Well-Rounded Mexican Food at Lola's Cantina

With a large deck and patio facing the Providence River to a sky dominated by the smoke stacks of the Manchester Power Station, Lola’s Tequila Bar and Cantina offers a lot before your food even arrives. Often, with a nice view, food becomes an afterthought. Lola’s owners, also of Whiskey Republic next door, have made a significant statement of intent to the contrary, bringing in a new Executive Chef Cara Marie Duskin to completely overhaul their menu.

Cara is originally from Naples, Florida, but has been working in Rhode Island for the last six years, most recently at Nordstrom’s Marketplace Cafe. Since being hired on in mid-June, Cara has been hard at work developing a new menu, which will be in place this month. While the favored mainstays of a Mexican restaurant are not neglected, Cara was chosen because she represented a more inclusive new direction, with extensive experience with vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free food. With these dietary considerations increasingly well-represented in Providence, Cara has crafted a menu where all can find something they are excited about – both veggie and carnivore alike. More basically, Cara wants a massive departure from what she calls the “nuke everything and smother in sauce” approach to Mexican.

Though she says she has no designs on purely authentic Mexican food, Cara has been happily exploring traditional Mexican ingredients that are sadly underrepresented in many approximations of the cuisine. For instance, she uses fresh jicama in her crab salpicon, where it is mixed with lime marinated crab meat, cilantro and scallions, and served over fried plantains. Cara has also gone the extra mile by making all of her queso fresco in-house. Queso fresco is an unaged cheese that can be made in a matter of hours, but to our detriment, few bother. For dessert, Cara has been perfecting her honey-cayenne glazed sopaipillas, which are a pastry hybrid of a donut and a pillow, you know, what we’d eat in heaven while sliding down rainbows with plaque-immune angel hearts.

Not to worry, if you are more the average carne e papas type, Cara has the stuff you could have ordered from Lola’s before, though she’s been at work making them less bland, or “boosting them up” as she puts it. Cara’s says her aim is to bring out ingredients so that you can’t leave saying, “we could have just gone to chipotle.” Cara’s specials are a lot more engaged with seasonal produce as well. For instance, recently she made a grilled watermelon salsa on a great farmers market whim.

In addition to new food, Cara’s counterpart in bar manager Christina Cook, has a whole new drink menu with a commitment to fresh exciting ingre- dients like muddled watermelon and infused tequilas. They are also teaming up for a new brunch service on Saturdays and Sundays from 12-4pm, with a $30 choice of entrée and bottomless drink selection. If you want to give the new Lola’s a try, or perhaps a second chance, October is a good time to start, with a celebration of the obligatory National Taco Day. Every day Cara will have a $2 special taco on offer, and every Tuesday a special menu of $2 tacos. One previous offering was a lobster and bacon taco, to whet your appetite. 525 South Water Street, Providence. 383-0220.

Brass Monkey Swings into Providence
The Brass Monkey has opened on Allens Avenue in Providence, hoping to grow roots in a space that has seen a parade of restaurants, most recently Cafe Ole. Having already had a soft open at time of writing, its grand opening was on September 13. With a menu with tendencies to the gastro-pubby, the place is aimed squarely at the sports bar crowd, with plenty of games on big TVs, a nice open layout, outdoor patio and Olde English and OJ, for when I want to punch my liver repeatedly with early college nostalgia. 800 Allens Avenue, Providence. 785-1818.

Taste Trekkers Expo Foodie Day
Saturday October 4 is Foodie Day, no, not in some meaningless desk calendar way, but at the Biltmore for the Taste Trekkers Food and Travel Expo, with a series of talks and food sampling with travel and food writers, bakers, beekeepers and more.