beans and rice, and veggies); Pollo con mole, (sautéed chicken in its own mole sauce, with guacamole); and Spicy Mexican Chicken, with rice, beans, tortillas, and guacamole ($10.50-12.50). The traditional Mexican fare of burritos, enchiladas, quesadillas, tostadas, and hard and soft tacos are all served with organic rice and beans ($5.95-$7.25).

Mesa Verde also makes a variety of sandwiches, from grilled cheese to veggie, chicken, Mexican hummus, and grilled eggplant rollups, a veggie burger, and a tempeh reuben, (grilled tempeh with saur kraut and their own dairy-free sauce) ($6.25). And they offer a decent children's menu for those 12 and under: chicken tenders, cheese, and sliced apples; kid burrito, chicken beef, or tofu; cheese quesadilla with rice and sliced apples ($3.75).

Since we ate like pigs at dinner, we had no room for fruit smoothies or any other dessert. Next time. Although in other cities I've eaten at similar Mexican restaurants which were less expensive, our bill was still reasonable at $36.81, and we'll return to Mesa Verde, if for no other reason than their magical Queso Fundido.