Cafe Poca Cosa, Tucson, AZ

I've just returned from a week in Tucson where I was hard at work in an Intensive Journal Workshop. I can highly recommend the workshop,but my advice would be to visit Tucson in the winter. The temperatures ranged from 99 to 113 degrees during the week. Fortunately, the town is well air conditioned and I learned that the key to survival is to make quick trips from one air conditioned place to another. Hot weather did not, however, prevent my trying some highly recommended restaurants and I wasn't disappointed.

Cafe Poca Cosa is where Chef Suzana Davila plies her trade cooking some of the best Mexican food I have ever had the pleasure to eat. The dining room itself is a large open space with enough room between tables so that you don't feel as if you participating in your neighbor's conversation whether you want to or not. The colors of the dining room are warm brick red walls and a black ceiling. The decor is modern, but not jarring or unpleasantly edgy.

We began with margaritas and the house's complimentary salsa and chips. The salsa was made with chipotle peppers with flecks of cilantro and hints of coriander and cumin. We couldn't stop eating it. The margarita reminded me that presentation is almost everything. These drinks were as beautiful as they were delicious. We feasted twice--first with our eyes and then with our taste buds.

The menu is presented on a blackboard and our server enthusiastically explained each of the items on it. And they needed explanation. This is not your typical fajita and burrito kind of place.

Neither Sue Ellen, my dining and traveling companion on this trip,nor I could make up our minds. We both ordered the Plata Poca Cosa. Each plate contains three items from the menu and every plate is different.

This is Sue Ellen's plate with tamale enrobed in a beet sauce, Pollo Mole Amarillo (almonds and sesame seeds) and Carne in a chipotle and plum sauce.

This is my plate with pollo chile colorado, Carne Asada with green peppers, onions and roasted tomatoes and a Tamale con salsa blanco ( a cheese and white wine sauce).

Each bite was Mexican Food bliss for both of us. Davila's sauces are ethereally light and perfectly balanced. Her mole made me want to hop a plane to Oaxaca. 

Dessert: a chocolate cheese cake served with berries and honest-to-God whipped cream. The cake reminded me of a thick chocolate silk pie with cherries and flecks of orange zest. It was fabulously delicious.

This restaurant was so good that it, alone, could make Tucson a place worth visiting. At $34.00 each, including tip, it is a steal. 

Cafe Poca Cosa

110 East Pennington Street

Tucson, AZ 85701

520-622-6400

www.cafepocacosatucson.com