Cozumel Restaurant Magnum Opus Updated

[Frank Storms]

I think the breakfast at CM is 162 pesos if you are not staying in
one of their hotels.

 

[Trailboss123]

That's a good option. I stayed at Suites Bahía the last time I was in Cozumel for a week (December 2014) and we did breakfast at Casa Mexicana because it was included with our hotel stay. We were never unhappy with them.

If I remember correctly, though, I think it was about $150MXN if you aren't staying with them, right?

You know what? -- I think you are correct-- I was messing up the exchange rate in my head. It came out to $8-$10 US, if I remember correctly.

 

[mstevens]

Equal parts tequila, cointreau, lime juice, and simple syrup would be undrinkably sweet. When I make them at home, it's 2:1:1 T:L:C, with no sugar because cointreau is pretty sweet on it's own.

You misread. It's 1:1:1:1 of tequila, Controy, lime juice, and simple syrup. I have talked to many bartenders both as a customer and in classes, and that is the most common ratio used in Cozumel. It is nothing at all like any recipe we used when I bartended in college and medical school, and I had trouble believing it at first. However, this duplicates the margarita at Mezcalitos, which I was otherwise unable to copy.

Controy is considerably less sweet than Cointreau and has more of a bitter citrus peel flavor. When I'm forced to use Cointreau, I use a 2:2:3 ratio and omit simple syrup altogether. Controy goes bad fast at room temperature, so unless you make a lot of margaritas it should be stored in the fridge. Patron Citronge used literally to be Controy (and the bottle was a Controy bottle right down to the brand imprinted in the glass, but with a different label and stopper). It's no longer re-labeled Controy, but it's still closer to the right triple sec than Cointreau is.

Lime should be a very pronounced part of a margarita, so using half as much lime juice as tequila makes a margarita much like you'd find in the US but not like the ones served in many Cozumel bars and restaurants.

Edit: serving a margarita as made above without adding considerable water either from blending with ice or shaking thoroughly with ice then pouring over rocks would be awful.

I'm feeling a strong pull towards Corazón Contento for that first breakfast. Who doesn't want to start their first dive with a happy heart? From Google street view, it looks like they advertise a nice breakfast special of chilaquiles, huevos, frijoles, pan, etc. for $64MXN. Are they usually pretty quick there? I'm just wondering how much time to budget since I don't want to be late, but I also don't want to be sitting around waiting to board the dive boat for too long. Thanks!

We go there for pre-dive breakfasts often. They have things that are much better than the special, though. Service is quick, but sometimes it's full and you may have to wait for a table. We leave the house an hour before we're supposed to meet the boat. That lets us get to any restaurant we'd visit before diving, eat, and get to the caleta or FONATUR marina on-time.

Also, does La Perlita still do 2-for-1 lion fish on Thursdays? I've heard both yes and no.

They did a few weeks ago. The deal has changed, though. You used literally to get two of what you ordered, which landed some people with enough food for a brigade. For years we ordered half of what we wanted and came out fine. Recently they changed to the much more practical half-price. The waiter warned us last visit because he could tell we were doing that.

They don't, though, have the 2:1 lionfish when they run out of lionfish, which happens fairly often. In a way, then, both "yes" and "no" could be correct.

If I can make a friend while I'm there, that pineapple coconut (or whatever it was) breaded pez de león with the mayan name is calling me from 2000 miles away already.

Xcalacoco. It's "breaded" with shredded coconut. Order it with mango sauce, which will be brought on the side, but usually won't be supplied unless you ask for it. Since the recent change, you should be able to take advantage of the deal even if you can't find a friend. You should also consider getting the amazing lionfish ceviche. Don't get the large unless you have a massive capacity for ceviche.

 

[kmarks]

You misread. It's 1:1:1:1 of tequila, Controy, lime juice, and simple syrup. I have talked to many bartenders both as a customer and in classes, and that is the most common ratio used in Cozumel. It is nothing at all like any recipe we used when I bartended in college and medical school, and I had trouble believing it at first. However, this duplicates the margarita at Mezcalitos, which I was otherwise unable to copy.

Controy is considerably less sweet than Cointreau and has more of a bitter citrus peel flavor. When I'm forced to use Cointreau, I use a 2:2:3 ratio and omit simple syrup altogether. Controy goes bad fast at room temperature, so unless you make a lot of margaritas it should be stored in the fridge. Patron Citronge used literally to be Controy (and the bottle was a Controy bottle right down to the brand imprinted in the glass, but with a different label and stopper). It's no longer re-labeled Controy, but it's still closer to the right triple sec than Cointreau is.

Lime should be a very pronounced part of a margarita, so using half as much lime juice as tequila makes a margarita much like you'd find in the US but not like the ones served in many Cozumel bars and restaurants.

