Weekends in the Design District have always been quiet along Riveredge Drive. That changes a little this Saturday. Puerto Cocina, the Baja-leaning seafood restaurant from Gerardo Barrera and Mauricio Gallegos, has started serving brunch, and it has added a weekday happy hour built around one-bite seafood plates and a cocktail to go with each.
If those names ring a bell, it’s because Barrera and Gallegos are the pair behind Xamán Café and Ayahuasca Cantina in Oak Cliff. Puerto opened last December on the ground floor of a new office building at 155 Riveredge Dr., with a menu developed alongside chef Anastacia Quiñones-Pittman and her Oh Hi! Hospitality partners. The cooking takes its cues from Valle de Guadalupe, the wine country just inland from Ensenada, which means a raw bar, crudos and tiraditos, house-made masa and a real fondness for shellfish. Texas Monthly added it to its dining guide earlier this year.
Brunch runs Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Steak & Eggs is grilled bavette over potato hash with over-easy eggs and a smoky salsa tatemada. The Chilaquiles come with your pick of chicken, shrimp or filet, plus Monterey cheese, red or green salsa, pickled red onion, a fried egg and crispy nopales on top.
The sweet side of the menu leans on Mexican pantry staples. Banana Bread French Toast gets a brûléed banana, pastry cream and café de olla syrup, the cinnamon-and-piloncillo coffee flavor anyone who grew up with it will recognize right away. For something lighter, the Chia Seed Pudding layers coconut chia with strawberry jam, matcha, toasted coconut and pepitas.
Much of the regular menu stays available during brunch, which is good news, because that’s where the seafood lives. The Baja Taco is tempura-battered fish with cabbage and serrano confit slaw. The Aguachile de Atún is done negro style, with pearl onions, jicama and candied jamaica. There’s also a Milanesa Torta stacked with chicken milanesa, slaw, jalapeño crema, avocado, chiltepÃn aioli and cotija, and a Burrata Salad with figs, beets and Cara Cara oranges.
Happy hour is Tuesday through Friday from 5 to 7 p.m., and only in the bar lounge. It’s set up as four pairings, each a single bite and a cocktail, for $16 apiece.
The Mussel Aguachile comes as a confit mussel in coconut curry aguachile, poured alongside a spritz of damiana, strawberry and sparkling rosé. The Crab Cake has anchovy aioli and salsa pelirroja, matched with a margarita made with matcha and yuzu. A Butter Braised Scallop with mignonette butter, pasilla and smoked trout roe goes with a guava and mezcal milk punch. The fourth is a masa-crusted Fried Oyster under pistachio salsa macha, paired with a melon Negroni made with Salers aperitif and gin.
If you only have room for one, make it the oyster. Masa and salsa macha on a hot fried oyster is about as Baja as a bite gets.
Walk-ins are welcome, and reservations are on Resy. Puerto Cocina is at 155 Riveredge Dr., Suite 119. Call (214) 272-7243.
