El Bolero is just days away from opening. The gourmet Mexican restaurant from Oak and Pakpao owners, Tiffanee and Richard Ellman, has been under construction for months. Finishing touches are being added (you know, like margaritas machines, lightbulbs and patio furniture) before the doors swing open, which I’m told will be mid next week.
Executive chef Hugo Galvan (previously of shuttered Café San Miguel on Henderson Avenue, and Hacienda San Miguel in Fort Worth) offers a menu filled with items he says “a lot of people aren’t familiar with.”
Breakfast is available Monday through Friday at 7 a.m. and guests can nosh on staples such as huevos rancheros, breakfast tacos, frittatas, fresh fruit parfaits, and churros. There’s a variety of more complex dishes too, such as panuchos de cochinita, a dish that’s native to the Yucatan Peninsula made from tortillas stuffed with black bean puree and chopped hard boiled eggs, topped with pulled pork and pickled onions; and molletes a dish from Mexico City made from toasted bolillo bread, black beans, asadero cheese, and pico de gallo.
There will also be a full espresso bar and fresh squeezed juice.
The lunch and dinner portion of the menu is divided into nine sections: tortas, barra fria/ceviches, appetizers, soups, salads, tacos, platos (mains), sides, and desserts. “There’s a lot of seafood on the menu,” Galvan explained. The restaurant’s “raw bar” will offer a rotating selection of oysters and five different ceviches. There’s also a taco bar within the restaurant where guests can watch as meat is sliced from a rotating trompo and tossed on top of warm tortillas — all of the tortillas and masa items on the menu are made in-house. And while the cocktail list is still being finalized there will undoubtably be a frozen house margarita, and selection of draft beers. Happy hour will feature drink specials and discount tacos.
Brunch will run from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Menu highlights include a lobster omelette, and a masa tartlet with smoked salmon, red onion, capers, ricotta and goat cheese.
El Bolero is located at 1201 Oak Lawn Avenue.
Update: El Bolero is now open and serving a limited menu.