Edit: serving a margarita as made above without adding considerable water either from blending with ice or shaking thoroughly with ice then pouring over rocks would be awful.



We go there for pre-dive breakfasts often. They have things that are much better than the special, though. Service is quick, but sometimes it's full and you may have to wait for a table. We leave the house an hour before we're supposed to meet the boat. That lets us get to any restaurant we'd visit before diving, eat, and get to the caleta or FONATUR marina on-time.



They did a few weeks ago. The deal has changed, though. You used literally to get two of what you ordered, which landed some people with enough food for a brigade. For years we ordered half of what we wanted and came out fine. Recently they changed to the much more practical half-price. The waiter warned us last visit because he could tell we were doing that.

They don't, though, have the 2:1 lionfish when they run out of lionfish, which happens fairly often. In a way, then, both "yes" and "no" could be correct.



Xcalacoco. It's "breaded" with shredded coconut. Order it with mango sauce, which will be brought on the side, but usually won't be supplied unless you ask for it. Since the recent change, you should be able to take advantage of the deal even if you can't find a friend. You should also consider getting the amazing lionfish ceviche. Don't get the large unless you have a massive capacity for ceviche.

Wow, thanks for the very informative response. Almost as thorough as your restaurant list.

I had never even heard of Controy before and (wrongly) assumed that was a weird typo or autocorrect. Your description of it as being less sweet and more bitter citrus makes sense that you would need the extra equivalent of sweetness. Either 1:1:1:1 as you described or 2:1:1 like I make them at home, it's 25% lime juice, so I think that the biggest difference is just that I use more tequila and have the different flavor profile of Cointreau vs. Controy. I've had margaritas at four or five different restaurants on the island, including Money Bar and Thirsty Cougar, as well as a few I don't remember but I never realized the recipe was pretty standardized.

It makes sense that they don't have 2-for-1 when they don't have any. I do like half price much more than 2-for-1. My wife and I got the a la plancha and the xcalacoco, which came with mango sauce, in December of 2014 (last time we were there) and ended up with way too much food. We didn't have the ceviche, so I'm interested to try that, but I don't typically have a massive capacity for anything.

 

[ggunn]

I just want to put in that the coconut lionfish at La Perlita is my favorite dish on the island. I want some NOW!

 

[mstevens]

I just want to put in that the coconut lionfish at La Perlita is my favorite dish on the island. I want some NOW!

We all do, ggunn. We all do.

 

[WetInPortland]

Thanks for this list! I've bookmarked it for future reference.

... Much the same goes for margaritas - there's a common Cozumel recipe (1:1:1:1 for tequila, Controy, lime juice, and simple syrup) that's hard to mess up. ...

Thanks - this explains why they always taste sweet, weak, and watered down. A proper cocktail is a double, so even if the establishment only serves a single, the above ratio is unusual. My ratio is

2 : 0.5 : 1 : 0.6 (I prefer mine more tart than sweet, but it's easy to adjust to individual preferences) with a topper of about 0.1 Gran Marnier. And if I'm being very creative, I'll add 3-4 drops of vanilla extract before mixing.

A decent Reposado is also highly recommended. Cheaper tequilas probably benefit from the heavy pour of Controy, which is cheap, and simple syrup.

 

[El Graduado]

Great job on your restaurant guide! However, you know me and I can’t help but add a slight historical slant to things. So, here are a few observations on some of the locations:

Antojitos Doña Pili

The “somewhat odd beehive-shaped building” is one of the remaining examples of the Fiberglas prefab buildings made in Mexico in the 1970s. In 1970, Architect Raúl Alcalá held an exhibition of these modular buildings in the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City, then got a commission to build two hotels with them, the Hotel Bahía in Isla Mujeres and the Man Sel Ha in Cozumel. The Man Sel Ha and was located just to the north of the Sol Caribe (now the Park Royal).

El Palomar

Although there was a house built in 1903 where the Palomar now stands, what you see today is not that house. The original, two-story, all-wooden building was destroyed completely, down to its foundation, during the 130mph hurricane Charlie that struck Cozumel in 1951. A new house was built on the foundation by Dr. Henry Leroy Bockus of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who used it for family vacations. When the house was rebuilt after hurricane Charlie, only the second floor was made of wood; the first floor was built with mampostería stone work covered in plaster. In 2005, Wilma completely destroyed this second floor and it was rebuilt to be the second floor that you see on the house today. Below: A photo of the house after losing its second floor in Wilma.

El Super Hit

Used to be one of my favs back in the 1970s-80s, when it was just a small cochinita stand by the entrance to the ballpark. The Cozumel Directory made a really screwed-up ad for them about ten years ago:

Their ad reminded me of another Cozumel restaurant that was torn down recently that had this on the menu:

More in next post....

