Go West, Young La Siesta

It turns out La Siesta is not so much closing as relocating farther down the road to somewhere near where 288 intersects with Midlothian, or so said our waiter today when we went to the restaurant to pay what we thought were our final respects. He said the place was so slammed Friday night, they ran out of food. Saturday at lunch was crowded, but we got what we wanted and the sangria was particularly tasty. There was an email sign-up sheet at the register so all the loyal customers would get word when La Siesta reopened again far to the west. For some reason this part of the story was not told to the Times-Dispatch.

Is urban blight creeping so far up Midlothian that businesses are now abandoning the Powhite interchange area and moving west of Midlothian village? It appears so. We just don't want to say that out loud, in case Chesterfield County becomes alarmed that the part of it that snuggles up to blighted Richmond has caught the blight. And without even a GRTC bus to blame!

Around 1983, I built a "solar house" off Providence Road on the Southside. There were three solar neighborhoods: the solar slum off Court House, where the houses were priced in the 40,000s, the middle solar off Providence where I built (50,000s) and the fancy solars off Arch Road (60,000s.) We got a big tax credit for this house the first year. Everything solar-related was deductible. In our case, most of the walls facing south were actually big plastic tanks of water, and other than all our big windows being on the south side of the house, that was the only solar thing about it.

Anyway, we were in the Southside, and La Siesta opened there and it was my favorite Mexican restaurant. I always ordered the Enchilada Suizas. I seldom tried anything else on the menu. When I got a divorce and moved to Carytown, and then on with my life, it was still the only restaurant on the Southside I liked. Of any kind. My husband can eat at any Mexican restaurant and be happy, but I only found satisfaction at La Siesta, although after I found out this particularly creepy Goth boy I knew was cooking there, I didn't go as often. And then there was the green onion scare, and when it was over, the green onions never returned to the Enchilada Suizas. What made that dish, beside the mild white sauce, was the sprinkling of tomato bits and chopped green onions.

Lean Cuisine makes an Enchilada Suiza which is kind of good, but not as good as La Siesta's back in the day when green onions didn't poison you. I am on my own now, forced to replicate the Enchilada Suiza at home, which I can in all ways except the suiza sauce, although I suspect it may be the same white stuff they give you with your chips in addition to the salsa. If so, that will make life easier since I read in the T-D that La Siesta sells their chip dips at Ukrop's. I've never seen them, but now I will look. This will either work or be a culinary disaster.