By Claire Dietz
It’s Friday night in Iowa City and the Pedestrian Mall is full of families and couples. Many gather around the band playing in the Friday Night Concert series. That it’s summer means that the college crowd is a bit tamer, making for the perfect night to enjoy time downtown. Taking advantage of the passing crowds that Friday night offers is a new, Mexican restaurant, El Patrón — “the boss” in Spanish.
The interior of the restaurant boasts both bar seating and more sit-down-friendly accommodations. Entering the restaurant, bold colors are everywhere. From the brick walls and the green crushed velvet chairs to heaps of original artwork brandishing the name of the restaurant atop ornately decorated sugar skulls from New Mexico, the restaurant, 109 E. College St., promises to be anything but drab.
The menu created for the restaurant’s soft opening was somewhat limited but still sported all the dishes that one expects from a Mexican restaurant: fajitas, carne asada, and the works.
The boldly flavored offerings were straightforward in a way that is to be expected, but was clearly crafted with care and consideration, a telling combination. (To me, good food is made with devotion but is not so over the top that its ornamentation gets in the way of what you are actually eating.)
It promises to be a place in which coworkers can meet at the day’s end to grab a drink or where families and college-age couples can grab dinner.
Perhaps this is a sign of Iowa City changing, and growing up, in a sense. More sit-down, upscale iterations of classic places such as the bar, the diner, or the Mexican restaurant. This is a place that caters not only to the college kids looking to scarf down a bite before a night on the town but also for families with kids of all ages; it is a place that can accommodate both a family with children earlier in the night and the college crowd that area of downtown has become so used to seeing.
All in all, El Patrón is a just-above-casual restaurant with good food, and a good atmosphere, that can be situated at the more aesthetically inclined end of the utilitarian spectrum. An establishment that has food made with care and devotion that also employs a more industrial flair in how it serves the items on its menu.
But none of these dichotomies seem all that strange in the high-ceilinged, warmly lit environment. Instead, El Patrón seems to be right at home with all the other idiosyncrasies that can be found on College Street. It is a place in which college students can take their parents for a nice dinner or simply go there for a nice night out. The food is delicious and well-crafted. The restaurant boasts fresh ingredients and a staff that is clearly happy to be working there.
It holds the potential to become a cornerstone of the Ped Mall.