A new answer to the near-perpetual question of “Where do we eat before ________?” has come to pass in Grand Center. Directly across the street from the Fox Theatre, Lücha describes its offerings as Mexican soul food, but this isn’t what’s found on Cherokee Street or along Woodson Road. The names of the food are the same, but the product is considerably upmarket.
Big windows face the theater and Washington Avenue, making for good people-watching as folks troop along to music and theater. The two-level space, which has had several occupants over the years – including, if memory serves, at least one clothing store – can hold plenty of diners. That means possible heavy traffic in the kitchen on busy pre-theater nights, and the potential for delays, always something to bear in mind when planning visits. But early arrivals make for easier parking. And lunchtime is quiet, parking is a snap at the meters – plus it’s quiet enough for conversation.
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Guacamole sings its siren song on entering any Mexican restaurant, and Lücha’s is remarkable. Fresh and chunky, with strong notes of citrus, it’s a big serving, easily shareable. The single flaw is that the tortilla chips, arriving hot and fresh and grease-free, are extremely thin and often not quite up to the happy task of shoveling up the guac, so be careful. No salsa accompanies them, but there’s plenty of diced tomato in the avocado mixture. (Salsa and chips are a menu item, priced separately.) But margaritas are slightly bitter and taste faintly of those green lollipops of one’s childhood. Perhaps this is just muddling limes but it’s off-putting.
Cold nights call for hot dishes. Pozole Rojo fills the bill. A large bowl of ruddy-colored broth, quite spicy with notes of cumin and Mexican oregano beyond just pepper, holds golden hominy and good-sized pieces of pork, the whole thing topped with shreds of purple-y red cabbage. Go-alongs, including more crushed chile pepper and oregano, diced white onion, and a couple of miniscule lime wedges, came with the dish. It’s a bowl of deliciousness, and a very large serving.
Another good-sized offering is the burrito. The menu remarks that they’re available with or without a tortilla. Leaving it off must create an entree plate, because a wrapped burrito is at least 3 inches in diameter. The Mole Poblano Burrito held turkey with the beans and rice, doused in a fine mole sauce, rich and complicated in the mouth. Lightly dressed, crispy-fresh red cabbage slaw topped with a light strewing of Mexican cheese came alongside.
Tacos are generously filled, sitting on a single soft corn tortilla, usually topped with white onion and cilantro. Fish were pretty unremarkable, two breaded thickish strips of salmon, a little cabbage and two miniscule wedges of lime. But things improved from there, with a very tasty birria, or stew of lamb, tender with a sauce tasting of several kinds of chiles. No salsa accompanied them, but on another taco order–one chorizo, one pork belly (below)–the salsa of the day was served alongside. That day, it was an orangey mix, anchos and something unidentifiable, and it was filled with zip. The chorizo is not the expected sausage, but rather strands of pulled pork that had been seasoned like chorizo. It was tasty, and again, nice and moist, although it didn’t seem to have the promised potato in the filling.
And then there was the pork belly, two logs of meat that had been fried on all sides. I have never eaten a richer taco in my life. Sometimes one runs into pork belly – which is, remember, what bacon is made from – and it’s relatively lean. Not this. Sweet, unctuous fat, mainly, delicious but after a couple of bites, the salsa was called into use to relieve the palate fatigue that surely would have been setting in momentarily.
The single dessert currently offered is churros, fried strips of dough served with dipping sauces of dulce de leche and chocolate, which sounds much better than it tasted – too much taste of the cooking oil and the sugar-cinnamon coating almost obliterated the sauces’ flavors. Service is pleasant, fairly knowledgeable, and on one visit spontaneously worried that we might not make a curtain. (Ours was later, and we did.)
Overall, a lot more good than not-so-good, but definitely not what you’d find on Cherokee Street, both in terms of style and price.
Lücha
522 N. Grand (directly across from the Fox Theatre)
314-833-9993
Tue – Sat: 11 a.m. – 1 a.m.
Sun: 11 a.m. – midnight
Editor’s Note: SLM’s Dining Editor George Mahe visited Lücha during its opening week in October. Read his observations here.
