| Poco's is now in the buffet business |
A lot of people were very happy when we announced, last month, that Lorenza "Poco" Guiterrez had plans to re-open her popular namesake restaurant at 3063 Southwest Boulevard. Poco's had been an interesting concept from the very beginning: Guiterrez had taken over the old Waid's restaurant, which had been serving breakfasts -- including those terrific malted waffles -- and traditional American diner lunches for years. Before she began serving dinners, Poco built up a pretty steady breakfast and lunch business, mixing her own Spanish and Mexican dishes with the pancakes, waffles and omelets that had been standard items on the former Waid's menu.Now Guiterrez is back in business, but with a twist. Patrons can order off a menu, or eat from a buffet. Hey, I'm all about buffets, but Poco needs to re-think her current arrangement since visually this buffet is a disaster. I stopped in for breakfast last Saturday and noticed the customers at the five or so tables were all enjoying one of Poco's famous soups: menudo.
On the main steam table, which is crammed into a ridiculously tight and tucked-away corner of the dining room, Poco had set out trays of the breakfast fare that was her calling card in this restaurant's previous incarnation: chorizo scrambled with eggs, chilaquiles, refried beans, pancakes, bacon and sausage, miniature vegetarian omelets -- the steam table couldn't keep them hot enough, although everything tasted very good. OK, well, not quite everything. Poco needs to forget the cold, hard "garlic toast," and the pastries looked better than they tasted.
Poco and I have a mutual friend in the restaurant business who told me that he's going to help her create a less confined, more appetizing buffet display. "The buffet idea has all kinds of possibilities," he told me, "but it needs a little work. Maybe more than a little."
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The buffet sounds like an attempt to free up staff for the more lucrative catering part of their business. So I was worried that it would be like this. Menudo from a buffet, sure, but scrambled eggs and pancakes? I'd expect that from a catered meeting at a hotel but not a good restaurant. And if it's not hot enough, it's a serious health violation.
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