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“The restaurant excels at basic dishes which elude lesser kitchens, and the

Published 7:00 am Monday, October 29, 2012

With its sleek bar and honeyed lighting, Mezcaleria Oaxaca's front room looks extraordinarily polished, even though it's furnished with more tchotchkes than auctioneers uncover in abandoned storage lockers.
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With its sleek bar and honeyed lighting, Mezcaleria Oaxaca's front room looks extraordinarily polished, even though it's furnished with more tchotchkes than auctioneers uncover in abandoned storage lockers.
With its sleek bar and honeyed lighting, Mezcaleria Oaxaca's front room looks extraordinarily polished, even though it's furnished with more tchotchkes than auctioneers uncover in abandoned storage lockers.
Removed from the open-kitchen hubbub that consumes the trunk of this tee-shaped restaurant, the aft annex houses a counter set with a trio of self-service salsas, a clear barrel of horchata aE”positioned so closely to the salsas that you'll wonder if you're meant to help yourself.
The tortillas are hand-patted by a crew of masa mavens in potters' smocks, women who've mastered the art of imbuing ground parched corn with plushness and froth. The tortillas have a subtle springtime sweetness and gratifying chew.
The mezcals are served in traditional footed clay cups, a tangible reminder that the centuries-old drink.
With the Shrimp cocktail, the tomato sauce sharing a stout glass with half a dozen quarter-sized shrimp had an intense candied flavor.
Mezcaleria Oaxaca's version of lemonade is a model worth copying.
Bartender Arn's muddling duties are multiplied by a list of fresh non-alcoholic options, including a limeade and a lemonade that strikes exactly the right balance of tart and sweet.
The pork ribs slathered in a fine-tuned mole negro, earthy and aromatic, are fantastically tender.
Like them, I wanted to love the barbacoa de cabrito, but I wasn't wowed by my serving of shredded goat.
The soup can be attacked with a spoon, or sopped up with a warm white corn tortilla, the single best thing at Mezcaleria Oaxaca.
A grilled steak was nearly obscured by a heap of stewed tomatoes and onions that was lousy with natural sugars.
Mezcaleria Oaxaca, 2123 Queen Anne Ave. North (206)216-4446. mezcaleriaoaxaca.com.

“The restaurant excels at basic dishes which elude lesser kitchens, and the stylish bar’s so spunky that it probably wouldn’t matter if it didn’t.”Read the rest of Hanna Raskin’s review here.Photos by Joshua Huston.Published on February 13, 2012

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