Love at first bite: Why this Grand Avenue Mexican restaurant is an instant Phoenix classic
On Nov. 18, 2021 Bacanora was named one of Esquire's Best New Restaurants in America along with 40 other notable spots from New York to Chicago.
Be careful or you'll miss the grill.
Your eyes will go to the palm trees wrapped in technicolor sweaters, and the whimsically creepy display of old stuffed animals hanging from strings. The triangular building that houses Bacanora is all windows, so you're constantly looking past your mesquite grilled octopus to the world outside. For dining companions, you got the people next to you at the high-top, plus an endless parade of quirky characters walking up and down Grand Avenue.
It wasn't until the very end of my spellbinding dinner that I peeked around the corner and saw the thing, a rustic Sonoran workhorse of a grill with rolling wheels that lift the rack up and down to control the heat. This beauty is a symbol of the Sonoran streets. You follow the smoke to its source, watching the taqueros throw on green bulby onions and fat strips of carne asada. But this time you're technically inside, and there's a young guy in a bright Mexican bandana wearing mismatched but strangely complimentary socks, throwing beautiful plates of grilled veggies in cast iron pans onto the fire.
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How Bacanora is all about the grill
This new restaurant by chef Rene Andrade is all about the grill; in fact it's the only cooking method he has.
That's natural for a Sonoran taqueria, but Bacanora is actually more of a bar or a bistro. The name of the restaurant refers to the spunky variety of Sonoran mezcal that was until recently a Mexican moonshine made by bootleggers. Now the agave spirit is legal and super trendy, but still has that little flavor of DIY punk, or let's say "punch." Grab a shot of the house variety when you sit down; it'll definitely wake your taste buds up, which is important for what's to come.
To steal a line from the movie critics, Bacanora feels like a triumph: that Andrade, a homegrown Nogales kid from the borderlands can work his way through the Valley's gourmet kitchens and open his own place, a buzzy restaurant in Arizona's capital that serves burritos alongside chef-driven plates that scream with color and celebrate the grill. (Of course, he does have some help from partners Armando Hernandez and Nadia Holguin of the popular Tacos Chiwas.)
Judging by my first visit, Andrade is deftly taking the reins from the historic space's previous tenant, chef Silvana Salcido Esparza, who was forced by the pandemic to close her gourmet Barrio Cafe Gran Reserva. Andrade is pioneering a new style of Sonoran cooking here, echoed by Tucson chef John Martinez of Tito & Pep, where smoky mesquite meats mingle with eclectic bistro faire.
But the limey flavors and spicy chiltepin are still puro Sonora, even when they're spritzed with olive oil.
Here's what to expect on the Bacanora menu
Bacanora's dinner menu appears to have fewer dishes on it than an In-N-Out Burger.
Andrade said he's sticking with the "greatest hits," which basically means a burrito, a gorgeous appetizer of silken avocado and puffy tostadas, a "caramelo" that's made more like a tostada than your usual steak quesadilla, and a plate of the most delicious green chile roasted chicken from local farm Two Wash Ranch. The flavorful bird is cut up into a pile of white and dark meats, all with flawless crispy skin and thick slabs of potatoes, an instant Phoenix classic.
But then there are the ever-changing specials, which all sounded so delicious that I had to order a bunch. A crisp cucumber salad was studded with crunchy nopales and paper thin radishes. It brought back memories of Chinese smashed cucumbers, the way they were cut into fat angular chunks. And then the octopus, slow-braised for seven hours and seared until it's so charred and crispy that it seriously tastes like crunchy Mexican milk tripe, but not so gamy. "Tripas from the ocean," Andrade said later.
He keeps it purposefully simple, because that's his aesthetic, and most everything is literally coming off that grill. Bacanora doesn't have a stove or an oven. He boils water, roasts vegetables, cooks steaks, everything, over that open fire. Instead of buying charcoal he uses fresh wood, a mixture of mesquite, almond and pecan — and creates his own carbon by cooking the pieces down.
You might say the meats taste lighter than traditional Sonoran cooking, which can often be heavy. But not after you throw on that salsa tatemada, a flurry of roasted tomato and chile that's finely blended and packs real, real deep.
"It’s a romantic way of cooking for me. I just fall in love with it every day," Andrade said about doing everything over the grill.
I'm inclined to agree. Bacanora isn't your typical candlelit dinner, but it may cause a love at first sight situation. Or depending on how your heart works, love at first bite.
Bacanora
Where: 1301 Grand Ave., Unit 1, Phoenix.
Hours: Wednesday through Saturday 5-10 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for brunch, closed Monday and Tuesday.
Price: cocktails $9-$12; brunch items $12-$16; entrees $9.50-$28.50.
Details: 602-612-4018, instagram.com/bacanoraphx.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Why Bacanora restaurant near downtown Phoenix is an instant classic
