Day nine of the Taste of Hartford brought my loyal companion and me to La Casona.
I had been curious about this Colombian restaurant for some time, but I had never gotten around to trying it.
Entering this Latin eatery, I found a large bar area to the right,
a large dance floor straight back,
and the main dining room to the left.
The décor was enhanced with Latin American decorations
and artwork.
La Casona’s Restaurant Week menu included a choice of three appetizers, four entrées and two desserts. But the first order of business was getting my fist around a bottle of beer. I began with an Aguila beer from Colombia, which I hadn’t previously tried, then moved to a Cristal beer from Peru, which I had.
Beer was the ideal accompaniment to patacón Casona, a big coin of crisp unripe plantain accompanied by a flavorful mix of diced beef, onion and red bell pepper.
We also appreciated La Casona’s Colombian-style beef and chicken empanadas, both of which were wrapped in corn dough and deep-fried.
Forgive the self-indulgent aside, but I consider myself an empanada expert, having cooked countless empanadas myself, having sampled many different styles of empanadas on three continents, having tracked down the best empanadas in New York’s five boroughs, having helped a respected Bronx bakery develop an empanada dough recipe, and having been the Director of Quality Control & Product Development for Empanada Joe’s, a high-quality, fast-food chain that sadly didn’t survive the recent economic downturn. Here you see the line for our empanadas in Chelsea
and here you see some attractive young ladies enjoying our empanadas,
While I’m particularly partial to flaky, baked Argentinean-style empanadas,
I enjoyed La Casona’s Colombian-style pastries with a really chilly beer and a feisty hot sauce.
Before long, our main course was ready. Here you see two charming Peruvian waitresses bringing out the main dishes we ordered:
Here’s a close-up of the paella, which was teeming with mussels, shrimp, calamari, chicken and chorizo,
and here’s the churrasco Argentino, a rib-eye steak served with mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, a mushroom sauce and a garlicky chimichurri sauce.
Thanks to the munificence of La Casona owner Marcelo Leone (left) and manager Fernando Sotomayor,
we were also able to try the other two entrées from their Taste of Hartford menu. Here you see the pollo tropical, chicken breast in a cherry reduction with portobello, mixed vegetables, mashed sweet potato and mashed sweet plantain.
We also sampled salmon in a mushroom cream sauce with perfectly cooked sweet plantain.
Finally, we wrapped up a hearty meal with the desserts. My companion enjoyed a chocolate torte layered with chocolate mousse and topped with crème fraîche,
while I savored a peach-flavored flan.
You can see that we weren’t the only ones enjoying the special Taste of Hartford menu.
However, it became apparent that, coming on a Tuesday night, we didn’t capture the full flavor of La Casona. The restaurant apparently offers dancing on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, drawing hundreds of enthusiastic revelers. So when I spotted a flyer for “Latin Seduction Fridays,” I made plans to return with my wife to take the pulse of the late evening entertainment.
And return I did. I found La Casona transformed, the bar area full of people watching the 15-innings Yankees win over the Red Sox,
the dining area converted into a cave devoted to contemporary dancing,
and the dance floor taken over by salsa devotees.
It was great fun watching the various pairs putting their salsa lessons to good use.
With so many pretty gals in need of a partner, my best advice to my male counterparts is “Get out there and take some salsa lessons!”
La Casona, 681 Wethersfield Avenue, Hartford, 860-296-9929