Open almost a year at the corner of Schatzell and Mesquite streets, this cafe is a solid addition to the downtown dining scene. You may remember the corner location as the site of the old Schlotzsky's, which has since moved up Leopard Street. No other business has seemed to take hold there, although Don Pedro's is giving it a good try.
This business's mainstay is the breakfast and lunch menu that offers a wide variety of egg plates and taquitos from 8 a.m.-11 a.m. and about a dozen Mexican food plates for the lunch crowd.
At a recent lunch, we easily found a table and scanned the room to see what the new owners had done with the place.
The walls have been painted a robin's-egg blue with pale yellow to complete the easy-going feel. The window decorations are a bit off-beat, with streams of pale yellow cotton cloth weaved around tree branches, forming an eye-catching valance.
Artificial flowers attempt to dress up the tables, which are void of any other decoration.
Our waitress brought a plastic basket of thicker-than-normal yet crispy tortilla chips and a good, spicy hot sauce. The lunch menu has the standard fare -- enchiladas, quesadillas, tacos and tostados -- along with American offerings such as chicken-fried steak and chicken-fried chicken, grilled chicken breast and hamburgers.
We opted for the beef fajitas and loved the dish's presentation -- thin strips of beef and grilled onions laid in a bed of green lettuce, with a salad of lettuce, tomatoes and red cabbage on the side. The guacamole was a bit too lemony, and the rice was mushy, yet tasted good.
A companion's cheese enchiladas were a bit bland, but the refried beans were smooth and flavorful.
Worth noting are the salads -- including chicken fajita, grilled chicken and fried shrimp salads -- which should ensure that everyone in the crowd is likely to find something they want to eat.
To help their chances of succeeding in a part of town already home to several other well-established Mexican food restaurants, the owners of Don Pedro's are trying a late-night menu on Fridays and Saturdays. With tacos, nachos, menudo and dollar sodas, Don Pedro's is catering to the growing number of club-hoppers needing something solid in their stomachs before heading home.
They're sure to find it in this pastel-colored eatery, among the red cabbage and dark green lettuce.
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