EL COMEDOR.

This is going to be one of those stories where the ending comes first.  I don't have it in me to build the suspense.

Dining in El Comedor, the booth in the back of a refurbished Airstream trailer that is the Port Fonda food truck, was one of the best dining experiences of my life.

I love that Chef Patrick Ryan has achieved this while staying true to his style and to the food.

I love it when simplicity reigns supreme.

The venue was as big of a contributor to our great experience as the food.  Which is why it tops my list.  So many chefs concentrate too much on the food, and not enough on the 'front of house'.

El Comedor is unbelievably intimate and best of all, relaxed.

Let me give you the skinny on dining in El Comedor.  It's a 4 course meal, by reservation only, with limited seatings on Friday and Saturday nights only.  Reservations are taken by request, one month at a time, on the first day of the month prior (ex: September reservations open up on August 1).

Up there was the first course.  Chef Ryan's take on Mexican street corn.  I finished mine in approximately 27 seconds.

Here's Chef Ryan working on course number two, a smaller serving of a regular on his menu - chilaquiles.

Chilaquiles are tortilla chips sautéed with a salsa of sorts.  At Port Fonda, they're also topped with a fried egg.

Which makes them do this glorious, oozy thing.

While we were waiting for the main course, The Stallion shook up some tequila shots for everyone.

I failed to mention - El Comedor is BYOB.  Which I think is awesome.  We came with our own cooler, they had plenty of ice and glasses there waiting for us.

JV's bro is a wine expert, and knowing we'd be having pork shoulder as our main course, sent him with a bottle of Rosé that would pair famously.

It did.

 Here I am, licking my chops, waiting on that succulent pork I'd heard so much about.

And there she is, in all her glory.

Let's get a better look.

Oh my.  Oh my, my, my.  This hunk of love is babied for hours in order to get this crispy, bacon candy-like crust.

Here's Patrick, introducing all of the accoutrements we have to play with.

 It's every man for himself at the table in El Comedor.

 Mix and match - everyone's a chef at this table!  I wish I'd asked Patrick for his favorite combinations.

A little dinner-time story?  How about where Port Fonda got its name?  That story is burnished into the edge of the table.  It's a story that takes participation from the entire table in order to complete.

Turns out Port Fonda was a name in consideration when deciding what the territory now known as Kansas City should be called.

Let's go back to this rosé for a second. [Hi, Spencer!]  I've never really tried pink wines because I thought they were girly and sweet.  This dear bottle changed my mind.  Although a girly pink, it was not sweet.  It's my new go-to wine to serve with pork.

 Can you feel the fullness in the room?  Holy mackerel.

 Too bad!  Here comes dessert.

Oh, yes.


Fin.


[Note: We went all out that night and went to Manifesto, a speakeasy, afterward.  I'd highly recommend going before.  Manifesto is a deep, dark lounge, with deep, dark couches.  Catch my drift?]