| rev:text
| - a - re - pa (n.)
1. a corn pancake, sweetened or unsweetened, eaten in Venezuela and Colombia.
2. a life-changing food experience that will have you stuffing your gullet like you're at a Survivor food reward
I had no idea. Like most white guys raised in suburban America the word wasn't even in my lexicon. And I thought I was happy. I was wrong. I entered Barroco as a boy and left as a man.
Tucked into a tiny little house on Madison Avenue, Barroco is single-handedly bringing South American comfort food to the Cleveland masses. As soon as we walked in we were greeted with a smile. The hostess was friendly, how about that? To the left, the kitchen pumped out aromas I had never experienced. How could smells that big come out of a space no bigger than a closet? The front of the house belies what comes next. We walked down a hall, walls littered with scribblings of customers past, to the back room. This is where the true personality lives. Painted walls, nightclub dark, hanging lights, music full of bongos and zzzzt da da zzzzt dum. A tiny two-top table against the wall beckoned us. We sat.
The menu is concise. We were starving. The perfect combination. The stars of Barroco are definitely the arepas - sliced in half and stuffed with spicy combinations of fresh vegetables, meats and cheeses that will have you feeling, if just for a moment, that you're hosting your own Bourdain-esque Travel Channel show, wandering the streets of Bogota, making couch potatoes jealous. We started with the empanadas. Crispy dough shells, sort of like South American pierogi, stuffed with potatoes and shredded beef and deep fried. You get four of them with some guac and salsa verde. A meal on their own or perfect for two.
So what's this about the sauces? When they bring out your food it's accompanied by a carousel of squirt bottle magnificence. The five sauces, spicy peanut, pineapple, chimichurri, garlic and ranchero, should be bottled and sold at every store in Cleveland. I found myself putting them on tortilla chips and eating them on their own. Be forewarned, with the exception of the super-sweet pineapple, the sauces are full of heat so they will get your attention. One recommendation? Label the bottles.
Of course we got arepas. You get a choice of a side and believe me, you are getting plenty of food. The sides, tortilla chips, fries, black bean soup and red bean chili. Let's talk about how it went down:
Arepa Puerca and tortilla chips - The innards, chicharron (pork rinds), beans, chicken and mozzarella. A perfectly spiced textural cumbia. The tender chicken, the stringy mozz it all worked. A slight misstep in execution, the chicharron became rubbery bits, soggy from the rest of the mix. Find a way to keep those crunchy and you've got a hit. The yellow corn tortilla chips were warm and dusted with a spicy powder. Great for sampling all of the squirtable sauces.
Ropa Vieja Arepa and red bean chili- Old clothes? I think not. I was blown away by the flavors crammed inside the flat corn pocket. Shredded beef, potatoes, black beans, rice, roasted red peppers, sweet tomato sauce, Feta and mozz. Spicy, sweet and ridiculously addicting. The red bean chili, topped with white rice and salsa verde was mild and delicious.
I'm typically hesitant to try places with such stellar Yelp ratings. Mostly because I'm really picky and inevitably I wind up disappointed. This place was definitely an exception. The food was amazing and unexpected. Eat this and your brain can't help but create new connections. It's culinary neuroplasticity. Our server was delightful, constantly refilling drinks and always smiling and the atmosphere was festive and cultural without being corny. I get why they've thrived and I will be back - just as soon as my distended belly has had some time to recover.
As an aside, I want to share what I believe to be a moment of brilliant customer service. We had a slight issue with a few of our empanadas, perhaps as a result of the kitchen's want to expedite our eating experience. I brought it to the attention of our server and it was handled with class, humility and expedience. Not only was the dish remade and brought back to our table the entire item was removed from our bill, at their insistence, no questions asked. I was made at once both speechless and a return customer.
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