There haven’t been more than a handful of restaurants that we’ve liked in Leavenworth over the past thirty years (we miss you, Österreich!), but I’m happy to say we’ve just found a new one, called South. My parents had been there for dinner recently and had a great experience, so before J and I headed home last weekend we stopped in for lunch.

What an amazing place! It’s just a Mexican restaurant, of which we have vast quantities here in Skagit Valley, but it’s not your usual rice-and-beans kind of place. We were struck immediately by the drinks list, which had an excellent selection of beers, plus some really cool cocktails (not many places offer caipirinha) and an amazing bourbon and tequila list. I wasn’t sure I was up to a cocktail yet, so I got a Leavenworth IPA (a really nice beer, much like the Boundary Bay IPA), but J went for the house margarita, and my father asked for soda with fresh lime. Both of their drinks were excellent, made with just-squeezed lime juice.

On to the food: I saw roasted green beans on the appetizer list and was instantly in love. We ordered them, and shortly received a dish full of sweet shriveled beans doused in salt and lime juice – fantastic! So few restaurants offer vegetables straight up, and these were delicious. Their only fault was that they weren’t crispy, but I didn’t really mind.

For our lunches, my mother and I each ordered the tomatillo chicken as a sandwich, my father got the carne asada as a taco, and J got the black mole enchilada with pork. All were tasty, and I was especially impressed by the chicken – it was perfectly cooked and very juicy, a real accomplishment with breast meat. The sandwiches and taco came with house-made tortilla chips, and there was a buffet of salsas available, some of which could blow the top of your head off.

Suffice to say, we’ll be coming back here! We are officially jealous that we don’t live closer to this place.