La Flor Bakery & Cafe |
|
| 53-02 Roosevelt Ave. | |
| (corner of 53rd Street) | |
| Woodside, NY 11377 | |
| 718-426-8023 | |
|
Hours:
Mon-Sun: breakfast, lunch, dinner | |
He knows that. So do the owners, Marcos and Maria Carrion.
Do not, I warn you, try to stop them.
What they are doing is more exciting than the same old same old. This is food that combines Ortega's Mexican heritage with some things he learned along the way.
One of Ortega's stops on the road to La Flor was the chic Columbus Bakery in Manhattan. In fact, he is still cooking there. Those scrumptious tarts - fresh fig, plum, pear, lemon curd, linzer tart and more -come straight from there, too. But in Woodside, these seriously great confections cost only $2.50 or so per slice.
La Flor, a bright oasis on a scruffy part of Roosevelt Avenue under the elevated train, has been winsomely decorated with tiles and crockery. The setting as well as the pastries could be in Manhattan. Happily, they aren't. Besides, at most places in Manhattan, you would never be served a scoop of creamy cantaloupe gelato alongside the tart, all for the same price and without so much as a mention on the menu.
You won't find more delicious huevos rancheros-eggs scrambled with a little mild chile, onions and tomatoes, with green and red salsas on the side for more heat if you desire it.
In a bid to appeal to the Woodside pub crowd, there is even a top-notch "Irish breakfast," with eggs, home fries, delicious toast made with bread from the bakery and a homemade sausage patty. And I can't think of another place in the whole borough that offers buttermilk pancakes of this caliber, with fresh, slightly warmed blueberries and other fruit and real maple syrup.
Tortas "cernitas," roasted pork leg with Mexican string cheese, came with wonderful chipotle mayonnaise, on a house-baked sesame roll. Tacos carne enchilada were another heavenly pork combo, this time marinated pork with plenty of zesty cilantro, chile and onions.
Grilled Mexican pizza was dynamite: toothsome chunks of pork, some of that mellow string cheese, all generously strewn with cilantro. We also liked the Italian pizza with homemade fennel sausage. Crusts on both were light and thin.
There are different soups daily, all good, all mostly vegetable. A savory potato-spinach soup fills the big white bowls one day, mushroom-barley or tomato with chick-peas the next. (I didn't have those last two myself, but friends raved about them. They also highly recommend juicy, hand-shaped burgers with homemade French fries, $4.95.)
Specials often do take on a decidedly non-Mexican flair, what with such fare as excellent crab cakes or fresh salmon served atop a crisp spinach-potato pancake.
Baked goods range from Mexican sweet rolls to blueberry muffins, not to mention such tarts as lemon with fresh blueberries.
Mexican or not, everything has a common theme: wonderful.
Reviewed by Sylvia Carter
Sept. 8, 2000
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