El Coyote Restaurant––

New Cuisine With An Authentic Mexican Accent

By Kaaren Valenta

When Carlos and Rolando Axilote opened El Coyote restaurant in the Sand Hill Plaza last month, they were not concerned about the fact that there already were Mexican restaurants in the area.

“We offer New Mexican cuisine, not the usual Tex-Mex,” Carlos explained. “We are different from other places. We have Spanish and Caribbean dishes plus a wide selection of choices like pastas and steak that have a Mexican flavor.

“We made sure we have something for everyone, even people who think they don’t like Mexican food,” he said.

The Axilote brothers grew up 60 miles southeast of Mexico City, in the state of Puebla, where their parents were farmers. Established by the Spanish in 1531, Puebla also was the principal city of colonial Mexico, planned from the ground up by a Spanish city designer rather than being built within an existing Indian community. It is very cosmopolitan.

 “There were six of us children,” Carlos Axilote, 40, said. “We learned the work ethic early. After school we all had jobs like working in the fields.”

Both Carlos and his brother Rolando, 35, wound up in the United States, working for and eventually owning Mexican restaurants.

Carlos Axilote came to the United States 22 years ago and started as a dishwasher in the kitchen of a Mexican restaurant in New York City. Eventually he was working as a cook, and then he began also working in the dining room.

“I’d spend the morning in the kitchen,” he said. “After 4 pm I’d take a shower and go to the dining room where I was a waiter.”

Rolando followed his brother to the United States in 1984 and also went immediately into the restaurant business. Carlos and a partner have operated a restaurant in Jamaica Queens, N.Y., for the past five years but when the two brothers decided to go into business together, it almost was not in Newtown.

“We went to New Haven, to Albany, to New Rochelle,” Rolando said. “We had almost decided on New Rochelle, but the owners [of the small shopping plaza] decided to sell rather than lease. That same day we got the call about Newtown.”

The Axilote brothers leased a space that had originally been two stores in the minimall at Sand Hill Plaza. A large restaurant with three dining rooms, a waiting room, and a bar, it seats 120.

The entire space was renovated and the brothers were set to open but time ticked by as they waited for a liquor license.

“We almost missed Cinco de Mayo [May 5], which is a big Mexican holiday,” Carlos said. “Finally we decided to open anyway even though we did not get a liquor permit until a week later.”

The beginning was not smooth, they admit, with the staff overwhelmed by the number of customers who showed up for the grand opening.

“We had problems,” Carlos said. “People said they had to wait too long for the food and some complained that it was cold. But we have made many changes since then. We have the right staff now, and they are well trained. Customers have told us that there is a big difference.”

The menu is extensive, beginning with more than a dozen appetizers. Specialties of the house include fresh guacamole made tableside and served with corn tortillas, deep-fried shrimp covered with coconut flakes, and varieties of stuffed green plantains. There is Camaron a la Veracruzana, stuffed shrimp in light tomato sauce combined with sauvignon blanc, chopped onions, tomatoes and cilantro. For a taste of several appetizers, diners can order the bocadillos mixed sampler, $10, which includes cheese nachos, chicken wings, flautas, and beef empanadas.

Main courses include both entrees and platters. All entrees are served with a choice of rice and beans, vegetables, salad, house creamed potatoes, sweet ripe plantains, or green plantains.

There is a house special Paella el Coyote, a traditional Spanish dish made with lobster, sea scallops, crab, mussels, clams, chorizo sausage, shrimp, and chicken, with rice.

“We have red snapper, salmon, and lobster both stuffed and in lobster sauce,” Carlos said.

Beef choices range from Pepper Steak served with a Spanish cabernet sauce and Steak Ranchero, served with onions and poblano peppers in a mild guajilo pepper sauce, to a traditional New York-style sirloin steak.

There are traditional Mexican dishes such as Mole Poblano, a boneless chicken breast in a traditional mild mole poblano sauce, and Pollo en Salsa Verde, boneless chicken breast in a green tomatillo sauce. There are chimichangas, taquitos, enchiladas, fajitas, chiles rellenos, burritos, tacos, and tostadas, too.

The mole sauce, made up of a large variety of dried Mexican chili peppers, is a special blend prepared by the Axilote brothers’ mother in Mexico. “It’s an authentic Mexican flavor, not like the spice blend that you buy in jars here,” Rolando said. “It’s the real stuff from the real source.”

Salad lovers have a large selection for lunch or dinner including a tropical salad with marinated breast of chicken, pineapple, cantaloupe, and mangos tossed with guava dressing over field greens.

Entrée prices range from $8 for a Mexican sandwich or $9 for a combination platter to $18 for the house special paella (which takes 45 minutes to prepare but is worth the wait).

Last week the restaurant began offering dinner specials on the weekend. A special children’s menu is being designed and will include choices like chicken fingers and a small hamburger for kids with unadventurous tastes.

El Coyote is open 11 am to 10 pm Sunday through Thursday and 11 to 11 on Friday and Saturday. A mariachi band plays on Thursdays through Sundays from 6 to 10 pm. Major credit cards are accepted. For reservations call 426-5755.