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The Dining Divas Head To Mi Jalapeno
For Great Mexican Food and Margaritas
Gabby Reminded Us of Old Days at Fast Eddie’s
The Metro East Diva felt guilty. It’s not a big deal to her to make the trek to the MO-side every month to join the Dining Divas for dinner, but when we decided to head her way this past month, she felt bad. She hated that we were driving over 45 minutes to a restaurant in Illinois. For that matter, the Grafton Diva’s trek was even further. But we turned it into a carpooling adventure, and what fun we had!
I knew the group would enjoy this Mexican restaurant called Mi Jalapeno in the small town of Smithton in Illinois. Anyone who remembers Fast Eddie’s Bon Air about 25 years ago on Thursday nights may remember the one-man band, Gabby. Gabby is the entertainment on Thursday nights here, and he’s just as fun as he used to be.
With her kids all grown and the restaurant being convenient for her, the Occasional Diva joined us as well. She remembered the good ol’ Gabby days at the Bon Air, and Gabby remembered her and a couple others from back then. This wasn’t her first time to Mi Jalapeno, and she knew it was good.
“The margaritas are strong,” warned the Responsible Diva. Strong and delicious. That didn’t discourage the Lively Diva from enjoying a beer-a-rita. Basically, it’s a margarita with a bottle of Corona flipped upside down. A great combination! And an even better second one.
As usual, we loaded up on chips and salsa like we always do when we go to a Mexican restaurant. I’d like to say that we ate them to help absorb the “strong” margaritas, but that really wasn’t the case. The Exaggerating Diva claims she had 18 baskets of chips and super chunky guacamole with her two margaritas. I only counted 17.
The Never-Cleans-My-Plate Diva ate her entire Fajita Steak Chimichanga. The Beef Burrito and Enchilada combination plate was the most authentic Mexican food that the Newcomer Diva had ever had. The Chicken and Chorizo plate was an excellent choice as was the special for the night with lots of vegetables and chicken.
The Frequent Diner Diva played it safe with Fajitas, justifying it to being a healthy and delicious option.
Maybe it was the margaritas, but everyone agreed we really enjoyed Mi Jalapeno. The food was really good. We laughed a lot in the restaurant, but we laughed even more in the car. Aside from the unwelcome hitchhiker in the form of a June bug that made a couple Divas scream and jump out of the car, the carpooling was the best. If it wasn’t a “school night” for this Designated Driving Diva, the Retired Divas almost could have convinced her to make a stop to at least one of the four bars we passed on our way out of town. The good ol’ days, we would have stopped and not worried about how we felt the next day.
Although it was over a 45-minute drive back for us, it didn’t feel like it. We had a blast and would definitely head back to Smithton for more Mexican and perhaps a little pub crawl. And there’s no guilt in that!
