Review: El Rancho in Colonie pairs Oaxacan flair with familiar Mexican
The Oaxcan parrillada, or mixed grill, at El Rancho Bar & Grill. Intended for two but easily enough for four after shared appetizers, it includes beef, pork, Mexican chorizo, chicken, chicharrones (fried pork skin), Oaxacan cheese, grilled jalapeno and onion, nopales (edible pads of the prickly pear cactus), open-faced tortillas called sopes and guacamole. (Steve Barnes/Times Union)
El Rancho Bar & Grill, open since March 1 in the former TJ's Cafe A-frame building on Central Avenue in Colonie, shares multiple menu items with its elder sibling, Viva Cinco de Mayo in Albany's Upper Madison neighborhood. At both, you can find Mexican staples, among them tacos and tlayudas, quesadillas and fajitas, chicken mole and several cuts of steak, variations of the still-having-its-moment birria and about six preparations of shrimp. And yes, both have churros for dessert.
El Rancho Bar & Grill opened March 1, replacing the short-lived Asian-fusion concept Hey Chef. (Steve Barnes/Times Union)
But while El Rancho offers the warm atmosphere, friendly service and unfussy but accomplished cooking of Viva Cinco de Mayo, it has a more adventurous and varied menu, created by the head chef, Guillermo Garcia. That's because the restaurant's culinary core is informed by the traditions of the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, which boasts the country's most diverse cuisine and is home to Garcia's ancestors.
Restaurant Review
El Rancho Bar & Grill
Address: 1133 Central Ave., Colonie
Prices: Starters and shareables, $6.99 to $18.99; all-day breakfast, $15 to $16; main plates, $16.99 to $29.99; desserts, $5.99 to $9.99; cocktails and wine by the glass, $11 to $15
Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Saturday, until 8 p.m. Sunday
Etc.: Lot parking. ADA-accessible.
This means you can get a cheese omelet with grasshoppers, which tented the eyebrows of two of my eager dining companions but immediately caused the third to say, "I'm not eating that." El Rancho's all-day breakfast menu includes egg plates with rice and four kinds of omelets. Three have vegetables and cheese. The fourth, called the Viva Oaxaca, pairs Oaxacan cheese with chapulines. A type of grasshopper that is usually fried or roasted and dosed with salt and chile spices, chapulines are a popular bar snack in Oaxaca. Unexpectedly, they've also been a concession-stand hit since 2017 at the Seattle Mariners' home field, T-Mobile Park. At El Rancho, chapulines are available in the omelet, as a side order and a cocktail garnish. Customers in the know ask for them to be muddled in margaritas, too.
If you like crunch in your omelet and aren't revolted by the sight of insect bits, including what are obviously segments of spiky legs, amid the oozing cheese after you cut into the well-made omelet, order it, and enjoy the side of crisp, coated fries. Treat the dish like a shareable starter, though: You'll want to save room for other specialties.
A high-protein, low-calorie bar snack, chapulines also add a crunchy contrast to Oaxacan cheese in an omelet at El Rancho. (Steve Barnes/Times Union)
Principal among them is a mixed grill called Parrillada Oaxaquena. Presented on a wide platter atop a pedestal, the dish induces grins when it arrives, a visual and olfactory clamor of beef, chicken, pork, Mexican chorizo, jalapeno, small onions and nopales, or cactus pads, all grilled. It's further loaded up with two sopes slathered with refried black beans and cotija, and guacamole and corn tortillas on the side, should you want to stuff a riot of flavor into one wrapper.
Priced at $45.99, the parrillada ostensibly serves two people, but four of us, after two starters and a birria quesadilla for the youngest member, grazed from it abundantly and still had enough to fill several take-home containers.
The parrillada is among the most popular of El Rancho's Oaxacan items, according to Itzel Merino-Lopez, the restaurant's general manager and daughter of owners Vincente Merino-Martinez and Isidra Lopez-Merino. The family wanted another restaurant in part to introduce more Oaxacan fare, she said, and also to offer cocktails and spirits. (Due to Viva Cinco de Mayo's proximity to a church, it is legally limited to serving only beer and wine.)
Diners looking for locally less-common dishes can prowl through Garcia's expansive menu, which runs to about 80 items, for options including red snapper, available fried whole or in a spicy seafood soup; chile-spiked aguachile or gentler ceviche; and the thick, griddled masa cake called memelita, layered with pork lard, black bean sauce, spicy red and green sauces and protein of choice. Chorizo with a fried egg seems like the right way to go.
Another dish we didn't know we wanted - or, really, that it even existed prior to seeing it on the menu when El Rancho opened - is a seafood au gratin served in a hollowed pineapple half. Called pina huatulco and named after an Oaxacan coastal tourist destination, the entree features fish, octopus, shrimp, peppers and onions in a creamy sauce topped by cheese, then broiled and served in its tropical boat, frilly green prow still intact. I want to call it a silly dish, perhaps even an Amer-French abomination, but with pineapple juice accentuating the natural sweetness of the seafood, it makes for a delightful few bites. Would you want the whole thing? Of course not. There's still a birria quesadilla to dunk, chomp and take a swig from the consommé cup for good measure.
A birria quesadilla is among the popular dishes on the large menu at El Rancho. (Steve Barnes/Times Union)
I doubt El Rancho will peel away devotees of Oaxaquena Triqui, which has been winning converts since it debuted in 2016 as a few cafe tables in the back of a Mexican market on North Lake Avenue in Albany. Now in a larger space, a couple of blocks from the original and still on North Lake, Oaxaquena Triqui is a simpler place - more authentic to its roots, perhaps, but lacking, among other things, the festive atmosphere and design flair of El Rancho and a liquor license.
Just as there was plenty of room for growth in the local scene for Sichuan fare, with options now including Shining Rainbow and Northeast Chinese II in Albany and Shu Chinese Restaurant Guilderland, more good Oaxacan is better. It allows the creation of meals, as happened at my table, during which a college-age brother can relish a grasshopper omelet while his teen sister has a birria quesadilla before they share churros with ice cream for dessert.
