Chapter 15 – Sunny Holiday

Super Taqueria Don Pancho – 1336 S. 7th Street, Milwaukee

The day got ahead of me—no doubt because it was four days before the full moon, and I had a nightmare about train travel and toilet misadventures—so by the time I walked over here with breakfast in mind, it was lunchtime. But I still ordered breakfast, my latest favorite, Huevos a la Mexicana, and this was a good version, lots of red and green to match the Christmasy decorated interior, which actually really nicely complements the light blue and pink, and the classic artist painted wall murals, and the interior tiled roof décor. All Spanish language music I didn't know, which is ideal. I then realized I'd been here before, a few years ago—maybe on a night when Happy Chicken (at that time my favorite) was closed—it was a few blocks away, on Greenfield. I seem to recall the interior here was in kind of a transition, or appeared to be, maybe from the corner bar it was no doubt originally? Now it's a spacious place—you could fit twice as many tables in if you wanted to—or clear them all away and have a big old dance. There are a few things I don't understand: 1. Spanish; 1A. My inability to learn, when I was younger (not just a second language, but also a first, and how things, in general, connected); 1B. People acting like it was okay (did I get by with some kind of sterling personalty, or what?) 1C. (Though, since Google has turned permanently into online Lotería, which I play obsessively, maybe I will at least learn some Spanish words, such as pierdes; 2. This place feels kind of like a chain restaurant, but also it doesn't—and I mean both in a good way. But I wonder who owns it, and what they're like. 3. Why people will wait an hour or more in airless brunch-yuppie coffins to sit in uncomfortable chairs in a place with bad acoustics for frankly not very good food, while there are LOTS of places this good, nearly empty. I can answer the last one: If you drink vodka in overpriced brunch drinks on Sunday morning, you're being social. If you drink the same thing at home, alone, you're an alcoholic. I may be wrong about one thing... maybe there are not lots of places this good open for breakfast on Sunday morning, since about half of Milwaukee shuts down on Sunday, and quite a few places are not open for breakfast, AND... this one was really pretty good... it's still resonating on the delicious meter. Also, no, I did not have a sterling personality.