The Republic of Texas Café Has Opened
Mar 18th, 2007 by Don Ray
This is another collaborative effort. The first collaborative is here. Unfortunately my friend Jerry (AKA Panama End Point Owner) got to do all the eating and drinking and I get to write and drool.
Jerry said he enjoyed everything he had. However, he also said he kept the margaritas coming, so his judgment may have been distorted.
Here is a photo of his liquid distortion.
With any TexMex you have to have chips and salsa. It looks like these are chips fried in the restaurant and didn’t come from a bag. Someone who has eaten there will have to confirm.
Someone had the Chili Relleño with Mexican rice and refried beans. Looks good to me. It also looks like they are serving tortillas made from white corn. I prefer that type of tortilla, so I hope that is true.
It looks like someone else had a crispy taco with refried beans and Mexican rice.
Then some one had some chalupas. One looks like chili con queso and one with refried beans. Both look good to me.
Here is Michael with his daytime crew (Nilliveth, Madga, Massiel).
If you go in the evening, Jerry said these two young señoritas (Anette and Christina) will serve you.
Jerry said there was entertainment setting up, but he wasn’t able to stay. With Jerry having as many margaritas as he said he had, I can understand.
Jerry passed up the opportunity to have the Enchiladas, so I guess he is going to force me into driving up there one of the weekends. Besides I need to check out the Chicken Fried steak also.
The food looks good. Jerry says it good. I am going to trust what Jerry says even though he did go through a bunch of the margaritas.
Here is a photo from Rich Young from the opening. Looks like quite a crowd.
Hi Don,
I think Michael’s is definitely on the right track. My wife and I stopped by Friday for his grand opening, and WOW, what a crowd! Just about every Gringo and Gringa in Volcan seemed to be there. We didn’t get to stay long, but vowed to come back when it was a little less overwhelming, which we did this weekend.
BTW, singing along with David Dell, was Mary Binder, another local Volcan talent. Kudos to both!
My quick take…
The restaurant has been very nicely remodeled.
The Margaritas were excellent, at least to my taste.
The tortilla chips are thick and I believe homemade. The salsa has a real kick to it. Tasty!
I had a combination plate with crispy tacos and enchiladas, beans and rice, and tortillas on the side. My wife had soft rolled beef tacos, beans, and rice. The enchiladas were cheese enchiladas and very tasty. I think all of the corn tortillas were excellent and I really enjoyed them. I think that bears repeating….I loved his tortillas!
As for the rice, refries, and taco beef, I think Michael could spice them up a bit. A little on the bland side to my taste in Tex Mex. I don’t mean spiced as in hot, I mean spicier in taste. I am used to more cumin, onion, cilantro, tomato etc. Having said that, I will be going back and trying other dishes on Michael menu.
I hope folks stop by and give one of our newest restaurants a try, and support a very worthy effort on Michael’s part.
We also tried the Cafe Montana this weekend. and Wow! it was excellent and far exceeded our expectations. I had the Chicken Cordon Bleu, and Wifey had trout. Nice big portions and very tasty. I will be going back, and often. A real treat!
Both restaurants have terrific menus! Can’t wait to try it all….Oh yeah….
Tom
My little group was there for about an 1 1/2 hours Friday night (16 de marzo) and we basically only had access to the finger food. You can rely on my version of things because I had no margaritas.
Michael finally gave up trying to serve full dinners after 6 PM because of the crowds - it was standing room only. There was just no way for him to handle the crush.
The chips were indeed done on the premises - not factory made. We also had toquitos which were quite good. Guacamole was ex-cel-lent! But I can’t attest to the TexMex worthiness of the rest of the food yet.
I’m told that it does no good to ask a fellow if he’s Texan. If he isn’t, you don’t want to know him. If he is Texan, he’s going to tell you all about it anyway.
As you will see from my pictures (sent under separate cover and which you may post to your blog if you want) the place was jumping Friday night. By the way, Lydia would probably be horrified to hear herself described as one of the entertainers. David sings and plays guitar and the female vocalist is another friend and Volcán resident, Mary Binder.
I would say that you should expect that the food will be good and getting even better as Michael trims up the menu. We certainly will be going back.
Come on up - it’s cooler in Volcán! And we have beautiful people.
Tom and Rich. Thanks for the comments. Rich I will take a look at the photos and see if i can include them with the post. I removed the photo of Lydia. That is what I get for writing without knowing enough about what I am writing. I have enough trouple posting my own photos.
Hola Don,
You’ll notice my head in the middle of the last picture with my wife, Kim to the right. We stopped by for a margarita or 3 and tried some of the tasty chips and salsa. Had to leave for an appointment in David or we would have sampled more. We will definitely be back over there later this week.
Ron
Hi Ron. Kim I recognized. Your head I didn’t.
Hi Don:
Just want to add a P.S. to Tom’s comments about Cafe Montana. We had lunch there last week (before the Rep. of Texas was open). It was excellent. The pizza is the best we’ve had in many years as was the calzone. The highlight: deep fried, tempura battered, crunchy ONION RINGS!!!! Can’t wait to try a chile relleno and margarita or two or three…………Wendy
Thanks for the recommendation Wendy. The Café Montana is getting some good reviews. I guess Volcan is going to get more of my weekend outings.
A quick post script to Wendy’s comment on the onion rings..We had the onion rings too, and yes indeed, probably the best I have had in many years, including most of those in the States. A must try!
Now you guys cut that out. Onion rings ar one of my favorite vices.
Mr. Don Ray, please pass this on to the owner of The Republic of Texas Cafe. Yo Michael Fahrenthold! I see ya got your place rockin’ with hungry customers. One question, “Do You Have Any Caldo de Pollo”?
That’s my fav dish. If so, can you mail some to me? That would be interesting to see how you would do that! I guess, send it like you would a heart, or a kidney, frozen in dry ice, then I would heat it up, and enjoy. Just a thought. Or better yet, e-mail it to me! That would be even more interesting. And for those reading this comment, I’m in San Antonio, Texas, that’s the reason for the unusual request.
I hope Michael’s cooking, doesn’t put to many calories on the people of Volcan. Continued success with your restaurant, Michael, and I hope to take a trip to Volcan, and visit. See ya soon.
Luvine Elias, Jr. (A friend of Michael Fahrenthold’s)
[...] eating at the Republic of Texas Café. I am only going to post one photo since I had others on my original post about the [...]