Josh and I decided to try out Robert & Molly Krause’s new restaurant, Esquina on its opening night. Esquina is located on the southwest corner of 8th & Massachusetts Street in Downtown Lawrence. It is in the building that was occupied by Round Corner Drug Store and the Cheese & Salami Shoppe for decades.
Since the Krause’s shut down their home-based restaurant in January, they have been working hard to complete the renovations and improvements to the Round Corner space and tonight, all of their hard work paid off with an opening that appeared to go smoother than I ever would have thought an “opening night” should have gone. Our food was delivered quickly and was exactly as we had ordered it and it was spectacular to boot.
Esquina is a Taqueria, but not a Taqueria like I’ve ever been to before. The tacos that they serve aren’t like any other tacos that I’ve ever seen. Robert and his team have come up with some of the most creative combinations of ingredients that just set off a fireworks show in your mouth. There really are no words to explain my feelings about the pork tacos. Seriously, pork, pineapple and pumpkin seeds were made for each other!
When you walk in the door, you made your way to the back of the restaurant to place your order from their chalkboard menu board. They were having one special on opening night, a bowl of soup that we were told was pretty spicy, so we didn’t venture in that direction. We ended up ordering the three tacos combo with an additional taco, an order of chips and homemade guacamole and an order of the calamari. I am a huge fan of calamari and I like to try it wherever I see it on the menu (within reason of course. . . calamari isn’t something that I’m probably going to be sampling at some sketchy location for fear of ending up in the ER a short time later).
The tacos that we chose were the Steak, Pork, Chicken and Fish. Josh said that his favorite was the fish taco and I agree that it was pretty amazing with the fried plantains in there. Robert just knows how to please his customers with eclectic combinations of ingredients that cause your taste buds to dance. Good stuff people, good stuff!
My favorite taco, as I said before was the pork taco. It was absolutely amazing. I also really enjoyed the calamari and the guacamole. The chips at Esquina have a light seasoning and are wonderful as well. The guacamole is chunky and comes in the largest serving size I’ve ever seen for guac. The calamari comes with a slightly sweet dipping sauce that really counteracts and compliments the saltiness of the calamari. Yum!
So, if you’re visiting Downtown Lawrence, looking for somewhere to eat that’s a little bit different from your normal, every day food experiences, definitely check out Esquina. I promise you won’t be worry that you did!