Here are a a few shots and thoughts from a recent pilgrimage to Krog Street Market, this time visiting Superica, the latest in mega-restauranteur and fancy lightbulb enthusiast Ford Fry’s collection.
The fourth full-service restaurant surrounding the bustling food hall, Superica is the sister restaurant of Avalon’s The El Felix, both a Tex-Mex homage to the Houston and Austin styles of Mr. Fry’s roots.
Tex-Mex has been a greatly abused genre, an American take on Mexican classics and ingredients which somehow morphed into Speedy Gonzalez lunch specials and runny white cheese dip, which any Texan or Mexican citizen would find unidentifiable or disgraceful. It’s not a question of authenticity, but when did Tex-Mex become synonymous with never ending complimentary chips and a pile of slop?
Nachos may not be a traditional Mexican dish, but regardless of the authenticity of the backstory, the dish became a sum greater than its parts, a carefully constructed, singular chip snack which stormed America and quickly turned into a giant pile of chips covered with everything under the sun, sure to turn into a soggy, unevenly distributed mess. My parents moved to Texas in their early twenties from New York and they literally had never heard of nachos. Apparently Twitter didn’t exist and the idea took some time to spread. The beauty is in the simplicity. Take a chip, but some cheese and a single pickled jalapeno on it, maybe a little refried beans spooned on each perfect chip, and bake or broil them. My parents microwaved them back in the day, but go easy on them, it was the 80’s. I literally have my grandmother’s cookbook from that era with a recipe on how to cook a cote de boeuf in the microwave, so understand the zeitgeist at play.
My point is, just because the food is considered gluttonous, and it is a caloric treat, doesn’t mean the Tex-Mex genre is undeserving of care and good ingredients, expectations be damned. I didn’t love everything I had, but the homemade mole is sweet and fragrant, the complimentary salsas are far better than any of that jarred marinara stuff most places serve, and while the nachos were a little crowded for this stickler for Texas tradition, even the authenticity police would admit the fried-to-order cheese coated chips were delicious.
The puffy taco was a let down to me, considering how our hovering waitress was pumping it up. They’re covered with too much stuff, they quickly get soggy, and the filling flavor of the beef was not enjoyable.
The problem with being my 3rd or 4th favorite food destination at Krog Street is that I’ll have to have good reason to skip the top tier when I’m already there, but there’s only one place with a patio, margaritas, and cheese dip right at the edge of the Beltline and this Spring should be just fine for Ford Fry and team.