Table Talk with Jeremy Wayne: Where the avocado is art – Donjito of Mamaroneck

With its ramen bars, tapas bars, tequila bars and even a milk and cereal bar, Mamaroneck has no shortage of watering holes these days, in addition to a huge raft of quality, full-service restaurants. And with so many of its establishments spilling out on to the street, with tables and chairs under prettily-lit awnings, the town has summer-night buzz and appeal in spades. 

Just before Mamaroneck Avenue meets the Boston Post Road, between my favorite “Den of Antiquity” antique shop and Mamaroneck Harbor, is Donjito, the five-year-old restaurant that recently reopened after being acquired by a new owner in January. 

It”™s an odd sort of layout, Donjito ”“  a self-contained bar and high top-table seating area leading into a long strip with low-top (which is to say regular) tables along one side, and high tops along the other, hard up against a wall of blood-red, mock-croc panels, which would not look out of place in the elevator of a fancy hotel. Red spotlights bear down, giving the area a kind 1930s Berlin nightclub feel. You wouldn”™t be surprised to see Sally Bowles in a bowler hat, black stockings and garter belt pop out from the door leading to the kitchen, straddle a backward chair and launch into a spirited rendition of “Mein Herr.” 

One thing I will say: I doubt the food in “Cabaret”™s” fictitious Kit Kat Club would have ever been as good as it is at Donjito. New owner and chef Benjamin Velasquez”™s Latin-fusion cuisine is fresh, abundant and full of conviction. From a long but not overwhelming menu, meat-stuffed sweet plantains with three kinds of cheese make a rich and beautifully judged starter. So, too, do chicken wings, roasted to an almost burnt but still juicy doneness, luxuriating in a house-made teriyaki sauce. Bacalaitos ”“ made of buttermilk-fried cod ”“ provide the crunch we all crave, with a salpicon de marisco, mussels and clams done various ways, and a Gulf shrimp ceviche bowl providing the contribution from the sea. In the ceviche, squeaky fresh shrimp with a Peruvian tiger milk dressing sit on a bed of perfectly ripe avocado slices in a fan shape decorated with a dendrobium flower. It”™s a marvelous, artistic dish. 

Entrées include sizzling fajitas with different protein fillings; garlicky prawn-based gambas; a punchy pollo Vera Cruz, an all-in-one-dish of chicken, chorizo and potatoes; and a country-style paella, which is to say meat and shellfish as opposed to a more seafood-focused, Valencia-style paella.  

A dish I personally got excited about was a 12-ounce churrasco steak, ordered and served rare, rolled after cooking and held in place with a skewer and sprig of rosemary. With its slightly medicinal chimichurri sauce and a wonderful tomato, cucumber and avocado salad that I requested in place of the advertised mashed potatoes ”“ oh my heavens, the way that avocado is sliced is simply amazing ”“ this sizzling steak just sang. 

Tostones ”“ fried plantains, the Caribbean”™s relatively healthy retort to potato chips ”“ are big here, crisp and delicious. If they make an appearance in a few too many dishes, it”™s an easy eagerness to forgive. So,t oo, is the section called “Latin sushi specials,” which might have a Japanese sushi chef foaming at the mouth, but which I am excusing ”“ just ”“ on the grounds of inclusivism. Mind you, an El Bory roll with steak, shrimp, spicy crab and cream cheese rolled in mofongo, a Puerto Rican dish of fried plantains and pork? Even I must draw the line at that one. 

Another departure from the norm is the white sangria. Like white Port to Port aficionados, traditional red sangria drinkers look down on it, but I confess to my white sangria weakness. It”™s a light, summery drink and, although still potent, not nearly as headache-inducing as the red stuff. And for sheer verve and chutzpa alone, I forgive Donjito, too, for tampering with my favorite cocktail ”“ taking Xicala mezcal, sweet vermouth, Campari and lime and selling it as a “Smoky Negroni.” Actually, it was pretty darn good. 

Donjito has a garden of its own at the rear, while back inside, against the brick wall, diners can pose for a fun photo or selfie under the neon sign “Get your halo dirty,” a pair of mounted angel wings.  

Well, I”™ll tell you who should get between those wings right now, and that”™s person in the kitchen who sources and then slices those avocados. I”™m anointing him or her the Avocado Angel of Mamaroneck. 

For more, visit donjito.com.