Winter 2009 - Oser Communications Group

PROFILES
Los Portales:
Your Doorway to Great Dining
Opened in November 2007, Los Portales Restaurant encompasses
quality food and a familial atmosphere. The “Cocina Mexicana,” or
type of cooking found at the restaurant, is full of traditional favorites,
flavored entrées, and home-style tortillas. Owner Ricardo Cazares
wanted to give Tucson a great Mexican restaurant with exceptional
food and service at a fair price.
With a very unique atmosphere, says Cazares, patrons are
“more than a guest,” they’re “almost like family.”
“People tell us that Los Portales
is more upscale than the prices would
show,” adds Cazares.
Providing Tucsonans with
reasonably priced gourmet food, Los
Portales, or “the door” to great Mexican
cuisine, has a vast selection of meal
items to choose from. In addition to
home-style tortillas, the restaurant’s
Mole—a traditional salsa in Mexico
made with chocolate and chili—is made
from scratch. “Desayunos,” or
breakfast is also served at the restaurant from 7 A.M. to noon.
Other mouth-watering dishes include “Entradas,” or appetizers
such as Callos de Hacha, which are scallops in season, marinated in
lime juice with onions, chili, and cucumber; Toritos, or four mild
yellow peppers, stuffed with shrimp and wrapped in bacon; and
Queso Fundido, or Melted Cheese, with flour or corn tortillas.
For “Ensaladas Y Sopas,” or salads and soups, patrons can choose
from the restaurant’s House Salad or Taco Salad, or enjoy a warm bowl
of Menudo, Pozole (pork soup), Albondigas (meatballs), Caldo de Queso
(cheese soup), or Cocido de Res, which is a beef soup with corn,
cabbage, garbanzo beans, zucchini, carrots, green beans, and potatoes.
After warming your palate with Los Portales’ appetizers, soups,
and salads, choosing from the menu’s
seemingly endless entrée options will
leave you in amazement. In addition to
having regular entrée items, the menu
boasts the “Los Portales Specialties”
section, a page all its own, as well as
lighter, seafood options that cater to
vegetarians. Be sure to try the Fajitas Los
Portales, Brocheta Mixta (steak cubes and
plump shrimp), Camarones a la Parrilla
(seasoned, grilled shrimp), and the Filete
al Mojo de Ajo (fillet in garlic sauce).
But don’t stop there! Los Portales also has a great selection of
wines, beers, margaritas, and of course, desserts. Coyotas, Flan de
Caramelo, Choco Flan, and Chimis (three in Manzana, Cereza, and
Pina), will leave your palate happy.
Upgrade Your Home with Karimi Rugs
Opened since 1995, Karimi Rugs has an extensive and exquisite selection
of rugs—large and small, new and old—with numerous services that are
solely done in-house to ensure direct client-to-owner relationships.
“I prefer to deal with clients personally, so that they know they’re
dealing with the owner one-on-one, and I educate them [about rugs]
before they purchase anything,” says Amir Karimi, owner of Karimi
Rugs with 25 years of experience in the rug business. “I enjoy talking
to people…If a client comes in and
spends two hours with me, then walks
away, I have no regrets of talking with
that client. If there was a sale or not, it
doesn’t matter. Most of my clients
become my friends, and I like talking to
clientele, building relationships.”
Now at its newest location, 3630
E. Ft. Lowell Rd. in the Copenhagen
Plaza, Karimi Rugs has all of your rug
wants and wishes in-store.
When entering the store,
patrons will find a showroom full of eye-catching rugs—art
showpieces in their own right. Rolled up rugs along the edges of
the showroom sit beautifully side-by-side, while large, layered
rugs are stacked carefully one on top of the other on raised
platform beds through the store.
“We have all kinds of rugs from machine-made, handmade, handtufted
rugs, to old, new, and antique rugs—any size, any color,” says
Karimi. “We have rugs from Persia, India, Turkey, China, and Pakistan.”
The store also carries Kilims and traditional, cultural Navajo
rugs. “Kilims use a flat weave and they’re reversible,” adds Karimi,
“and they can be from Iran, Turkey, India, Afghanistan, and Persia.”
With more than 1,200 rugs in-house, Karimi says that no
matter what kind of rug a client wants, he can get it. “We can
make any rug,” he says. “If
you give me a picture of you,
I can make it into a rug, if
you want your name on the
rug, we can put your name
on the rug…anything.”
In addition to designing
rugs per client request, Karimi
also houses unique, rare, and
antique rugs. Some of the
antiques in the store include silk
rugs, and rugs that are more
than 100 to 200 years old says Karimi.
“We also have rugs with natural dyes to vegetable dyes,” he
adds. “We have wool, silk, synthetic rugs, all kinds.”
The showroom also has a wide range of rugs sizes, from 1x2-
foot rugs to 14x28-foot rugs, in prices ranging from $200 to
$150,000 for the rare, antique rugs in one piece.
20 ARIZONA GOURMET LIVING WINTER 2009