Local Cantina

Hola brunchers!

This week we take you to our neighborhood on the corner of California and High to Local Cantina in Clintonville. This little unassuming restaurant has the whole package; beer, margaritas, tacos, and now brunch!

Us Clintonvillians are well aware of all that Local offers - a wide variety of house-made margaritas (made with orange juice!), and a ton of local (ha!) beers. They also host Taco Tuesday where all of their tacos are just $3. The garage door wall makes for a great hang out spot during warm days, and they're currently installing what looks to be an outdoor bar too! All of their wonderful offerings have made this place a staple for the residents of Clintonville, as the seating area is packed most nights. 

But this morning for brunch the restaurant was surprisingly quiet, allowing us to choose a great seat to take it all in. Brunch is served from 11-4 and the small menu was full of heavy hitters:

'Staches everywhere

Local Cantina features a chips and salsa bar stocked with delicious tortilla chips and house made red salsa. Its the perfect way to start your visit, and you can refill as many times as your little heart desires.

muy bueno.

The feel of the place is super cool. With decor split between mustaches and all things Mexican, they achieve a nice balance between kitschy and classic. The waitstaff and bartenders are always very friendly and attentive, which I'm sure keeps Clintonvillians coming back again and again. 

                            

Sawsez

Now on to business.

First off, drinks.

Expecting the same ol' thing, we were caught off guard when the waitress explained their BeerMosas and Bacon Bloody Mary's.

BFF's 

The smoked bacon Bloody Mary was ON. POINT. Definitely a contender with the best of the best. Heavy handed on the spice, but balanced perfectly with tomato and accented with bacon. The garnishes were also nice to hold us over until breakfast arrived. However, though the Bloody Mary was great, it was also a little on the pricey side (I'm talking $8.00 per Mary). This is Columbus, Ohio. Not Chicago. 

The BeerMosa was a concession of Breckenridge Agave Wheat beer, orange juice, and peach Schnapps garnished with a slice of orange. It was phenomenal, just sweet enough to mimic a Mimosa but definitely had its own unique flavor. Come to find out later that it was designed to be a special drink for Craft Beer Week in Columbus (May 1st-9th!!!) so we were only able to order one :( Regardless, I felt honored to preview it for all of the lucky drinkers next week!

Mimosa's cousin, twice removed

Coffee was clearly a new addition to the brunch menu as it left something to be desired. It was more of a "brown water" type of brew with the creamer being MIA due to the wet ink on the menu (but whole milk served in a shot glass sufficed). We're not sure where this coffee came from, but we would have liked to have seen some local brew being featured at the LOCAL Cantina. Perhaps a pass on this next time. The mugs it was served in were on point, even though the coffee wasn't. 

Grant's Note: I personally love a mild easy drinking coffee and thought this stuff was perfect. If you land on my end of the coffee spectrum then you'll probably like it. 

R2PEE2

 

Devyn: Today I went with the Huevos Rancheros, an awesome mashup of eggs, tortillas and salsa with a side of home fries topped with queso. Holy crap guys. The eggs were perfectly done with cooked whites and runny middles, and the salsa was top notch as always. The queso is a favorite of mine with tortilla chips, but it was a fantastic compliment to the home fries. I left feeling full and satisfied, ready to come back for brunch again!

Our honored guests went with the chorizo skillet. Texas toast topped with chorizo gravy, eggs your way, peppers, onions, and cheese. These plates were gone as quick as the waitress put them down. Great success. 

Marissa: I ordered the Gravy Train, or the Mexican interpretation of good ole biscuits and gravy. The Gravy Train consists of jalapeño cornbread topped with chorizo gravy, scrambled eggs and bacon. The cornbread + chorizo gravy were absolutely incredible. I could have done without the addition of the eggs and bacon - they just seemed like add-ons. The cornbread and gravy are clearly the main attraction of this dish, and being a fan of biscuits and gravy myself, I'm used to having two biscuits smothered in gravy... and then if I feel like I could use eggs or bacon, I can just order it a la carte. But let me just reiterate - cornbread and chorizo - delicious!

Grant: Once again, I went with my brunch standard, the breakfast burrito. As one who is very familiar with the breakfast burrito (an experrito) I am confident in stating that while not mind blowing (Dube, I'm looking at you), this is a quality breakfast burrito. One thing that helps separate this one from the others is the generous smothering of the famous Local Cantina queso. This one also came with a serious helping of potato chunks. Like most red blooded Americans, I gotta have some ketchup with my potato chunks. Unfortunately, Local Cantina does not carry ketchup. They do make up for this a bit with some incredibly delicious Oscar Blues hot sauces, including an awesome smokey jalapeño sauce. All in all, this was a great place and I will be back with my own ketchup, and sans Bloody Mary (unless I win the lottery).

All in all, a great experience at Local Cantina. Being still a rather new restaurant, it seemed as though their brunch was still coming together (coffee was lacking, no cream for coffee, and no ketchup for all the papas?!), but the things that matter most, the food and the drinks, were stellar. Local Cantina brunch is certainly recommended.

Ratings:

Food: 3.8

Drinks: 3.5

Atmosphere: 4.5

Price: 2.2 - Something just didn't seem right about paying the same price for one alcoholic beverage and an entire meal.