Thursday, November 3, 2011

Suelo Nuevo: A Lake Travis Dad's Take

Full disclosure: I'm not a mom. I'm also pretty sure I'm not a woman. However, I am a Lake Travis area resident, and I am a dad, so hopefully I bring enough in the way of shared perspectives and common experiences--you know, changing diapers, reading to the children most nights, telling the kids to stop it, I mean it, stop whacking the blankity blank dog with the fly swatter this very instant--to justify my guest appearance on Lake Travis Moms today.

How this dad came to post here is best left unuttered. Said dad may or may not have run into Kim, the co-founder of Lake Travis Moms, at a neighborhood gathering. Said dad also may--or may not--have claimed that particular evening that he was a better writer than Joseph Heller, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Billy Shakespeare, and that deceased hack who wrote about the girl and the dragon tattoo. And it's possible, but not probable, that this same dad, several cocktails into the night, first asked, then whimpered and whined, and finally implored Kim to let him, pretty pretty pretty please, write a restaurant review for Lake Travis Moms, a blog he visits daily. "Fine," Kim may or may not have said, sighing deeply. "You can write a restaurant review. Just please stop crying and get up off the floor."

However it happened, I'm here, and I'm honored to be so. Lake Travis Moms is the coolest and best resource for family goings on in the Lakeway/Bee Cave/Hudson Bend area. But you know that already. You're smart people, you Lake Travis Moms' readers. You know what's going on.

I'm writing today to tell you about a restaurant with a play scape that you might not have heard of unless you live in Steiner Ranch. It's called Suelo Nuevo, and it's on Quinlan Park road, just off FM 620 behind the under-construction Randalls.

As a dad of two amazing and particularly active boys, I look for two things in a restaurant:

1. Space for my kids to howl and race and climb like freed monkeys.

2. Booze. Gallons and gallons of sweet, sweet booze.

The other stuff--friendly service, agreeable atmosphere, edible food, seats, forks, flush toilets--is nice, too, but as long as the boys are free to range and daddy has a cocktail, daddy is plenty pleased. Same for mommy. Serve her a margarita and the long day at the job and the toddler who keeps somehow finding the fly swatter and terrorizing the dog with it seep away.

Suelo Nuevo has both a plays cape and a bar, which means my wife and I were predisposed to approve of the joint before we slipped in there on a recent Friday. The play scape is standard--think ho-hum slide and crummy climbing wall--which does the trick, but what separates Suelo Nuevo from most other kid-catered places is the big yard that's fenced and adjoins the covered outdoor tables. When we were there, a huge game of chase erupted in that grassy yard, and my kids--ages 7 and almost 3--ran and ran and ran and didn't want to leave.

The food is typical Tex Mex, and the prices are reasonable. We were taken with the stuffed avocado, which was filled with chicken, lightly fried, and served with a choice of sauces to drip over the top. The borracho beans, flavored with an abundance of bacon, were especially flavorful, if not heart healthy, and the tacos and stuffed chile rellenos were fine but forgettable. The salsa was fresh but mild.

Our kids were pleased with their quesadillas, and my wife and I were pleased with the price: 3.99. Mac and cheese, chicken tenders, and tacos are other notable children's meal options. A drink and choice of sides is included with them all.

Suelo Nuevo boasts a full bar with respectable selection of beer on tap, including a couple of microbrews in addition to Shiner/Bud Light/Dos Equis blah blah lagers. Suelo Nuevo's large margaritas really are large--16 ounces, I'd wager. They're potent, too, and at a six bucks a pop, relatively cheap.

Suelo Nuevo doesn't offer the best Tex Mex in the Lake Travis area, but with extensive play space for children, nice prices, full bar, and good food, we'll be going back. Keep your eyes open for us. I'll be the zoned out one with the large drink and the goofy grin. My wife will be the pretty one who loves me anyway. And our kids will be the ones chasing each other with the fly swatter.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

There is a lot to be said about Craig Lesley. As a friend and neighbor, I could certainly dish up a few fun stories, but this may not be the right place for that.

Here are the basics, in his own words, taken from his blog Bad Chemicals:

We’re a family made up of two smelly dogs, one damaged cat, two good boys, one nice lady, and one goofy man. We live in Texas.

Also, if you want to read a truly moving essay that was recently published, check out his more of his writing here on Story Bleed Magazine.

1 comment:

  1. I do love a good stuffed avocado. I'll have to check it out the next time that I'm in the area. Thanks for the post, Craig.

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