J is for: Javier’s and Jalapeño-infused tequila {Dallas Restaurant Review}

I’m in Dallas for work this week covering the Baseball Winter Meetings. Mostly this involves me sitting around a hotel lobby stalking people and hoping news will happen in front of me. Riveting stuff. Although not particularly difficult, it’s time consuming and allows little chance for leaving the hotel to explore the local eats. Fortunately, we had a little time to do this on Sunday night.

But before I get to what we ate…I need to tell you about the tequila we had AFTER dinner at our hotel bar. They had all sorts of infused spirits available that are made in-house. The one that intrigued me most was a grilled pineapple and jalapeño tequila. The bartender was nice enough to allow me to try it and explained to me how it’s made.

They literally grill up some pineapple and jalapeños, and pop them into a bottle with either gold or reposado tequila. She said the flavor only takes about 4-5 days to start taking effect, but sometimes they will leave it in there up to a week or two. The result? A tequila with a smoky hint of fruit and a spicy aftertaste. No limes or salt needed. I just might have to try infusing something myself!

Onto the food. Usually on work trips, I’m the one in charge of finding a good restaurant in the area to check out if time allows. This task becomes a little more difficult with the blog, as I’m restricted to stick with the letter of the week. Fortunately, I found Javier’s Gourmet Mexicano just a few miles from our hotel, which receives high marks on Yelp.

Since it was REALLY dark in the dining room, the photos didn’t turn out so great, so I will only share a few of them with you, but I will say that all three of us enjoyed our dishes, which all involved some sort of steak. I ordered the Filete Cantinflas, pictured above. I wish I had snapped one AFTER I cut into it. The only way I can describe it is a hot pocket of steak and cheese but instead of the bread, it was meat enveloping the melty Chihuahua cheese and butter. No joke. I don’t know how they accomplished this, but it’s delicious. It was also topped with a mild chile mulatto sauce and a side of rice and beans.

As an appetizer, we got this cheese panela. Honestly, I thought it was going to be some sort of queso dip, but instead it was grilled Monterey cheese with chorizo,  stuffed inside a flour tortilla, all prepared tableside. Now, there was NO mention on the menu of peppers being involved in this, and as you know…I HATE bell peppers. I spent the next five minutes fishing them out of my little burrito/quesadilla thing. Aside from that, it was tasty…though I still would’ve preferred some queso. 🙂

And finally, for dessert….tres leches cake. A very traditional Mexican dessert made with…you guessed it…three types of milks…and some rum. It was super moist and creamy and my co-worker Rob and I devoured the entire slice in about two minutes flat and then proceeded to talk about how fat we felt the rest of the night. That’s usually a sign of a good dinner. Now if I can just find a BBQ place open when I get off work tonight, I’ll be set!