You know those movies or books or records that everyone says were groundbreaking? Your high school English teacher would go completely nuts over, say The Catcher in the Rye, or you'd read a breathy review of Rebel Without a Cause, or listen to the first Doors record, and you would think something like geez, what's the big deal? You've seen better films, read more relevant books, and...well, pretty much anything every recorded is better than Jim Morrison's pedantic dreck. But I digress. The point is that some art is best enjoyed when it is contemporary and only then, because after breaking new ground, you open up new places and things for other folks to surpass the original innovator.
That was kind of how I felt my visit to El Faro last night went. It's the oldest burrito joint in town, the place that has the best argument to have invented the NorCal style slab, and, were I to write a review, it would echo what Chris has so ably written, albeit with just-OK pastor instead of made-on-the-fly chile verde. Not so bad, but certainly nothing special. It was like seeing a reunion tour with a new lead guitarist, fourth drummer, and an aging lead singer who still wears leather and has sings the high parts an octave down. Still enjoyable in its own way, but other, hungrier places have long-since passed it by.
That was kind of how I felt my visit to El Faro last night went. It's the oldest burrito joint in town, the place that has the best argument to have invented the NorCal style slab, and, were I to write a review, it would echo what Chris has so ably written, albeit with just-OK pastor instead of made-on-the-fly chile verde. Not so bad, but certainly nothing special. It was like seeing a reunion tour with a new lead guitarist, fourth drummer, and an aging lead singer who still wears leather and has sings the high parts an octave down. Still enjoyable in its own way, but other, hungrier places have long-since passed it by.
