Frontera Fresco

"Do you have anything besides Mexican food?" - Dusty Bottoms, The Three Amigos

Second week in a row we get a view from above!

Christmas came early for The LLC this week at Frontera Fresco at 111 S State.  Call me old fashioned, but the only October spirits I want to see are either the evil halloween kind or pumpkin spiced hard liquor, not the Christmas variety. But alas, a jolly and somewhat elfish looking Dan Spira selected a restaurant for The LLC's 14th meeting on the 7th floor of a Macy's department store, that, in keeping with true holiday values was already pedaling their crap alongside artificial pine trees beneath the din of 1930's big band holiday classics.

At the center of this pre-Christmas hyper-capitalist environment is chef Rick Bayliss's Mexican lunch spot Frontera Fresco, a somewhat quicker paced brand extension of the celebrity chef's popular Frontera Grill. At first glance I took the sleek modern curvature, famous name attachment, and lack of burritos on the menu as shallow attempts to class up another Baja Fresh/Chipotle knockoff in a Macy's foodcourt. But was I too quick to judge...

Waiting for the final LLC members to arrive the line at Frontera seemed to grow longer without any forward progress. It was a physical representation of my job search, in so much as both make little visible progress yet I know at the end of each I'll be able to eat.  Making his second guest appearance with The LLC was amateur chef and devout Food Network viewer Steve Lake, who arrived last and immediately spilled a salt shaker. Thus the crisis void left behind by an absent Chris Hartemayer was filled. After seeing a picture of the man Steve asked, "Is Rick Bayliss Mexican?"

Rick Bayliss, seen here preparing his secret ingredient, is obviously not Mexican

"I don't know his background," answered Nick Nikitas, whose portion of tacos looked to be as filling as the ten dollar bill he traded for them. "But he knows how to cook the food." While Nick may not be able to differentiate between a lotus root and a radish he sure can point out a tasty Mexican lunch when he sees one. And when he eats one.

There was a highly unsanitary couple
making out in this line at one point.

I ordered the grilled steak huarache, a Mexican flatbread dish with beans, mushrooms and steak liberally topped off with lettuce and a dusting of cheese. It was fantastic. The bread maintained its crispness and supported the savory blend above it while the lettuce offered a cool, refreshing balance to the each bite. Despite anticipating the huarache would be insufficient in quelling my appetite I found myself full and happy by meal's end.

Wow, this picture actually came out pretty good.
Does justice to the taste.

"This place is going to get high marks from me," said Dan Ofman, who planned on taking the afternoon off due to a 'can't put it down' crisis with a dragon tattoo. "I'm glad I know about it." Ofman, a man who probably wasn't the best overall athlete in his graduating class, was eager to return to the food court that he described as being, "so clean."  Across the table Dan Spira's order of tortilla soup was steaming and appeared delicious, though it required an extra ten minutes to prepare.

As the meal drew to a close Steve Lake, a life time hockey brute carrying about 150% of my body weight on his beastly frame, announced that he was "scared of (S)Am." As much as I'd like to believe he was referring to my intimidating physical presence and blade like, razor sharp martial arts skills it's more likely he feared my ability to zing him in this blog as part of my ongoing mean streak. After all, the blog is mightier.

Frontera Notes:

• Absence of Rob Anderson and Crisis Chris
• Chips per dollar ratio was weak
• My tray was impractically convex, making my walk to the table a hellish trek in which my lunch flashed before my eyes multiple times
• Beers were available at 'market price'. Are you kidding me?