Fine Dining: Mezcla is a wish come true

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The pork main course at Mezcla, in Montreal on Thursday September 27, 2012. (Allen McInnis/THE GAZETTE)

Mezcla

Rating: 3 out of 4

$$$

1251 de Champlain St.(at Ste. Rose St.)

Phone: 514-525-9934

Website: www.restaurantmezcla.com

Open: Tues. to Sat. 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Licensed: Yes

Credit cards: All major

Wheelchair access: No

Parking: Easy on the street

Vegetarian friendly: Not especially

Reservations: Essential

Price range: Starters: $10-$16; main courses $19-$33; desserts: $6-$9. Five-course tasting menu: $39

For a city to be considered a serious gourmet destination, there must be a good mix of established restaurants along with the new and exciting. Montreal certainly has the former, but seems to have hit a bit of a wall when it comes to the latter. Granted, restaurants like Bouillon Bilk, Van Horne and the fabulous new Park and Hotel Herman have brightened up the scene tremendously over the past few years. Yet there are also many newbies that fall flat with fuzzy cooking, tired concepts and waiters who are trying their best to hock the same ol? seared scallops and cr?me br?l?es. It?s starting to feel like forever since I heard someone go bonkers with happiness over a restaurant.

And then, it happened, and of all places on Facebook, where chef and Journal de Montr?al restaurant critic Thierry Daraize posted a wildly enthusiastic endorsement of a restaurant called Mezcla. Mez ? what? I had never heard of the place. And as someone who keeps a tab on restaurant matters with an obsession some might consider disturbing, I should have. But kudos to Daraize for discovering the restaurant, which opened in May, though his unbridled enthusiasm has made Mezcla one tough table to book. Once I eventually nabbed a table, I headed down to The Village to see what he calls one of his ?grands coups de c?ur? of 2012.

Located on a side street just off Ste. Catherine, Mezcla is a warm, 50-seat space with high ceilings, an open floor plan, and a bistro-ish vibe. The ?chaleureux? ambience is further boosted by low lights, sexy background tunes and an open kitchen in the back of the room. The decor provides few clues about the style of cuisine, which isn?t the usual French bistro but ? aahhh ? nuevo latino.

When I think nuevo latino in Montreal, I immediately picture chef Mario Navarrete Jr.?s restaurant Raza. How nice, I always thought while sipping pisco sours, would it be to have more restaurants playing with these Central and South American, Cuban, Puerto Rican and Spanish-Caribbean ingredients and flavours? And now my wish has come true.

I immediately recognized our host and waiter, a handsome Venezuelan by the name of Gerardo Labarca, who last served me years ago at that great tapas restaurant Pintxo. Turns out Labarca is an owner at Mezcla along with Marie-H?l?ne Barri?re. Already that?s great news because the ever-smiling Labarca made my first Pintxo meal so memorable. As for the talent in the kitchen, that belongs to two gentlemen, Marcel Larrea, who trained Cordon Bleu in Peru and worked here at Thai Grill, and Georges-?tienne T. Tremblay, whose Montreal experience includes La Chronique and Les Enfants Terribles.

Larrea may have last been cooking Thai, yet his background is Peruvian. Peruvian cuisine is hailed as the next big thing, and whenever I hear that I roll my eyes a little as the Peruvian cuisine I?ve sampled (and I?m no authority by any measure here) hasn?t been what I?d call earth moving. Yet after tasting this kitchen?s take on it, I?m intrigued. These boys are making some seriously delicious food, filled with beautiful flavours and diverse textures. Like Daraize, I gotta say, dinner at Mezcla turned out to be one of my best meals of the year.

The wine list is another plus. Spanish heavy, well-priced with a good mix of private imports and SAQ selections, the list also features bottles well suited to this spicy/meaty/seafoody cuisine. The Albarino Condes de Albarei 2011 we enjoyed not only enhanced everything we ate, but at $42, didn?t put a dent on my budget. Nice.