 

[El Graduado]

Buccanos

On the north end beach at Buccanos, you will see a cement monument with a long inscription. The text on the monument is the reputed “Discourse of Cortes,” the speech Hernan Cortés was supposed to have given to his men while they were on Cozumel in 1519. “The Discourse of Cortes” first appeared in Historia de la conquista de la Mexico written by Antonio de Solís in 1684, 165 years after the fact. It is this fabricated text of Solís that appears on the monument. The monument was erected by Fernando Barbachano to enhance his Hotel Cozumel Caribe, now a derilict building, except for the old lobby and restaurant that has been rebranded Buccanos. Below is a photo of Fernando and Jackie Onassis at the monument when she came to Cozumel in 1973.

Pancho's Backyard

Although this building looks old, it was built by Pancho and Sharon Morales after the old Hotel Isleño was torn down. The Hotel Iseleño, in turn, had been built over the remains of the old chicle warehouse where all the chicle was stored before it went to the US to be made into chewing gum. Below is the old Hotel Caribe Isleño:

Below is the old chicle warehouse. You can see the old Palomar House (pre-Hurricane Charlie) in the background:

Guidos
Guidos was originally named Pizza Rolandi’s. What happened was, two partners (Muller and Rolandi) opened it as a pizza shop in Cozumel in 1977. I remember them arguing all the time during construction. When they built the wood-fired pizza oven, it did not work right at first, resulting in more arguments. Before the restaurant was finished, I used to hang out there with a fairly eclectic group and we would have private gatherings there in the mornings for breakfast and for dinner and drinks at night. Somebody would usually bring a guitar. I was actually sad when it finally opened to the public and was no longer our “private club”.

They printed a large poster featuring a colored image of the oven to give away at the opening. When they gave me one, I was going to ask them what an “Original Hoban Woo” was, as it figured prominently in the text. But, I finally figured it out. The H was silent and the b was supposed to be a v. They meant “Oven”. “Woo” was wood, with the d missing. The positions of Oven and Wood were reversed. It was supposed to say, “The Original Wood Oven”. I still have a copy of it in my warehouse.

In 1979, Sandro Muller old out to Guido Villiger and left the island to go build and operate another restaurant Rolandis in Cancun. Villiger and Muller had a handshake deal that Guido Villiger would keep the Rolandi name in Cozumel and Muller would keep it off island. When Guido sold Pizza Rolandi to his daughter, Ivonne, she changed the name to Guidos and another Rolandis was opened farther south on the Malecon at the end of Av. Andres Quintana Roo, not related to Guidos, the original Rolandi's.

 

[mstevens]

A proper cocktail is a double

If, and only if, the customer orders a double.

Otherwise, what do you do if one customer orders a drink and their tablemate says "I'll have the same, but make mine a double?"

If I employ a bartender who gives doubles to customers who don't order them, or the same thing to customers who order doubles as to those who don't, she's getting fired. That's not just because it irritates customers who get the same thing as others who order something different, and not just because it wrecks my spreadsheets, but also because some customers are trying to watch their intake carefully (think diabetics) and need to be served what they ask for.

A great bartender will make drinks that taste great by using the right balance of ingredients to achieve a harmonious whole that's superior to any of its components. A great cocktail isn't just a vehicle for liquor. A truly great cocktail is its own unmatchable creation of which liquor is one of a number of equally irreplaceable parts. Doubling the booze without doubling the other ingredients will result in a drink that bartender would probably not want her name associated with.

A margarita is not supposed to be a strong drink in which the flavor of the spirits predominates as in a martini or old fashioned. The history of the drink, as a refreshing, quaffable beverage for visiting Americans, and its relationship to drinks like daisys and daiquiris served in Collins glasses, both put it closer to a highball. It's the sort of thing of which one might want to be able to drink several at the beach and still be able to drive home safely, not an after-dinner drink for those who want to put on a bit of a buzz before walking carefully to bed.

Many people, especially Americans, make drinks too strong. Balance and subtlety get lost, and they either can't have many drinks and still function or they get too drunk on what would otherwise be a reasonable number of drinks. Or they're alcoholics. A proper mixed drink ought to have just about the same amount of alcohol as a glass (1/6 of a 750 mL bottle) of wine or "a beer" (typical 33 cL/12 oz bottle or can, less than a shaker pint, pint glass, or nonik glass of draught).

the above ratio is unusual

It certainly is a significantly different ratio from what one would encounter at most US restaurants or bars.

It is the usual ratio in Cozumel, which is why I referred to it as the common Cozumel recipe. It's also why I made a point of that ratio, since it differs significantly from the IBA "7:4:3/shaken" recipe, which is itself different from various house recipes that call for tequila, triple sec, and "sour mix".

Admittedly, margaritas are barely Mexican to begin with so what's typical in Cozumel or anywhere in Mexico doesn't establish what's "authentic" or even "proper". The most popular tequila drink in Mexico, by far, is the paloma. Several of my Mexican friends have never had a margarita.

