Slice open a ripe avocado and scoop out the smooth, thick, green flesh. Rich with a whisper of nuttiness, this fruit needs no embellishment.
Jake Replogle Jr. has already done high-end dining – running, for the last seven years, Jake’s, the Waukesha white-tablecloth restaurant his father opened in 1967. The younger Replogle spent part of his childhood in Mexico, immersed in the culture of cooking and eating so integral to daily life there. At 30, he can step back and, with wife and business partner Karen, create a place with the simplicity of the perfect avocado.
The place is Brookfield’s new Haute Taco, which fulfills the promise of its name (“haute” is French for “high” and pronounced “oat”) by focusing on quality and authenticity. The food is Mexican, a nuanced blend of fresh ingredients and careful cooking. The prices are not hauteat all, unless you think $9.95 for a sizable filet mignon torta (sandwich) is expensive. For produce and meats, Replogle uses the same suppliers he works with at Jake’s (Midwest-based Maple Leaf Farms duck, Iowa’s Heritage pork). And a run to El Rey Market is not uncommon.
Haute Taco is fundamentally a taqueria – a spot for tacos, burritos and tortas – and everything beyond plays a supporting role. Among those supports is a steak salad, a Tijuana Caesar, tortilla soup, ceviche (shrimp and crab “cooked” in lime juice) and grilled corn on the cob slathered with lime and melted cheese. The tacos and burritos – topped with fresh cilantro, crema, maybe some avocado or queso fresco (fresh white cheese) – come à la carte. Rice – fluffy Mexican white rice – and beans can be had as sides ($1.95 each), and they’re a relief from the free sides slapped on your plate in cookie-cutter Mexican joints.
Unlike the cookie-cutter’s décor of sombreros and Mexican blankets, Haute has a more urban mixture of repurposed surfaces and vivid color. Under the hanging lights (made from recycled Brazilian seltzer bottles) in the bar, the tenders go to work on their Latin drink menu – margaritas mixed with top-shelf tequila and fresh-squeezed lime; mojitos that show off their assertively muddled mint. It’s tempting to straddle a stool in the bar to watch these specialists. You can order the full menu here and not have to worry about someone blowing nicotine in your face.
Some will balk that you pay for chips and salsa, but those, too, are better than the norm. Three salsas come with the fresh-fried tortilla strips ($2.95), and each offers a different fresh flavor – a smooth green tomatillo; an arbol chile, with its gradual-but-insistent heat; and the chunky roasted corn, channeling late summer. The chips are also sturdy scoops for the ceviche, the acidic lime juice marinade turning the shellfish opaque and firm ($7.95).
While I enjoy the minimalism of the fresh fruit salad – thick-sliced fresh mango, jicama, pineapple and cucumber sprinkled with lime juice and chile powder ($2.95) – the Tijuana Caesar’s romaine, tossed in Caesar dressing with red onion, radish and a little grated queso, is too plain ($3.50 or $7; also available with chicken).
Shredded iceberg and underripe chopped tomato have never added much to a taco, in my opinion. And here, neither they nor the typical blob of thick sour cream are even an option. Each taco is its own well-dressed creation. The braised short ribs with avocado, chile de arbol salsa and a dab of tangy crema ($2.85) compete for winner status with the wonderful braised duck, its moist, rich meat topped with crema, queso fresco and roasted corn salsa ($2.85). For fillings, there’s also carnitas (shredded pork), slow-cooked chicken breast and a fish of the day – on each of my visits, fried tilapia, whose crisp battered shell encases moist, flaky fish.
Perhaps the best of all fillings is the filet mignon. Unlike the strips of chewy flank steak you’ll commonly see in dishes like fajitas, this is chunks of tender, unblemished meat – nothing your mouth has to fight with when you bite into a taco or burrito. It’s just as good without the tortilla, piled on smoky pinto beans in the Mexican rice bowl ($5.95-$6.95).
Jake Replogle says, with his formal culinary training, he originally thought they’d open something high-end and posh. But culling from some of his oldest and strongest food memories, he’s created something with more fire. Haute’s concept of quality food on the cheap has the potential to be hot.
Haute Taco, 18905 W. Capitol Dr. (Brookfield Towne Centre), 262-781-1110. Hours: Mon-Thurs 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Fri-Sat 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Prices: appetizers $2.95-$7.95; soup/salad $2.50-$9; tacos, burritos, tortas $2.25-$9.95; desserts $4.50-$4.95. Credit cards: M V A DS. Service: young and friendly, but learning. Handicap access: yes. Dress: not fancy. Smoke-free. Reservations: not taken.
