PGH Dining: Round Corner Cantina

Through the stress of doing temp work and trying to wait patiently for full-time work, sometimes you just need to take a break and cut loose. Back in college, the "work" was more about mid-term tests and 10-page papers, but we would walk the block over from campus to a famous watering hole called Chimy's Cerveceria. This place is a thing of legend among West Texas alumni, and it's a must-visit when I go back. Chimy's is in a converted old house, and serves lots of beer, margaritas and Mexican food made with love. These margaritas aren't just normal tequila-lime-mixer-salt drinks...they're everclear-infused gold that pair well with greasy Mexican food.

Round Corner Cantina was our closest choice to get this stress-relieving party started, like in our Chimy's days. Truth be told, we weren't expecting much. We just wanted cold drinks coupled with salty chips and salsa. We got so much more!

We walked into the front room, which is composed of a long bar with tons of stools. We looked around briefly, and discovered a back room, filled with tables and chairs. 

In the middle of the back room.

We staked our claim, and sat down to a margarita for me, and a PITCHER of beer for Husband. That was his drink for the evening, and I continued to order several items while it was still happy hour. 

Pitcher and Margarita.

 When you're going to order food, Round Corner Cantina gives you chips and salsa for free. ($3.50 value) Nice!

I proceeded to order more drinks, including this lovely sangria, which was more like zooty fruit punch. I drank it down, nonetheless. Yum!

The decor of the back room is fun and festive. Just what you need after looking at a computer screen for 40+ hours. 

 Paper fringe hangs form the ceiling, and Mexican films are projected onto a screen on one wall. 

 Then, we capped off our drink fest with shots of Patron with lime. We were serious about our libations.

 After about 4 delicious drinks in, we decided it was a dire situation and we desperately needed to order food. Husband ordered the tamales con rajas, esquires (street-style corn), tacos de pescado (fish taco), and guacamole for us to share. 

Tamales.

These tamales were stuffed with poblano and chicken, and were served with a sweet tomatillo sauce. The masa and corn husk wrappers were super fresh.

Esquites.

 The street-style corn was served in a earthenware cup, and resembled a creamed corn because it was layered with crema, crumbled cotija cheese, and chopped cilantro. This was Husband's favorite dish.

Tacos de Pescados.

 The fish tacos had slices of radish on the side and a spicy crema on top, adding to the kick in each bite. They were quite a bit of food shoved into two corn tortillas. 

With lime.

And a spicy crema.

 As we finished the last of our drinks, the guacamole hit the spot.* It was slightly chunky, but thankfully didn't feature the cardinal sins of guacamole (tomatoes, black beans, corn, etc.) In our book, adding those ingredients make it a SALSA not a GUACAMOLE. This offering had a lingering spice to each bite because of the residual pepper juice from the sliced jalapeño on top. Lovely!

Guacamole, with sliced fresh jalapeño.

Each dish was seasoned well, and tasted like it should. From Texans who favor Tex-Mex as their comfort food, that's a big compliment.

Husband and I will be visiting Round Corner Cantina as much as we possibly can. It was a perfect match for our nostalgic pining for Chimy's, but still broke out on it's own with the extraordinary food.

*Note: Husband and I live in Lawrenceville, which is where Round Corner is located. Thus, we walked home! Bonus!