Texas Monthly: Backstreet Cafe's Meatloaf Tower with Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Wild Mushroom Gravy

Featured in the July 1995 issue of Texas Monthly

Backstreet Cafe's Meatloaf Tower with Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Wild Mushroom Gravy

Chefs Hugo Ortega and John Watt have taken the humble staple of home cooking to new heights.

Meatloaf
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Wild Mushroom Gravy
Wilted Spinach

Food fads have their ups and downs. Today's trend is tall, as chefs vie to see who can construct the most architectonic appetizers and elevated entrées. Houston's Backstreet Cafe (1103 S. Shepherd) has its own entry in the culinary sweepstakes: the aptly named Meatloaf Tower. In designing the dish, chefs Hugo Ortega and John Watt have taken the humble staple of home cooking to new heights. They combine ground beef with veal for a lighter, more delicate texture and prepare an earthy wild-mushroom gravy to lend robust flavor. A bed of fresh, barely wilted spinach undergirds the creation and a vertiginous crown of garlic mashed potatoes tops it off.

(List is for complete menu; for single dish lists, see individual recipe pages.)

Meat & Dairy
1 pound ground veal
1 pound ground sirloin
eggs
heavy cream
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
butter

Produce
garlic
2 cups sliced assorted mushrooms
fresh thyme
fresh oregano
chives
fresh sage
3 pounds spinach
6 Idaho potatoes
parsley

Grocery
cup bread crumbs
creole seasoning
ground oregano
1 six-ounce can tomato paste
olive oil
Worcestershire sauce
salt
pepper
2 cups demiglace, homemade or packaged

Liquor Store
red wine