Now on to the food, which started with a simple plate of ceviche. Wait, did I say simple? Scratch that, because what started out looking like a pretty mound of raw fish and seafood bathed in a slightly spicy sauce turned into a complex dish when we were given a trio of crispy ingredients to mix in, including fried corn kernels, twisty yucca chips and a tangle of deep-fried carrot strands. Was it ever great, with the soft and silky seafood and salmon chunks mixing in with the crisp bits of chips and the crunch of the corn. Every taste was so clean, so fresh and I loved the surf and turf contrast between the fish and the vegetables. Huge.

The next dish was almost as amazing, and consisted of tuna tartare set atop potato croquettes placed alongside mounds of crabmeat with avocado and coriander. Again, what a play of textures ? dewy, crispy, creamy, chewy ? along with all those fresh and bracing flavours. Really gorgeous.

And I saved the best starter, the shrimp, for last. Served wrapped in fried yucca ribbons, the jumbo shrimp were meaty, fresh, resilient and cleverly served with two contrasting sauces: a close-to-fluffy avocado cream and a sweet chicha syrup made with smoky black corn. With every bite I said to myself, this is the best thing I?ve tasted all year, and considering the amount I eat, that?s saying a lot. I can?t wait to come back and try this dish again.

There?s more. When I asked for a menu recommendation, Labarca?s face lit up and he said the blood pudding was a must. He?s right, it?s very good. Served on a light corn cake, the round of blood pudding is layered with julienned apple and slices of chorizo. Don?t want to get boring here, but again, the mix of textures won me over, and I also admired that these boys are using organic chorizo from Charlevoix, and finished the dish off with a Calvados-laced beurre blanc. What a pleasure to see updated ethnic cuisine made with the best local ingredients. Now that?s what I call modern cooking!

More traditional but just as scrumptious was a simple plate of grilled duck hearts, with papa amarilla (yellow potatoes), choclo (corn cob, in this case, black corn) and gently spiced ?panka? sauce made with dried amarillo peppers. I?m big on hearts for their filet mignon-meets liver taste and consistency, and these babies were wolfed back in record time.

The size of the starters is larger than tapas, yet I?d still recommend ordering many plates to share. Main courses are more costly (in the $30 range), but the quality of ingredients merits such prices. For instance, the main I enjoyed was a duo of Gaspor pork that included three chops from the rack as well as a melting slice of braised flanc. Add to that chanterelles, carrots, parsnip pur?e and a light ?n? herby sauce, and you have yet another reason to race over to Mezcla.

As for desserts, I cannot deny I was discouraged to see only three, and three that included that predictable Montreal trio: cr?me br?l?e, molten chocolate cake and pouding ch?meur. Cue the groans.

But wait, not so fast. Just when I thought I?d had my fill of molten chocolate cake, along came one so deeply chocolatey and ideally crusty-melty that I remembered what seduced me about this famous dessert in the first place. And that unemployment pud was also staggeringly good, full of maple flavour, firm yet still unctuous without falling into the dreaded mushy/icky/cloying pouding ch?meur trap.

To say I had a faultless meal at Mezcla would be an understatement as it was so creative and just downright delicious as well. And I only scratched the surface of this menu. All I want to do now is go back, go back to try the clams with chimichurri, the braised bison, the fish stew, the Cornish hen with yucca fries. Or better yet the five-course $39 tasting menu, which considering the quality of ingredients sounds like the deal of the century.

What an orgy of tastes this restaurant has to offer. And at risk of never being able to get a last-minute table here myself, I end this review with just one suggestion: GO.

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For more food and wine talk, tune in to Dinner Rush with Lesley Chesterman on Saturdays from 4 to 5 p.m. on News Talk Radio CJAD 800.

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Source: http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/food-wine/Fine+Dining+Mezcla+wish+come+true/7343470/story.html

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