COA Milwaukee

One of my favorite cuisines, both to eat and to cook, is Mexican. It's a cuisine based on flavorful, inexpensive ingredients that were accessible to the masses. It's full of dishes that take lots of time, care, and expertise to make, yet are still made best by little old grandmas (abuelitas) rather than by professional chefs. In terms of bang for your buck, I don't think you can do any better than some good Mexican. I love Mexican. You love Mexican. Everyone loves Mexican.

Now, when you think Mexican you usually envision some hole in the wall taqueria complete with nostalgic pictures of ole Mexico and red, white and green themed everything. You definitely don't think of some trendy, modern sit down restaurant with servers dressed in all black, situated in a new "mixed development" mall in suburban Wisconsin. But this is exactly what COA in Glendale is. The decor speaks almost nothing of traditional Mexican, and the location screams fauxburban. Yet on the front, right above the entrance is a sign that says "The Heart ofMexican Street Food". What? I don't want to generalize too much, but this place had all the signs of the places I love to hate. In short, I was ready to walk into the place, order their crappy food and then rip them apart for being expensive, inauthentic, and generally just trying too hard.


But that all fell apart once I took a bite of my carne asada taco, which to my disappointment, was pretty solid. The meat was well cooked and flavorful, and the toppings, while a little more extravagant than you would normally find at a taqueria(the roasted jalapeno was a nice touch though), were still fairly authentic. Aside from being served with a minuscule slice of lime that no self respecting Mexican would find acceptable they actually did a pretty good job. Damn, and I was so ready to hate this place too. On the flip side, my dining companion ordered a lamb torta that did not meet the same standards. I was intrigued to see the lamb offering on the menu, as it's not something you see very often in Mexican cooking, especially in Mexican street food. Perhaps there's a reason as the overcooked lamb was rubbery and very off putting. I think we both decided to stick with the tacos next time around.

I guess this post turned into a sort of restaurant review, in that I think COA does a pretty good job for what they are. They take some inspiration from Mexican street food, glamour it up a bit, tack on a couple bucks on the price and some shiny decor and call it a restaurant. It's not a bad concept, and if it gets more people to accept eating corn tortillas and tacos with no cheddar cheese then perfect. My real point is just that I'm struggling with the lack of hispanic culture on the north side of Milwaukee. In Chicago you almost expect there to be a taqueria on every other street corner, even in the nicer parts of town. And if you live in the right neighborhoods, you can find a Mexican grocery store stuffed with fresh produce a prices a fraction of what your local conglomerate super market offers. Unfortunately I cannot say the same for Milwaukee.

It's not that there is not a sizable Hispanic population here, it's just that its more concentrated into one area of town, and that area unfortunately is neither where I live nor work. I would kill for a good neighborhood taqueria somewhere around me, and if I've picked up any Hispanic readers in Milwaukee then please make this happen. And if you live next to a taqueria in Chicago, or where ever, please savor and appreciate what you have, even if it's not the best one ever. The thing about them in the states is that while they're not always fantastic, they are rarely bad, and usually a great source for cheap, convenient meals.