Eat & Drink

Checking out the Union Social Houses’ featured cocktails » Bar on north Main Avenue opened in December in Durango [ drink]

The Union Social House — a bar, gallery, and food truck-based eatery — opened in late December on north Main Avenue in Durango.

According to The Durango Herald, longtime Durango events planner Carol Clark created it as a “vintage game house,” providing a space for parents to have a casual drink, while their children play games.

I’m a casual drinker who plays games, so I decided to check it out.

The space itself, at 3602 Main Ave., is bigger than you’d expect. The somewhat muted steel-and-concreteheavy interior would feel spartan if it weren’t for the comfortable couches, wooden furniture, and decor inside. There’s even a fireplace. (Gas, albeit – but hey, it emits heat!)

In the very back, past the bar, there’s a window opening up into the Backcountry Gourmet food truck, which has sliders, fries, and the like. On the day I went, the food truck was open until just before the bar closed. There are two pinball machines in the back – The Simpsons and The Munsters, for you pinball aficionados. The bar had six beers on tap: Ska

Brewing Co.’s Euphoria, Eddyline Brewery’s Raspberry Wheat, Tel luride Brewing Co.’s RedFISH and Ski-in-Ski-Stout, Bell’s Brewery’s Two Hearted Ale, and Coors. There were also a number of other beers and wine available.

What caught my eye, though, were the four featured cocktails, all of which seem to be based on songs (or, at the very least, lyrics): Around The World; Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop; Half way There; and Walk This Way. They were based in gin, tequila, whiskey, and vodka respectively.

I let my affinity for all things tequi la make my first choice – Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop – which also contained pamplemousse and grapefruit juice. In case you don’t parlez français, pam plemousse is also grapefruit – in this case, a liqueur. So between the double grapefruit (a bold fruit if there ever was one) and the tequila you’d think this cocktail would be overpowering, right? Not really. The result was a light pink drink that was neither too fruity nor heavy on the tequila.

I assume the drink was named after the Young Gunz track from 2003,

Jerry McBride/BCI Media » » The Union Social House opened on north Main Avenue in late December.

maybe because “the girls, the girls, they love us, cause we stay fresh to death; we the best, nothing less.” Whatever the case, I let my musical taste pick the next drink.

Around The World, which I mental ly associated with the Daft Punk song, is gin, lime juice, and Aperol. That last ingredient is an Italian apéritif made with gentian, cinchona, and rhubarb, like a milder, sweeter Campari. It tastes a bit like rhubarb, bitter herbs, and burnt orange. Add to that the al ready herbal flavor of gin, and you’ve got a drink with a very herbal, sort of fruity, complex flavor profile. Like a Daft Punk song.

I didn’t try the other two cocktails – I’m saving them for some night when I’m feeling classic rock. Will we back? Definitely. Union seems like a good place to be social. — Nick Gonzales

Happy Snowdown! When in doubt, turn the music up.

» » The Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop cocktail is tequila-based and not as grapefruity as you would expect based on its ingredients.

Nick Gonzales/DGO photos » » The Around the World is a very herbal, sort of fruity cocktail based in gin.

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The Alternative Resource

Mi Ranchito offers something different in amid Durango’s Mexican food scene » Restaurant’s bright red mole a tangy surprise [ eat]

Celebrate Snowdown with us! NEW YEAR, NEW CAREER! With over a dozen restaurants or so within city limits, Durango isn’t exactly hurting for Mexican cuisine. Then again, the more the merrier. Almost all of them have a different take on the fare of our neighbors to the south, weaving different flavors into the tapestry that makes up our food scene.

Mi Ranchito Family Restaurant, located on the west 100 block of College Drive, where BREW Pub & Kitchen used to be, isn’t new in the strictest sense. Its owner, Jaime Lariz, was also responsible for San Marcos Mexican Restaurant out west on U.S. Highway 160 and No Way Jose’s further up Main Avenue downtown. Nevertheless, we decided to drop in for lunch one day and check it out.

You can often judge the quality of a Mexican restaurant by the salsa that arrives at your table the moment you sit down. Mi Ranchito’s seemed like a pretty basic red, but it easily passed the test, with some chiles in there packing some noticeable heat.

My dining companion chose to abstain – it was still pretty early in the day – while I ordered a margarita. As a concession to the rather arbitrary position of the sun in the sky, I got the regular margarita, which unlike the house margarita, also contains orange juice. The extra flavor adds a pleasant kick, and I think it deserves your consideration as a brunch drink alongside mimosas.

As for our meals, my assistant got the Mi Ranchito Burrito – a flour tortilla filled with skirt steak, grilled green chile, and refried beans and topped with green sauce. He found the green chile mild but flavorful and said the peppers added a lot to the tangy green sauce. The steak was a thinner cut than a typical carne asada, very tender and lightly spiced. I think he enjoyed it.

Meanwhile, I got the lunch special of the day, mole enchiladas. Mole is easily one of my favorite elements of Mexican cuisine and it’s fascinating to see different cooks churn out different variations of it. The term mole refers loosely to a number of different sauces, not just the chocolaty mole poblano your average gabacho is familiar with. Even just within Durango, some restaurants have a very sweet mole while others have a sauce that leans hard into smoky ancho chiles. Nick Gonzales/DGO » » Mi Ranchito’s tangy red mole sauce set its enchiladas apart from the same dish you might get at other Durango restaurants. The Regular Margarita at Mi Ranchito ought to be a brunch drink. After all, it contains orange juice.

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Mi Ranchito’s mole was bright red, tangy, and acidic in a very citrusy sort of way. It was a wonderful surprise – the worry is always that a place will default to the stereotype. The chicken enchiladas themselves were an excellent delivery vehicle for the sauce, and I’d definitely keep any eye out for the sandwich board advertising this special again.

If you’re interested in checking the place out, you’re about to have a wider timespan to do so. When the restaurant first opened, Lariz said he’d start keeping it open late, and it sounds like he’s going to keep that promise. The restaurant will be open until 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday during Snowdown and then every Friday and Saturday going forward.

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For more information, check out Mi Ranchito on Facebook or call (970) 422- 8514.

— Nick Gonzales