Update: As of April 10, Chilte's owners announced that the restaurant will no longer serve weekend brunch.
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When a new spot opens in town, we're eager to check it out, let you know our initial impressions, share a few photos, and dish about some menu items. First Taste, as the name implies, is not a full-blown review, but instead, a peek inside restaurants that have just opened — an occasion to sample a few items and satisfy curiosities (both yours and ours).
It makes sense Chilte’s first brick-and-mortar restaurant is at the recently-reopened Egyptian Motor Hotel, a repurposed midcentury hotel located in the historic Grand Avenue arts district. Both are reincarnations.
In the hotel’s case, it was Las Palmas Inn in its past life, a roadside romp that lured travelers with two rooms for $35. But now, after a trendy, rock ‘n’ roll makeover, what was once the parking lot is now home to a bar and the retro-chic rooms have rain shower heads and super-fast Wi-Fi.
The next wave of Chilte is just as palpable. What started in 2020 as a Mexican street food pop-up at Valley farmers’ markets and breweries around town has grown up in both menu and concept. Owners and fiancees Lawrence Smith and Aseret Arroyo have created a playful yet modern space with floor-to-ceiling windows where local art is prominent.
Eyes bounce from a vivid painting of a stunning luchadora smoking a cigarette to velvety burnt orange couches plied with geometric pillows. An embellished wall is filled with gilded frames and cactus art which dance around a flashy “Me Vale Madre” sign, which not-so-roughly translates to “I don't give a fuck.”
In a lot of ways, Chilte’s menu doesn’t give a fuck either. The restaurant is an all-day affair that starts with morning coffee and baked goods from local providers like Süss Pastries and Sugarloaf Lane Bakery – think pretty blueberry lime pop tarts and a standout chocolate chip hibiscus cookie. It’s not until dinner when things turn rebellious and Smith and Arroyo’s vision really shines.
Yes, Chilte serves Mexican food and the rotating menu features lots of familiar items including quesadillas, chorizo, mole, tortillas, queso, and tacos – but it’s best to come with an open mind, free of preconceived notions.
Arroyo grew up on Sinaloan food and Smith, who had a short stint with the Indianapolis Colts before going to culinary school, worked at upscale restaurants around the Valley including Elements, Ghost Ranch, and Match. Together, they take diverse Mexican ingredients, like beef cheeks and chapulines or seasoned grasshoppers, and, using both conventional and inventive techniques, create something truly imaginative.
Take the seasonal quesadilla. This isn’t some stuffed tortilla on a plate. Instead, it’s a hand-pressed tortilla marbled with blue and yellow corn that gets packed like a purse with layers of melty and crisped-up cheese and huauzontle, a slightly bitter Mexican herb that adds a bright spinach kick.
It’s showcased on a splattered ceramic plate, framed by pepita and chicharron mole, white crumbles of goat cheese, red chiltepin peppers, and chicatanas, a type of flying ant indigenous to Oaxaca which add a nutty crunch to the meal. The interplay of textures along with the huauzontle’s herby notes and earthy mole turn a kids’ menu staple into a complex, multitiered sight and bite.
The empanada follows the same innovative suit. Neither handheld nor portable, this empanada is sheathed in a black squid ink shell and contains a saucy, cheesy local pork chorizo filling. A knife and fork are mandatory, as is a slather of smoky peanut chile sauce and chipotle crema. It comes with a side salad or escabeche, a mix of pickled jalapenos, carrots, and cauliflower that perfectly round out the plate.
Vegan dishes aren’t afterthoughts. Instead of the usual been-there-done-that jackfruit, mushroom, or tofu iteration, jamaica takes the lead in the vegan birria tacos. The blossoms simmer for hours in an onion, garlic, and chile spice bath until the ingredient is reborn as a tantalizing, tender filler that doesn’t just mimic meat’s texture, it transcends it, hitting your tongue with tart, sweet, and spicy flavors all at once.
The filling is housed inside a dry, ordinary flour tortilla, not the oil-stained, sloppy kind that often wraps birria tacos. So even though the taco comes with deep-flavored consomé for dipping, the overall dish is missing some of the messy fun.
The Pan de Elote Cheesecake, the only dessert on the menu, is another textural surprise, but not in a good way. For cheesecake aficionados who lust for a lush, silky center, this is not it. Inspired by the Mexican corn cake, pureed corn is added along with more flour than usual, so the pseudo-cheesecake’s dense texture can be off-putting at first. Not that it will stop you from digging in, making sure to get whipped cream and spicy berry compote with each bite.
The cocktail menu mirrors the food's playful, bold approach, leaning toward Mexican spirits and ingredients. Margaritas get a spicy shot of chile tincture, the Sazerac shelves cognac for Mexican corn whiskey, and mezcal, sotol, and tequila partner with ingredients like mole bitters, nixtamal (treated corn), and epazote (an aromatic herb grown in Mexico). Late-night eats are in the works, too, an enticement to come back for a double flight of mole and mezcal.
Weekend brunch provides another, and perhaps even better, reason to go to Chilte. For starters, it remains unruined by throngs of people and long wait times, so you can arrive hungry and get your food before hanger sets in. For now, anyway.
The compact menu, which you order at the counter, is more than mimosas and hangover cures, but they have those too.
Order the Big Papa Tacos which are dreamy, deep-fried, and indulgently carby. The serrated knife served with the dish may seem like a bit much for brunch, but it comes in handy when shattering the crispy outsides. Paired with colorful shredded cabbage, pickled onions, black garlic hot sauce, and squiggles of crema, each bite is practically perfect, especially when sprinkled with a little more salt.
Another brunch-time winner is the Schlam Cakes. Steering wheel-sized and grilled to perfection, the fluffy, slightly tangy pancakes come with a zippy strawberry compote, a sandy dusting of corn flour cookie crumbs inspired by traditional Mexican coricos cookies, and nopal whipped cream.
Despite the novelty of cactus in whipped cream – the prickly pear paddle is cured in sugar and salt before it's pureed to add a slight herbal note to the whip – the real difference-maker here is the smoky mezcal syrup made with agave nectar. The spirit punches through the agave for an equal parts smoky and sweet topper. Warning: A little goes a long way.
Eating at Chilte is a joy. With its avant-garde plating and jazzy variations, a thrill of discovery and awestruck appreciation runs through the dining experience. What’s more, Chilte stands out from the crowd, a world-class destination restaurant telling the story of its Mexico-inspired food.
Chilte
765 Grand Avenue602-807-5225
chiltephx.com
Hours:
Open daily 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. for coffee and pastries
Dinner: Wednesday to Saturday 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Brunch: Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
