By Sharon Hori
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
With a mob of bar-hoppers, starving students and family friends
crowding around the door, only one word will get you into Santa
Monica’s El Cholo Mexican Restaurant on a Friday night.
Reservations.
The secret to breaking through the barricade of newcomers and
connosseiurs is to call ahead at the restaurant. Otherwise
you’ll end up waiting over an hour for the hosts to page you
for your table. Oh, don’t forget that you’ll have to
wait 15 minutes to get the pager.
Although El Cholo is nestled at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard
and 11th Street, in 1923 Alejandro Borquez opened the first El
Cholo Spanish Cafe ““ then called the Sonora cafe ““ at
the corner of Monet and Santa Barbara in Los Angeles. Back then,
Borquez’ restaurant had only eight stools, three booths and a
hot top stove. But those were the only ingredients needed for him
and his wife Rosa, who created what they called “The Mexican
Food By Which All Others Are Judged.”
Dishwasher Joe Reina joined the restaurant team in 1932 and
later became head chef for the next 54 years. Nearly 40 years
later, El Cholo became the worlds largest user of Cuervo 1800
Tequila with their presentation of the margarita. By 1996, El Cholo
had sold more stacks of tortillas than could fill 6,146 Empire
State Buildings.
El Cholo offers entrees that define a culture within a diversely
modern Los Angeles. The menu of popular tastes that are worth the
price ranges from enchiladas to tacos and fajitas.
Every meal at El Cholo begins with a basket of crisp tortilla
chips, still hot and lightly glistening with salt. And El Cholo
isn’t stingy with its salsa ““ each guest gets an entire
dish. The extra-famished may decide to order one of the filling
“antojitos,” or appetizers, such as the Sonora Style
Nachos for $6.75 or the sweet Green Corn Tamale, a summertime
special. Of course, you can’t go wrong with a cup of hot
tortilla soup that teases bittersweetness with a mix of chicken,
cheese and avocado.
The most popular dish, Blue Corn Chicken Enchiladas ($11.95),
are wrapped with soft blue corn tortillas in tomatillo sauce with
sour cream and avocado. Sonora Style Enchiladas ($8.95) are topped
with olives and a fried egg. Other El Cholo style enchiladas play
with jalapenos, pesto sauce and tantalizing vegetables to appease
the spice-cravers and vegetarians alike.
Three well-balanced meals may be a healthy day’s diet, but
El Cholo promises a day’s worth of food in one sitting.
Dishes taste twice as good as they smell and look 10 times as
conquerable as they really are. Tacos Al Carbon plants grilled top
sirloin into two corn tortillas, packed with bacon, jack cheese,
rice, beans and a refreshing pico de gallo. The thick Burrito
Dorado, created for El Cholo’s 50th anniversary, is just a
take-home box waiting to be ordered.
Still can’t decide? No problemo. El Cholo is notorious for
its combination plates, which allow you to mix and match two of the
cheese enchiladas, tacos, tamales and chile rellenos for $8.25. The
all-time combo plate is a “Taste of History,” including
all four choices and is served with fried beans and Spanish rice
for $10.50.
The restaurant and bar in Santa Monica, which opened in 1997,
has grown two stories tall, with patio and booth seating to
accompany any Friday night crowd. With painted fruit vines wrapping
around the borders of the ceiling and painted idioms like “No
llores, hay mas peces en el mar” above the doorways, the
dimly-lit air is welcoming and celebratory. And it boasts celebrity
status from guests like Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Madonna,
Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor.
Enter with an empty stomach, leave with chile rellenos coming
out of your ears. That’s the drill at El Cholo, whose
experience is well worth the wait.
And that’s the whole enchilada.