2 : 0.5 : 1 : 0.6

So actually 20:5:10:6, or pretty nearly 4:1:2:1. (We're talking ratios, not recipes.)

Your drink at 4:1 tequila:triple sec has considerably less triple sec than the IBA 7:4 or Cozumel 1:1, a hint more lime than IBA's 7:3 but half of most Cozumel recipes, and probably close to average simple syrup (which isn't accounted for at all by IBA) and obviously a lot less than Cozumel. Your float of triple sec helps make up for the tiny amount in the drink, but is odd because this is a shaken drink where all the ingredients should be incorporated. You seem to like triple sec and its sweetness enough to want a float but not enough to want much in the body of the drink. It does help tame the overall alcohol content, though.

I prefer mine more tart than sweet, but it's easy to adjust to individual preferences

Your ratio of 2:1 is marginally more tangy than the IBA 7:3. If you prefer yours more tart, why not consider equal amounts of tequila and lime? Also consider that Controy's strong citrus flavor, while not actually acidic, could give you some of what you're missing.

Americans think of lime juice as something to add in small amounts, possibly for the same reason that I often get 2 dry limes for a dollar in New Hampshire. Mexicans buy fresh hand-pressed lime juice by the liter for cheap and go through a lot of it. They use it as a major ingredient or base. Look at the several inches of lime juice in the glass for a chelada, 10-15% of the amount of beer, compared to a squirt from a lime wedge. That's how most Mexican are going to think of a margarita when it comes to lime juice.

I might try adding a hint of vanilla to my next margarita to see what happens. It certainly seems culturally and geographically appropriate. I use a different tiny secret ingredient in my mojitos and daiquiris, each shamelessly stolen from a gifted bartender, so maybe this is the one for margaritas!

A decent Reposado is also highly recommended. Cheaper tequilas probably benefit from the heavy pour of Controy, which is cheap, and simple syrup.

I'm somewhat in agreement. I usually use Corralejo Reposado as my mixing tequila because I'm a fan of Corralejo's house style and because it lacks the characteristics that I see as faults when mixed. Some reposado tequilas aren't assertive enough or have the wrong complex notes for a margarita of the kind I want to enjoy poolside by the pitcherful.

"Cheap" and "joven" aren't synonyms. Every great tequila house makes great joven, reposado, and añejo tequilas for different purposes. Excellent joven can be significantly more expensive than mediocre reposado. For my tastes, Corralejo Reposado is better mixed than most jovenes, but I find many other reposados too boring when mixed (or sipped - the only thing I use my Corralejo Reposado for is mixing, and sip only añejos).

Joven is more assertive or even brash than longer-aged tequilas, but that is sometimes needed to allow the flavor of tequila to shine along with the mixers that make a memorable margarita. It's not that mixers mask the faults of spirits - they're what make a mixed drink what it is.

It isn't merely that the subtlety and balance of some reposados might be too muted in a margarita or paloma. In some cases, pricey tequila houses sell reposado that's intended to share some characteristics of their añejo at a lower price that still have some of the smoky, oaky, or other flavors that end up being faults in a margarita. In those cases, I think you're better off using joven to mix (and skipping the reposado and sipping añejo). Think of rum: what sort of monster would use a lovingly-aged añejo in a mojito where its magical properties would be lost while simultaneously ruining an otherwise good drink, when a great white rum such as Havana Club 3 Años would make the drink as a whole shine?

I like Controy, so the fact that it's cheaper (in Mexico - it's expensive to get in NH) is a bonus. Patron Citronge used to be relabeled Controy (originally in bottles with "Controy" molded into the glass) and is still hardly distinguishable so is what I use when I can't get Controy. I've done side-by-side blind tastings of a range of triple secs including Controy, Cointreau, and Gran Marnier both mixed and straight. I'd probably do Cointreau straight if I had to choose one, but sipping triple sec isn't something I'm ever going to do. I prefer Controy's more assertive flavors for mixing.

Fancy tequila is much more an American thing than a Mexican one. In most parts of the country, Mexicans don't drink that much tequila compared to other spirits. If middle-class Mexicans want to put on a buzz, in most places they'll go for Scotch, followed by rum. Check out all the gift bottles of Ballantine's in the stores right now - that's the sort of booze most Mexicans would give or hope for as a present.

Drink what you like, but I invite you to be open to a different vision of a margarita as a light, refreshing, hot-weather drink that's tart and a bit sweet, balanced, and not boozy. Consider a "Cozumel 1:1:1:1 margarita" as filling the same role as an ice-cold Mexican lager while rinsing your gear under the palm trees on a hot afternoon after a morning of diving that's the focus of excited conversation, even if under different circumstances you tend to love dark, rich, complex beers that deserve contemplation and are themselves the topic of discussion.

It is also just conceivable that I might think about this stuff way too much.