The Vegetable Butcher — Innovative Mexican Fare
New restaurants with innovative concepts are always a tricky business, as it takes guts and imagination. The Vegetable Butcher in Downtown San Luis Obispo has scored a perfect 10 on both.
In their culture kitchen, they produce unique Mexican influenced dishes, while honoring the vegetables that are in season and offered locally. I was first drawn by the name, then the concept of a new twist on classic Mexican dishes.
The Doña Días de las Mortes greets you outside; the inside is an open kitchen with taco bar, classic bar and distinctive seating options. We chose the taco bar for our first visit.
We watched the chef pull from ageless inspired pots to assemble the creative and delicious tacos. We tried one of each and my favorite was the Tennessee hot fried chicken taco with a jalapeño-poppy slaw, gold pea shoots and radishes. We added a smoky ancho rojo sauce to beef up the spice and it was wonderful.
Gary started with the Ancho chocolate turkey mole taco with a hibiscus pickled red onion, lime cream and toasted sesame. The subtlety and beauty of this dish caused him to produce yummy sounds.
We equally liked the jeweled sweet potato and corn taco with pomegranate, flower petals, avocado and a vegan cashew creama. He added the carrot habañero salsa for heat.
The Guajillo pork taco with jalapeño picked pineapple, red Fresno chilies and Tabasco fried shallots was wonderful placing a new touch on classics carnitas. The Modelo braised short rib taco, with Ancho pasilla bourbon demi glaze, corn and radish salsa and avocado was supreme in taste and presentation.
Gary ordered the dessert — market fruit sliced and placed on yogurt with a saffron caramel sauce and toasted coconut — and it was delectable. It was brilliant in simplicity and courageous in flavor mixing. Served by the chef, Becky Windel, we got a chance to talk to her. Her enthusiasm in melding flavors to produce food both familiar and distinctive is genius.
She explained, “I made the menu with elements that are 100% vegan, vegetarian, and gluten free, but you can have all the protein and gluten you want. The Vegetable Butcher relies on virtuous flavors for all, for that is what really matters.” Chef Becky’s creative side and culinary courage should be applauded.
Next visit he started with an organic blue cornbread muffin made with fire roasted sweet corn and fire roasted chilies. Both sweet and savory, he ordered a second helping. Then I had a dish — Forbidden Sesame Cauliflower — that blew my mind. It was brilliant and delicious, with heirloom cauliflower stalks fried with a Korean crumble and served over black forbidden rice with gold pea shoots to cool the fire.
They were not too hot, but an unflawed blending of creative flavors. We also tried the market enchilada with butternut squash, quinoa and poblano chilies with a cashew crema and toasted sesame sitting on a bed of the ancho chili chocolate mole. It is a convergence of hot, sweet, sour, and fresh flavors to blow your mind.
Becky is joined in the front of the house with her husband, John. He’s as charming as she is talented. Transplants from Arizona, the couple brings decades of restaurant experience to SLO.
“From the beginning,” Becky said, “our concept was from scratch custom fresh farmers’ market menus. This was way before it was a trend.” She had been gifted a love of cooking with whole ingredients from her upbringing. Her mom ground her own wheat and made her own bread.
“I’ve always been drawn to fresh cuisine and the ability to make something healthy that tastes great,” Becky said. “I remember making a chickpea pita way back when, and hearing someone say, this is ‘Happy food.’ I continue to create to make all the food happy.”
We sat at the bar on the next visit, where they feature an Old World wine list dazzling with refreshing whites, dry sparkling wines, and medium intensity reds. There were plenty of craft beers, too, including offerings from Atascadero’s Tent City and Paso’s Silva brewing companies. We settled on a Spanish Albarino that was perfect with smoked trout and zucchini fritters, and char grilled steak sticks with a heavenly, chimichurri sauce. I have been there five times so far, and every dish has been distinctive and wonderful.
The Vegetable Butcher is located at 712 Marsh St., and open for lunch and dinner Monday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. For more information, call (480) 559-3557.
‘The Hitman’s Bodyguard’ A Funny, Action-Packed Surprise
The buddy action movie was one of the most popular and most successful genre staples of the 1990s. Predictable but almost always entertaining, the genre seemed to dissipate in the new millennium.
The “Hit-man’s Bodyguard,” proudly boasting its R-rating, is a nice throwback to those films with bombastic action scenes, frequent swearing and bickering between lead actors, Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson, and a dedication to the genre’s clichés all the while being a love story.
You have the AAA endorsed bodyguard (Reynolds) forced into protecting an international hit man (Jackson) to court to testify against an epic bad dictator (Gary Oldman) for international crimes. Reynolds and Jackson have to put their differences aside to make it there alive.
But it is really a love story, as Jackson and Reynolds motivation is always based in love, even if they are doing horrible tasks. They take turns making us laugh, and then unleashing hell fire on their pursuers. Each character, including Salma Hayek, as Jackson’s foul-mouthed bad-ass love interest, all have unique traits of their own, and all three come together in this movie and make it so much fun.
Reynolds and Jackson give exactly the performances one would expect them to give in this type of flick. Reynolds is all about the charm and Jackson is all about the attitude. They play off each other well and make a unique enough pairing. They don’t come across as a duo that the audience has seen on screen a hundred times before. At its best, The Hitman’s Bodyguard is laugh-out-loud funny when Reynolds and Jackson are allowed to crack jokes.
There are plenty of laughs when the two argue with each other or while doing a terrible job of attempting to be peaceful. The dialogue flows naturally. The humor works and I found myself laughing quite a bit at Jackson’s lines. The story may be predictable, though Reynolds and Jackson deliver the jokes so well that it’s hard to care about that.
For me, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, is one of the biggest surprises of the year so far and will definitely go down as one of the most enjoyable films of the year. It’s funny, it’s action packed, and the story is interesting enough to keep it all moving towards a satisfying conclusion.
Teri Bayus is the Host of Taste Buds, shown on KSBY Ch. 6 at 3:30 p.m. Sundays and The C-W Ch. 7 at 11 a.m. Sundays, and also available online at: www.tastebuds.tv, and Taste Buds Channel on YouTube. Dinner and a Movie is a regular feature of Simply Clear Marketing & Media.
