Pay a little extra, and you can have a margarita made "with the good sh*t" at Petty Cash Taqueria. "The good sh*t," the server explains, is a better grade of tequila.
Farther down the menu is an aguachile made with "the whole f'n ocean."
You can tell from this cool vernacular that you're in a cool place where you'll eat and drink cool stuff surrounded by cool people (at top).
Petty Cash is noisy, fun and crowded with those cool people. Cool food and drink? Not so sure. First off, a problematic drink. The Oaxacan old fashioned (above) combines tequila, mezcal, house agave (do they grow it there?), Angostura bitters and orange oil.
When I asked the brands of the mezcal and tequila, the server didn't know. This was an infusion, she explained, meaning that the ingredients had been combined in bulk, ready to pour as needed.
Perhaps pre-mixed mixology isn't the way to go, unless you like bottled cocktails. My drink was insipid and disappointing. But at $10, it was a better buy than a $70 shot of mezcal (Pierde Almas Conejo) that I might not have liked either.
One drink that's really nice is--water--poured from familiar (family size) bottles of Corona beer (above).
"The Munchies" (starters) begin with roasted cauliflower nachos with crispy kale and pickled Fresno chiles. Sounds great. But like the drink, the nachos were a little dull, without good cauliflower character.
The crispy kale scattered over the top was yummy, although fried and greasy. It's a surprisingly large plate of food, after which you may not feel like eating much.
My JG Special taco with cumin-scented pork tenderloin, Jack cheese, grilled mango and tomatillo was a clutter of stuff on a tortilla. Folding this into something manageable wasn't easy. I aimed at my mouth, but it couldn't handle the awkward bundle. Juices spurted embarrassingly, and bits of food fell out onto the plate. It took a fork to get the job done. So uncool.
Just when I decided this was not my night, I hit on something really good, "f'n good," as Petty Cash would put it. These were dorados (above), fried rolled tacos stuffed with potato, set on tomatillo salsa and heaped with shredded greens and cotija cheese. They had everything--great corn flavor from the tortillas, earthy notes from the crumbled cotija and the cool contrast of the fresh garnish. The soft potato was an excellent foil for these goodies.
Dorados come three to a plate, while other tacos are one to a serving. At $4.50, they're the cheapest. The costliest is a $6.50 charcoal grilled octopus taco.
I'll go back to Petty Cash--when I want to feel cool. But next I'm heading to my barrio taco hang-out where I can taste pure, non-trendy carne asada, carne al pastor and carnitas, where only fresh chopped onion and cilantro are on top and fiery green and red salsas come in plastic squeeze bottles. There, the tacos are only 95 cents each. Now that's really cool.
Petty Cash Taqueria, 7360 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036. (323) 933-5300.
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