Poco’s Bow Street Cantina, Portsmouth New Hampshire

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We went to Portsmouth, New Hampshire recently and in a quest for something really good to eat on a bitterly cold December evening, decided on Poco’s Bow St. Cantina.  http://pocosbowstreetcantina.com/ 

 This Mexican restaurant, which manages to impart the New Englalnd seacoast flavor into it’s offerings, is on the working waterfront of Portsmouth, tucked into a row of old brick buildings. As the rush of heat greeted us and the clean dining room with it’s view of the Piscataqua River Bridge spread before us, we knew we had found just what we were looking for that night.

 There are a lot of original paintings on the wall, which immediately reminded me of my undergraduate days at UNH when I was working on a painting degree, and Portsmouth was among my favorite stomping grounds.  The above painting (in three pieces) is a rendition of Bow St., where the restaurant is located.

 At first we sat by the big bow window with the pretty lights, but a draft from what seemed to be original windows to this circa 1800′s building drove us to a quiet corner with a great view of the Piscataqua River Bridge. The blue icicle lights are strung around their seasonal outdoor patio – no doubt if it was summertime we would have ended up there!

First course of events- we ordered margaritas! This one is made with Hornitas, mix and lime served on the rocks with a nice heavy rim of salt. Well, that helped to take the chill off!

 As an appetizer, we chose the Snake Bites – shrimp and cream cheese stuffed jalapeno peppers.

They were fantastic, and inspired my own version:   

Time in the Kitchen Shrimp and Cream Cheese Poppers

 Neither of us could resist the soft taco platter, so we each had one…….we never even made it off the starters section of their very complete menu!

 

One taco had spicy ground beef (a bit sweet) another had BBQ pulled pork (sounds odd, but was quite good), and the third (my favorite!) was a spicy shredded chicken. The guacamole, fresh salsa and sour cream were all terrific, and in just the right amount for the platter.

We mentioned more than once how glad we were that we had passed by Agave (a second location for a Newburyport Mexican restaurant that is very over-priced and over-rated)   and walked to the waterfront. We had a great time, prices are very reasonable, the waitstaff is attentive, it’s clean and while the food is wonderful it manages to not take itself too seriously. Fun Place – Fun Times!

 

Top photo courtesy of:  pocosbowstreetcantina.com