Shaunna was sitting across the table from me grinning the most ridiculous grin – the kind of smile that takes over your entire face. She was a tad sickly, the reason we skipped the Stars concert that brisk February night, but not too ill to trek out to Aurora and her favorite Mexican restaurant in the world.
This suburban enclave known as Dora’s, with its teal and orange walls, sombreros on the walls, sticky-plastic tablecloths and Mexican border-town-blankets everywhere, is not usually my kind of place. And Shaunna was reveling in this indulgent outing, getting me out of the city and my comfort zone.
The chips came, and they were solid, but the tabletop margarita menu was making me nervous. It looked like a drink menu you might see at a suburban strip mall Mexican restaurant. Still, I ordered a large and Shaunna had a small and we toasted to her getting better via tequila and a behemoth of a plate called a shredded beef stuffed burrito. It turned out my worries about the marg menu were justified; they turned out to be too sickly sweet.
Mind you, this specialty isn’t even on the menu anymore. It’s a relic from another day, another menu, but as Shaunna has been coming here ever since she lived in Aurora (a long time ago), she asks for it and they make it. But as I peruse the menu to perhaps order something else so we could share, Shaunna warned me in hushed tones, “Oh no, you don’t want anything else. You want the shredded beef stuffed burrito because everything else on the menu is (expletive).”
The best Mexican restaurant in the world, folks, has only one edible dish – a fact I find a bit perplexing especially since Shaunna’s the kind of girl who will find what she likes and never stray. And while I didn’t feel the love for the shredded beef stuffed burrito – the chile was too watery, although the beef was moist – Shaunna nearly lost herself in her plate. She consumed it and loved it until it was halfway gone. She smiled her way through that half- burrito as if it were a bottomless bowl of crème brûlée.
And then she got a box and repeated the entire experience at home the following afternoon.
Dora’s
2406 S. Parker Road; 303-368-1527
Funky: Painted in the bathroom hallway is a strange sign that reads: “Stand here and reflect on someone nice.”
Skunky: The margaritas are too sweet, too artificial.
