Tired of the boring Tex-Mex that has come to epitomize Latin cuisine in the ‘Ville?

Across the river, tucked away in a non-descript strip center just off I-65 where Hamburg Pike converges with Charlestown Pike, sits a tiny eatery that has joined the ranks of my favorite places to eat in the Louisville area. No chimichangas and fried ice cream here. Instead, expect to find something a little different. The owner, Daisy Lucio, and her family come from Mexico, Puerto Rico and Honduras – by way of New York City – so their take on ethnic is more than likely like none you’ve seen before. At Buenos Dias Café, which opened in March, the food is great and the prices can’t be beat. Trust me, it’s a good day to make the trip north to try some new south-of-the-border eats.

The menu at Buenos Dias Café is short, but that’s not a bad thing. It makes it easier to decide on what to get. Currently, there are about half a dozen breakfast dishes and a similar number of lunch and dinner plates, plus regular specials and smaller a la carte items. Breakfasts (served all day!) range in price from $3.50 to $5.50 and main dishes average $7.99. Aside from easy-to-find items such as quesadillas, tostadas, tacos, tortas, and gorditas – which a la carte come in at under $5 – visitors will find dishes such as chicken milanesas (breaded cutlets) and guisado de res (beef stew), which are generally harder to find.

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The other day I took my friend Silvia there for an early lunch, and since neither of us could decide on what to get, we just kept ordering and eating until we were tired. She wolfed down a couple of small, open-faced Mexican tacos dressed with onion and cilantro, and then had the server bring out a cup of the caldo de camaron or shrimp soup, which had several large shrimp in a tomato-spiked broth with vegetables. I ordered the Honduran breakfast, the desayuno hondureño, which comes with two eggs of your choice, avocado slices, queso blanco (white cheese), fried plantains, and Honduran red beans. You can also order it with meat, but meatless was fine with me. It came with a side of two large flour tortillas fresh off the griddle, and I could have eaten ten more of those.

We still had more food coming, though. I didn’t mention my friend Silvia was pregnant, did I? She had ordered a huge bowl of the caldo de pollo, the chicken soup, which the server brought out in a happy, floral-print bowl with a side of rice and piping-hot, white-corn tortillas. Tiny, little pools of translucent fat floated on the surface of the clear broth, verifying the homemade nature of the dish. Around several large pieces of chicken, half an ear of corn, zucchini chunks, and thick diagonally-sliced coins of carrot swam happily, fairly basking in the steaming soup.

Since I’m not one to be outdone, I had the waitress bring us one of the baliadas, a Honduran version of a jacked-up taco. This turned out to be one of the better things I’ve tasted in a long time: a large flour tortilla slathered with a layer of beans, which were then topped with a mixture of eggs scrambled with spicy chorizo from a nearby Latin butcher. Before folding it over they had drizzled the fillings with fresh crema and added some shredded cheese. They had me at crema; the cheese just sent me over the edge – but in a good way. Craving more cheese, I then ordered a Puerto-Rican-style empanada de queso, a simple yet delicious deep-fried turnover with a bit of gooey white cheese on the inside. The orange dough - was it the annato seed known as achiote? I never got the chance to ask – made it different from most of the empanadas you can get around here.

The interior of the restaurant is bright and cheery – bright coats of tangerine and lemon yellow on the walls – and a steady stream of Spanglish-speaking patrons hinted at the popularity of the owners. It seems that people know you when you go there. The best part about our visit, apart from the tasty food, of course, was the check. All that food, plus a Tecate and a Coke, cost $20! Like I said, it was a good day at Buenos Dias Café.

Buenos Dias Café is located at 1703 Charlestown-N.A. Pike in Jeffersonville. Service is from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily except Sundays. Call (812) 282-2233 for more information.

by David Dominé, The Bluegrass Peasant