At La Finca Bowls, their two-year-old restaurant on Broadway in East Downtown, Mekala Kennedy and Nathan Sauceda-Halliday took a ubiquitous idea – proteins, veggies and rice in bowl – and raised it with thoroughly curated mix of components. The outcomes were something like alchemy, as in the Farmers Bowl, a mix of skirt steak, corn and squash that created a yard barbecue.
Kennedy and Sauceda-Halliday have actually brought that very same magic to the cheese boards at their brand-new location, the Mouse Hole Cheese Shop. The cheeses and accoutrements on each board are selected to show a various area of the world. Thus, the All Local ($22) has New Mexico cheeses, Los Ranchos Bakery bread and red chile pistachios. On the Pardon My French ($24) board, you’ll discover grapes, cornichons and baguettes pieces. Vamos a España ($26), the Spanish-themed board, provides 2 various kinds of Manchego cheese, along with Marcona almonds and dried figs.
Beyond the boards, the Mouse Hole provides something the city has actually long done not have: an authentic cheese shop with lots of ranges and a staff excited to respond to all your cheese-related inquiries.
The Mouse Hole sits at the corner of the very same building on Broadway, simply south of the Martin Luther King Jr. crossway, that houses La Finca Bowls. There’s complimentary two-hour parking in front. Several areas were available throughout a current midweek lunch hour.
The entryway is set behind a little outdoor patio. A screen case of cheeses welcomes you simply inside the door, and racks of breads, jams and marinaded veggies line the walls. The consumers that day were uniformly divided in between takeout and eat-in. For dining in, you order at the counter, take a number and discover a seat in the comfortable, light-filled dining-room. At the dining-room’s only sofa, I saw 3 individuals assaulting a cheese board with a passion that verged on violence.
The menu, composed on a board behind the counter, is divided in between the cheese boards and little plates referred to as Nibbles.
After a quick discussion, the counter attendant guided me towards Vamos a España, the Spanish board. Along with the 3 cheeses, it included an outstanding selection of goodies selected to match the cheese. From the mouthwatering side, there were marinaded cherry tomatoes, Marcona almonds and sliced up red bell peppers. Representing the sweet were dried figs and membrillo, a paste made from the fruit of the quince tree.
After a couple of minutes, my board got here. It had a casual, unfussy look, as if it were created in the cooking area utilizing whatever components were on hand. The names of the cheeses had actually been composed in chalk on a strip of slate along the bottom of the board.
Manchego, the most popular Spanish cheese, included plainly, appearing in routine form and in a smoked variation. Like pecorino Romano, the Italian preferred, Manchego is made from sheep’s milk, however it’s not almost as pungent and salted. Firm, pale yellow and a little permeable, it has a nutty, appetizing taste that matched well with the membrillo, figs and almonds.
The other cheese was a soft, spreadable tetilla, a cow’s milk cheese from the hot and damp Galicia area of northwest Spain. The pale-yellow cheese had a velvety mouthfeel and a faint, appealing bitterness that discovered a perfect match in the outstanding sweet and hot olives.
You can include meat to the board for an extra $6. I selected a Basque Salumi. The thin medallions were extraordinary: buttery, earthy and with a little breeze of heat.
The just thing missing out on from the board was some bread.
The Nibbles choice is priced from $6 to $9 and consists of baked brie and marinaded olives. The White Bean Salad ($7) was great, the plump, tender beans getting a charge from a thick red white wine vinegar-based sauce with red onion and cilantro.
Also excellent was the Artichoke and Pepper Escabeche ($9). Escabeche is a Spanish meal in which meats, fish or veggies are marinaded in vinegar. The tender artichoke hearts and leaves were the star of the Mouse Hole’s variation.
Drink choices consist of a choice of white wines from Milagro Vineyards in Corrales for $9 to $15 a glass, a turning beer choice and bottles of Taos-based Zia soda.
La Finca Bowls is gluten-free shop, so it’s not a surprise that the Mouse Hole has sufficient gluten-free choices. The bread and crackers can be switched out to make any of the boards gluten-free.
The counter was well-staffed, and individuals I talked with were really experienced. It would have been enjoyable to stand there and talk cheese with them for a while, however consumers kept can be found in.
With the Mouse Hole Cheese Shop, Mekala Kennedy and Nathan Sauceda-Halliday keep the high requirements they gave La Finca Bowls while filling a long time space in the Albuquerque dining scene. It’s a gold mine for cheese enthusiasts.
