Good (but not great) means that we don't have to forage far for food, don't have to wait, and don't have to look at the menu since we usually get the same damn thing every damn time (and there's nothing wrong with that!).

We were expecting a sit-down restaurant, but it’s really, in its current form, a bar and coffee house with food slung up by a Ranch Hand trailer out back. Further complicating matters is that this is really a hotel bar or, more accurately, a hostel bar associated with Native Experiential Hostels. But don’t let these little facts dampen your plans: Native is a hip place that oozes with interesting people, great drinks, and decent eats.

Whether you call it the Iliad and Odyssey of taco quests, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn down a river of salsas, or the Heart of Darkness (and High Cholesterol), you will find inspiration, delightfully head-scratching fusion, and, perhaps, the taco of your dreams.

One of the golden rules of restaurant reviewing is not to evaluate an eatery during its opening weeks. There are always bugs (hopefully not literal…) to cleaver as new staff learns new processes with new clientele. Nonetheless, we stopped into District Kitchen+Cocktails mere days after they debuted in the hope that, since this ain’t their first buffalo burger, they know what they’re doing. We were not disappointed.

The catfish was perfectly prepared: crunchy on the outside and soft and warm on the inside. We also enjoyed the Cajun corn delivered in a bag of sauce of your chosen pain level and flavor profile.

My first plate at El Bruno’s, at their original location in Cuba, New Mexico, some 20 years ago, is on my list of top-ten memorable meals.

The salsa is blissfully blisteringly spicy, and the squirter is an efficient way to dress your chow.