A feast for the senses
Billed as an authentic Mexican restaurant, Casa Borrega is also a hotbed for South-American and Mexican music, and every bit as much an art installation as it is a terrific place to eat. At the center of it all is Hugo Montero, a gregarious artist who moved to New Orleans from Mexico City. The co-star is his wife, Linda Stone, an environmentalist whose passion for recycling and re-use, paired with Hugo’s artistic flair, has resulted in the transformation of a 19th-century house into the most visually arresting restaurant in this and most any other city.
You could spend the first half of the meal surveying the myriad decorative touches, letting your tostadas and panuchos get cold. Everything in the interior is salvaged and repurposed. The tables are all handmade, as is the stained glass in the windows. Iron chandeliers from Mexico hang from the ceiling and vintage guitars line the walls leading to the restrooms. The ceiling fans are stunning artifacts Hugo acquired from an old hotel in Cuba. Above the bar, there’s a two-headed demon-boy piñata riding in an antique children’s car. Ceramic skulls are everywhere inside; little altars are everywhere outside on the patio. Some nights, the restaurant hosts bands on a small stage that’s equally covered in eccentric objects.
Info
Address 1719 Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard, New Orleans, LA 70113, +1 504.427.0654, www.casaborrega.com | Hours Tue–Thu 11:30am–2:30pm (lunch) 5pm–9:30pm (dinner), Fri and Sat 11:30am–10:30pm| Tip You can also get authentic El Salvador food at La Macarena (8120 Hampson St). There’s a good chance you may wonder if you want authentic Salvadoran food because you don’t know what it is. Their main dish is the pupusa, a flat masa-dough disk filled with sour cheese, beans, and usually, bits of pork. Think of them as stuffed Mayan pancakes. If you’re still lost, the affable owner, Manny Ochoa-Galvez, will be only too happy to serve as your guide.
The food is “real” Mexican, unlike what you may be used to. Hugo states, “I adore Tex-Mex, but it’s not Mexican.” They don’t serve burritos or cheesy gordita crunch. Casa Borrega’s menu has traditional dishes like the must-order Coctel de Camarones, a shrimp cocktail appetizer served in a large margarita glass, and entrees like the Borrega: slow-braised lamb cooked in tequila and mescal. Side bowls made from hollowed-out gourds are filled with black beans and guacamole.
Hugo and Linda call their restaurant a peña. Peña is a Mexican word for a community meeting place where food and drink share equal billing with artistic expression.
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