El Nuevo Amanecer

On Friday, May 24, 2013 I went into Winchester for lunch and my second visit to Restaurante El Nuevo Amanecer, 216 East Piccadilly Street, to check out their pupusas. These are small tortillas with a variety of fillings and an El Salvadoran specialty. I had two with mixed pork and cheese and two with beans and cheese. Accompanying the pupusas was a dispenser filled with a rather mild hot sauce, and a covered, square plastic box with some kind of salad similar to cole slaw. I'm sorry to report that the pupusas were very bland, and the hot sauce didn't help much.

I didn't try putting any of the salad on the pupusas because I didn't like the smell when I took the lid off of the box. The only part of the meal that had any flavor was the Cola Champan de El Salvador soda that I ordered as my beverage. Frankly, I was not impressed with the restaurant on my first visit. I am even less impressed with it now and I definitely will not be back.

The building is one of a dozen on this block that are targeted for removal to allow the city to change the intersection of National Avenue, North East Lane, and East Piccadilly Street to eliminate an awkward system of curves for traffic entering or leaving downtown via National Avenue. When the server was seating me I mentioned that I understood that the building was going to be torn down one of these days. He said that he knew nothing about it, which surprised me because The Winchester Star had covered the story in two recent issues.

The server apparently discussed my comment with one of other workers, who also was ignorant of this almost million-dollar project. When I paid the check he asked me where I had heard the story, and I told him that it had been in the newspaper. I didn't stay around to discuss it further because there may be a communication problem here.

At noon on Monday, 12/10/2012 I had lunch at Restaurante El Nuevo Amanecer at 216 East Piccadilly Street. The phone number is 540-660-1134.

A posted sign says that it's open seven days a week, from 7:00 AM to 9:30 PM. The menu says it serves Salvadoran and Mexican dishes. The major headings include Breakfast, Stuffed Tortillas, Quesadillas, Seafood, Beef, Appetizers, Mexican Food, Soups, Cold Beverages, and Hot Beverages.

The menu gives the names of items in Spanish, along with their English translations above. I chose quesadillas de pollo, and a coke. I received four quesadillas whose cheese filling had chicken, green pepper, diced onion, and mushrooms. A small, indifferent vegetable salad was also on the platter.

The Coke was of the canned variety from a US source although the server told me it was from Mexico. Mexican Cokes come in the traditional glass bottles and bear the label "Hecho en Mexico", and are made with cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup.

I'll judge this lunch as merely OK. My final judgment will be after my next visit, when I plan to order a dinner with Chile Rellenos, stuffed pepper. The menu appeared to be more truly Mexican than the usual Tex-Mex offerings.

The floor plan is arranged differently from that used by the last occupant. A refrigerated case is along the left side of the back wall; next to it is a counter with three seats. There's enough clutter on the countertop that only one person could eat there comfortably.

I counted nine tables around the floor. A small pastry display case is against the wall on your right. A side room is visible through an opening in the front of that wall, but has a hanging Venetian blind that closes it from view. The kitchen is accessed by an opening in the real of that wall.

A wide screen TV set high on the back wall was displaying programming from WVPT-TV, the Virginia Public TV Network. A smaller TV screen to its left was cycling through various views of the interior of the restaurant.

Three of the tables were already occupied when I arrived noon. All of the other patrons appeared to be of Hispanic origin, and were conversing is Spanish. No other patrons came in while I was there, and the four ladies sitting at the table in the front window were still there when I left.