This sibling to Lolita’s on Davie lightens up stodgy Mexican comfort food
Mia Stainsby
Sun
Shelome Bouvette shows off some special dishes at Me & Julio, a new Mexican restaurant on Commercial Drive.
They had me at “Now Open.”
With some new restaurants, I’m jelly and I’m in there with mouth wide open before giving it a chance to iron out wrinkles.
Me & Julio was one of them. On day four, ready or not, I was there. It’s because M & J is a close relative of Lolita’s South of the Border Cantina on Davie Street, one of my favourite casual restaurants.
,” but it’s not really. It’s not tapas; the food isn’t carefully sculpted nor does it sit strikingly on a virginal white plate. Rather, it’s homey, comfort food that knows not how to primp or preen. What’s different and what I like is that chef Shelome Bouvette lightens up the stodge that often weighs down North American Mexican food. She does it with lashings and layerings of bright vegetation — it could be a mantle of pickled and julienned cabbage over the halibut taco or huge nests of mesclun greens or yummy salsas.
Or it could be bright, humming notes like lime crema fresca or turmeric yellow pickled green papaya or grilled pineapple slaw or agave honey dressing on spinach. These bright notes are happy notes.
Not all dishes were wonderful but I do like the collage of savoury, sweet, sour and salty flavours, all dancing around.
The down side to this abundance of greens and fruits and veggies is that sometimes you’re not getting a lot of the protein element. For example, my halibut taco, while delicious with the beet-hued pickled cabbage slaw and mango salsa and lots and lots of green, was short on halibut. And the same with the calamari salad — lots of greens and spinach salad and white beans but not generous with calamari.
These rock’n’roll plates of flavours isn’t surprising. Before she started up at Lolita’s, Bouvette was day chef at Bin 942, where flavours are bold and forward. Bouvette met Lila Gaylie, another owner, at Bin. (Her brother Jaison is the other in the ownership triad.)
When I first visited, the place was already jumping and, as they say in the biz, in the weeds. After an hour of nursing our drinks in the stemless wine glasses, we wished we’d had a bite to eat before we went. The food was omigosh-slow coming out of the kitchen. But hunger and impatience didn’t drive me to bite anyone’s head off — the music was great (tends to be upbeat, like reggae) and the servers were appropriately apologetic and looked like they would grovel if we needed them to (even though they all wore tough-girl tattoos). The place was buzzing, but not to the point where you had to yell like a hockey fan to converse.
So yes, the service was incredibly slow and the server forgot to bring a glass of wine, but it wasn’t a bad place to hang out. A second visit proved much smoother and the joint, again, was hopping.
The food is a festival of flavours. (Entrees are $16 to $20.) Sopa de tortilla is made with roasted tomatoes and held chicken, pasilla chili, fresh cheese, tortilla strips and on the side, a delicious cornbread; panela cheese with a chili’d mushroom saute, cilantro and pepita pesto crostini and lots of greens was an earthy dish; seviche habanero with scallops, wild sockeye and halibut in pomello-citrus marinade, blue corn tostadas, guacamole and pickled papaya featured fresh seafood, albeit not glistening with moisture.
The sasparilla-glazed baby back ribs was the best. It came with jicama and pineapple slaw and smoked gouda and cascabel mac and cheese. The fall-apart tender meat was deliciously sauced and the salad lightened the heavy load of meat and cheese. The grilled flat-iron steak, however, was chewy — not rubbery, but certainly exercised the jaw. The Malbec and roasted shallot demi glace was lovely, the agave honey candied beets a nice aside although the horseradish and avocado mash was mysteriously mild.
Me & Julio hearkens to the Paul Simon song, but Julio is also the Spanish word for July, the month in which both Lolita’s and M & J were leased. It’s a great add to a street already teeming with affordable restaurants.
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ME & JULIO: MODERN MEXICAN KITCHEN AND CANTINA
Overall: 3 1/2
Food: 3 1/2
Ambience: 4
Service: 3 1/2
Price: $$
2095 Commercial Dr., 604-696-9997, www.meandjulio.ca
Open 5 p.m. to midnight daily.
Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone. Restaurants are rated out of five stars.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007
