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Consistency Hardly a Hobgoblin: Juan's Place
Back in high school, we had an English teacher who really drilled the Transcendentalists into our brains, especially that one Thoreau Emerson quote: "Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."
What can we say? It still makes us think. Like about restaurants that have hardly changed in at least 20 years (the amount we can vouch for, since that's when we moved here from Southern California) if not 35 -- Juan's Place, in Berkeley.
We recently revisited our old haunt, a popular destination in our college days, when the gooey cheesy Mexican fare, warm greasy chips, and pitchers of fruity wine margaritas (they don't have a hard-liquor license) seemed ours for the taking; err... in spite of our youth. Not that we EVER purchased or drank alcoholic beverages before the age of 21.
Our friend was having a birthday dinner there. So while we normally gravitate towards the plethora of great gourmet east bay Mexican restaurants featuring naturally-raised meats and sometimes organic produce (Tamarindo, Doña Tomas, Tacubaya, Picante, Cactus Taqueria), we found ourselves here instead.
We guess our minds are little, because at Juan's we only ever ordered one thing, and on this night, at least 10 years since our last visit, when facing what we're pretty sure is the exact same menu (except perhaps with higher prices), we picked it again: Green Chicken Enchiladas.
The green sauce is, as it was, light, tart, dare-we-say piquant? We doubt the recipe has changed at all. The rice was fluffy, buttery, chickeny. Refried beans dense and comforting. The cheese melted on top could have been a touch more plentiful, but that was our only complaint. This is not your California Cuisine Mexican food. This is the big plate, all one color, old-school stuff, which we love for what it is.
And we still love the strangely liquid red "salsa" provided for dipping the thick, crisp, warm corn tortilla chips.
One innovation we noticed compared to visits of long ago: We were also served a bowl of dangerously addictive, flaky, crisp, flour tortilla chips -- without even having to ask, and given two free sides of guacamole before we'd ordered. These, we don't recall from back in the day. The guacamole was chunky, light, fresh tasting, with just the right proportion of added tomatoes and onion.
Just beware that if you say it's your birthday, there will be dimmed lights, a dusty sombrero, recorded happy birthday music, and a stack of rather addictive crispy-fried flour tortillas doused in cinnamon-sugar and spiked with a candle.
Juan's Place
941 Carleton St
Berkeley, CA 94710-2636
Phone: (510) 845-6904
Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 2 p.m.-10 p.m. Sat.-Sun.