Visiting My Uncle's Place

A couple of weeks back, I stopped by my uncle's place.  Uncle Julio's Hacienda.  I needed to go back to the old neighborhood to swing by Victoria's Secret to pick up Sass's gift card.  As I was walking by on my way back to the "L", the smell of this restaurant pulled me in.  It was the smell of steak fajitas.  I think they pump it into the air to get you.While a chain, Uncle Julio's isn't that wide spread, so it has the feeling of a upscale local joint, rather than Chi-Chi's.  As you can see, there's plenty of color and neon both inside and out. But the decor is not the start of the show.  The food and drink are.

The first item to come out was my margarita.  It's called a "swirl" because it's layers of regular frozen and frozen strawberry margaritas.  It is their signature drink.

For a reason.

Man is it good.

While it goes down smoooooth, I stuck to only one.  But man, a second one would have been awesome.

The chips and salsa come out next.

The salsa is nice and spicy, but I wish it was a little thicker.

But the chips?  Oh, my, the chips.  They are the thinnest little wafers of corn and grease and salt that you have ever had the pleasure of tasting.  They are simply divine. Then comes the fajitas.   Sizzling seasoned steak, rice, beans, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, tomatoes, lettuce, and grilled onions.  Yummy.  But what's hiding under that napkin?  Fresh made, soft, flour tortillas.  They are made on "The Machine", which, if you ask any kid under 14 or man over 30, is the best thing in the joint. An automated tortilla maker.  It's like a Rube Goldberg device. Except not.  It isn't over engineer and overly complicated.  In fact, it is simple in it's complexity.  Elegant in it's cogs and wheels, and spinning bits.

Lumps of dough goes in, gets flattened, cooked, flipped, cooked, flipped, and then conveyed into a basket.  And if you ask nice, they may give you a wad of dough to play with.

Uncle Julio, has never done me wrong yet.