Last night Rick and I went in to the city for dinner. We’ve long wanted to go to Sue Torres’s Sueños in Chelsea ever since we saw her battle it out with Bobbie Flay on Iron Chef and also when she competed in Top Chef Masters, Season 4. We love Mexican food and we were intrigued by her style. But, like everything else we never seemed to get around to actually going.

Then a really good deal came up on Rue La La: a three course prix-fixe dinner for two for $60.00! It was not the normal prix-fixe menu as a part of their usual menu, but an upscale menu just for Bloomspot and Rue La La customers. I purchased the deal and we had two months in which to use it. Since our coupon expired this week we knew we had to use it or lose it (like they say).

We left ourselves more time than usual for the drive in since we didn’t know how the traffic would be. Traffic turned out to be unusually light and one hour and eight minutes after leaving our house we were parked and walking towards our destination. Only thing was that we were also 45 minutes too early. It never ceases to amaze me that we can drive in to New York City faster than we could drive to Denver back in Colorado from our house!

We had booked the first seating of the night which is a little bit earlier than most people eat (5:00 p.m.) and that is exactly when they open their door. We did it early so we could sandwich ourselves between the evening rush and still get home at a decent hour.

So, we roamed up and down 8th Avenue to kill time. It was downright cold! And damp. I always forget how just the littlest of breezes gets funneled straight down those city streets and becomes a much bigger, and chillier wind! Brrrrrr!

A few minutes before 5:00 we finally gave up walking and tried the door to the restaurant. It was open, so we stepped in. Clearly they were not ready for customers as employee jackets and backpacks were strewn in the bar seats. A waiter came up to us and told us they were not quite open and could we please come back in a few minutes? Not looking forward to going back out into the cold again, we complied.

We opted to stay in the little passageway between two buildings that leads back to the restaurant’s entrance which is tucked away from the street. At least we were blocked from the chill wind that way. We waited.

One minute after 5:00 the door opened and an unassuming woman with her hair pulled back in a ponytail wearing a sweatshirt hoodie and jeans popped her head out and asked us in. It was Sue Torres herself! I think the look on my face was one of surprise and recognition but I forced myself not to be a groupie and didn’t gush something silly like oh it’s you, Sue! We joked about being early as she grabbed a few menus up and went to seat us, but then she asked if we might not want to sit in the bar and take advantage of Happy Hour 2-for-1’s. So that’s just what we did.

Imagine a chef/owner seating customers! She was so cute about it. She went back to the kitchen and that was the last we saw of her. A celebrity appearance just for us!

Rick had a straight-up margarita (which they are known for) and I had what they called a Paloma which was silver tequila, mexican grapefruit soda and lime. Very refreshing and two was definitely enough given the amount of tequila the bartender put into both our drinks. We opted to drink the second one with our meal.

They started us out with a complimentary appetizer of extremely thin cornbread with a bean and crema dip. For appetizers we chose shrimp in a coconut-habanero sauce and chicken chilaquiles. It was hard to say which one we liked better. (We shared!) For mains we chose Chicken Enchiladas with mole sauce and a Poblano Chile Relleno stuffed with quinoa, mushrooms and spinach. Again, they were both very good. Desserts were a dense bittersweet chocolate cake with crema de Mezcal whipped cream and an apple galette which was made with very thin slices of apple and cinnamon toasted tortilla “chips.”

All in all a delicious dinner for $60.00 (Plus a tip based on the real value of the meal and our drinks.) And let’s not leave out the ridiculously expensive parking! Oh well, it is New York City after all!