Co-owner and manager Corbin Azambuja is excited about the evolution of Chismoso since its opening last May. The menu has slowly changed under the guidance of Chef Will Stagg and the recent addition of one of his friends and the city’s major culinary talent’s, Chef Mauro Chavez, the evolution continues. The two recently introduced a new menu and Urban Woman and I dropped by to sample what’s up.
Corbin said they want to push Latin cuisine “beyond chips and queso and fajitas.” That said, we started with the chips and queso (sorry!) and Urban Woman said it was the best queso she’d ever had. We got a bit more adventurous after that.
A real focus of the restaurant is the inclusion of local, fresh food, with an emphasis on vegetables on the current menu (it’s summer time and the vegetables are great!) We enjoyed four different dishes, three vegetable dishes and one meat dish, splitting them all as we went. The chefs are so intent on emphasizing the local origins of the food that the sources are often reflected in the names of the dishes.
We started by sharing the Mountain Roots Blistered Shishito Peppers (cilantro, garlic chili crunch, cotija, pork rind dust) and I’ll have to spoil the exciting conclusion by admitting this was my favorite dish. Not extremely spicy, but extremely delicious. Alongside that, we enjoyed the Myers Brother’s Farm Grilled Zucchini (ET mushrooms, crispy leeks, yellow squash, salsa macha and squash blossom butter).
It was the great taste of freshness you might imagine and it was Urban Woman’s pick of the night, though she said it was close between that another dish. I loved the mushrooms best and could have eaten a plate of just those. We also slipped a Spencer Mountain Tomato Salad (Shaved green tomato, cilantro, toasted seeds, cholula ranch) as a bonus and it hit very light and tangy.
For our main dish we enjoyed the Chicken Enchilada Stack (House tortillas, jack cheese, red sauce, lime crema, lettuce, red onion, radish, cilantro, avocado, jalapeno, queso fresco), which we split. Even with all the sharing, it was too much food. This was Urban Woman’s co-favorite and we both loved it. Even though this was a meat dish, I count four vegetables included. The avocado was perfect.
Before we left I chatted briefly with Chefs Will and Mauro who seem really excited to work together full-time. Mauro was the chef-de-cuisine at J.C. Holdway where he’d worked for seven years while he and Will did pop-ups on the side, including at Plaid Apron. They enjoyed it so much, they decided to see what they could do together a full week at a time.
Chef Will said the tomato salad is their joint creation and they feel they get great tomatoes from Spencer Mountain farms and that’s what really makes that dish. He said they combine the ingredients in simple ways just to allow the ingredients to speak for themselves. Chef Mauro, who is from Mexico, said the food they are producing now is an outgrowth of their time working the pop-ups. His father is Peruvian and that heritage also comes through in his dishes. He said expect more small plates using local vegetables combined with Latin spices.
The two said you can expect your meat and tortillas, but you can also expect much more. They want to help people get past their expectations of “rice and beans” when they think of Mexican or Latin foods. “There area lot more flavors out there.” The two are feeding off each other’s creativity and are already planning the next menu, so if you like what you see on this one, you might need to be getting down there. “Mauro brings a lot of knowledge and creativity to the team.
Chismoso is open Tuesday through Thursday, 4:00 pm to 10:00 pm, and Friday and Saturday, 4:00 pm through midnight.