Mexican Food in The Santa Cruz Mountains

Don Quixote’s Mexican Restaurant – Felton
O.K. So, I moved here from San Francisco. I am very, very into food. I plan my travel around restaurants and spend far too long pondering options and ingredients when cooking. I guess I knew what I was getting into when deciding to move to the Santa Cruz Mountains. Not many options for high-end restaurants. Guess it depends on expectations as well…
Don Quixote’s, Felton? Looks like a dive bar with a sprawling restaurant attached and a venue for live music tossed in there for good measure. The first time Dianthe and I rolled over there on our bicycles there was some motorcycle club’s poker run taking place in the bar. So, a solid cluster of Harley’s and thuggish dudes milling about the bar. A nice older lady told us to sit “any place” we liked. We liked that. There were a good number of empty tables to choose from. A bad sign? A sign of the times? Not sure. Still, we sat and ordered cold bottles of Pacifico on the hot summer day.
Wound up getting chicken enchilada’s with a beef taco and a side of rice and beans. It was pretty average, but no real complaints. Kinda like Mexican fast food at a sit down restaurant. Still, it was not bad. This is what I was talking about earlier with “expectations.” Yes, I like the best food possible and if it were up to me there would be food from every country on earth available here in the woods. There would be more Michelin star restaurants here in the San Lorenzo Valley than in Paris. I would be really happy. Sadly, food here is not something that makes my heart sing. Food here is simply something warm to fill the belly. This is a sad state of affairs. Yep. It is why I sometimes need an escape to New York. Or an escape to Tokyo… Yes.
Still, Don Quixote’s is not bad at all. I have since been there a couple more times and am generally pleased to have a platter of Mexican treats for dinner. Living in the Santa Cruz Mountains is absolutely beautiful, but you really need to “kill it and grill it” as Ted Nugent once said… Otherwise you are at the mercy of some pretty average fare. I did move here to garden and to work out in the hills and in my kitchen. So, sniveling is only because I am being a baby… Oh, and Mexican food around here certainly works in a pinch.