A free quart of margaritas? It’s true. Here’s where to find Hatch chile takeout deals
The 2020 Hatch green chile season will be different in many ways.
Takeout shops such as Central Market and Eatzi’s Market & Bakery are already loaded with the usual Hatch dishes from the fresh New Mexico pepper harvest.
But restaurants such as Blue Mesa Grill, celebrating a Hatch Chile Festival for the 25th year, will be packing enchiladas, fajitas and tacos for takeout along with Hatch margaritas to go.
“The only way to succeed in this scenario is to reinvent yourself,” Liz Baron wrote in an email announcing Blue Mesa’s new Hatch dinner special.
From Aug. 7-16, $30 will buy a Hatch taco combo dinner for two people and a quart of pineapple Hatch margaritas.
If you need to feed the fam, there’s also a $55 dinner for four people with the margaritas.
(But I’d pay $60 and get two small combos and two quarts of margaritas.)
Addison-based Blue Mesa’s heyday is always Hatch chile season, when the restaurant’s Southwestern origins are showcased in the Hatch smoked chicken enchiladas.
But in this pandemic, Blue Mesa needs Hatch chile fans more than ever.
The usual parties and events aren’t booking right now, at least not in the same numbers.
“We’ve pivoted and are now trying to create a more robust to-go business, coming up with creative ways to market it,” Baron wrote.
Blue Mesa’s locations at 612 Carroll St. near Montgomery Plaza in Fort Worth, in Addison and in Plano are dealing with lower sales and revenue and higher costs for training, sanitization and packing.
The company renegotiated rents and lined up payroll protection funding. But the Addison location’s salsa dances had to stop, and the former serve-yourself brunch buffet is now an $18 dine-in or takeout enchiladas-and-tacos brunch.
Blue Mesa still has everything that’s made it popular for 32 years, from the sweet-potato chips, chiles rellenos, blue-corn enchiladas and adobe pie to and weekend dishes such as an apple-cranberry French toast casserole.
But it’s had to shift gears in an industry that now relies on phone and online orders and payment, mixed drinks to go and vivid social-media campaigns.
“Our view is we just have to make it until things get better,” Baron wrote.
“If we can bridge to a better time, we believe we will ultimately be able to hire more quality people to staff our restaurants. And in the process of dealing with this adversity, we’re developing better, safer ways for customers to enjoy our restaurants ... We just have to hang on.”
Blue Mesa’s special $30 discount for the Hatch combo with margaritas is only good for a week, through Aug. 16.
After Aug. 16, it’s $50. The Hatch Chile Festival lasts until early September.
Blue Mesa serves lunch and dinner daily, including a Saturday and Sunday brunch; 612 Carroll St., 817-332-6372, bluemesagrill.com.
More hot stops for Hatch chile season
More Hatch chile season deals (although Chuy’s Tex-Mex and Pappasito’s had not announced their Hatch specials at press time):
▪ Central Market stores’ festival continues through Aug. 25, featuring Hatch soups, stews, sauces, dressings and dishes such as Hatch chicken salad, quesadillas, crab cakes and tortillas; centralmarket.com.
▪ Eatzi’s Market & Bakery stores have added a Hatch-maple roast turkey to a menu that includes turkey meatloaf, a sausage-Hatch pizza, a Hatch-corn quiche, chicken salad and more; eatzis.com.
▪ El Fenix Mexican Restaurants in Fort Worth, Arlington, Burleson, Weatherford and the Dallas area will offer Hatch chicken enchiladas or cheese enchiladas with Hatch queso ($10.99). There’s also a chicken burrito; elfenix.com.
▪ Enchiladas Olé, 2418 Forest Park Blvd., serves Hatch brisket enchiladas ($12, or $40 as a family meal for four people). There’s also a big menu of specials with Hatch chile sauce ($11-$12 combos at lunch) and a patio; 817-984-1360, enchiladasole.com.
▪ Snuffer’s Restaurant & Bar, 4717 Colleyville Blvd. and also in the Dallas area, will offer Hatch cheesburgers, quesadillas and cheese fries; 682-325-3825, snuffers.com.
▪ Zoli’s Pizza, 3501 Hulen St. and also in Addison, is serving a “Hatchbox 20” pizza with brisket, Hatch chiles, corn, two cheeses and garlic cream sauce; 817-402-0050, zolispizza.com.
This story was originally published August 4, 2020 at 5:45 AM.
