Hard to believe that Frontera Grill is closing in on its 18th birthday (in March). This restaurant always seems fresh and innovative, mostly because chef/owner Rick Bayless simply won’t let his concept stagnate. The menu changes monthly, and one-third to one-half of every menu consists of new dishes. “We strive for new territory,” Bayless says, and it shows.
Bayless’ latest innovation is the Marisqueria Ecologica, a Mexican raw-bar menu offering exclusively sustainable (environmentally friendly) seafood. It’s a compact menu of fresh oysters, seviches and other goodies, and it’s the only menu that is simultaneously available at Frontera and Topolobampo (Bayless’ haute-Mexican dining room next door).
Highlights of the Marisqueria menu include remarkably crisp and clean oysters, served with a habanero-lime mignonetta (not as spicy as it sounds) and one of two salsas. Typically there are three oyster varieties featured daily, and the best approach is to get a mix of all three in your dozen or half-dozen order.
The seviches are outstanding. The seviche fronterizo offers lime-marinated Alaskan halibut with tomatoes and olives; the seviche de calamari mixes pieces of squid with pickled jalapeno bits and pieces of avocado. Bayless has added a sampler, which includes two seviche varieties plus a shrimp-halibut cocktail.
The regular menu offers a number of enticements, ranging from familiar tastes (queso fundido, enchiladas in red mole) to more imaginative creations, including a fine adobo-marinated duck breast with a chile-laced Veracruz-style sauce, and perfect sea scallops over a red-peanut mole.
Service continues to blow me away. The fellow serving me knew the menu inside and out and offered knowing wine-pairing recommendations. The kicker: I was eating at the bar, and the knowledgeable waiter was, in fact, the bartender.
Note: Frontera Grill (and Topolobampo) will reopen from annual vacation on Jan. 11.
Recommended: Ceviche de calamari, sea scallops in red peanut mole, pistachio flan.
Open: Dinner and lunch Tue.-Sat.
Entree prices: $14.95-$24.95
Reservations: Same-day accepted.
Last Vettel rating: (star)(star)(star) on Oct. 16, 1992
