Ms. Hipster is obsessed with the Day of the Dead. She loves the calavera, which is that Mexican sugar skull thing that you see all over the place around Halloween time, and is part of Ofrenda’s logo. Ofrenda, in fact, is Spanish for “offering.” The kind of offering one leaves in those crazy Day of the Dead, roadside-crash-memorial-looking amalgams. Luckily this joint doesn’t leave a bunch of beads and tchotchkes on your table as a matter of course, but rather serves up some sweet-ass homemade guac and chips and upscale Mexican grub that has become all de rigueur in NYC. I’m still reticent to pay over ten bucks for anything Mexican because of where and when I grew up, but I’m coming to terms with this whole gourmet taco thing. I mean, next thing you know, there will be fancy-pants Chinese food! At least they try to class the place up with a small, but decent space, dark (like super-dark) and comfortable in a very West Village kind of way. It’s easy with Mexican to go too far into kitsch, but save some sugar skull decorations and some rustic touches here and there, the cuisine/genre here could be just about anything. The food, though, is undeniably Mexican. I went for the mole, because I always got for the mole. If you know how complicated and time-consuming it is to create mole, you’ll appreciate why I want to get my damn money’s worth and order the thing that I know is technically (if you consider the time it takes to find, buy and mix the ingredients) the costliest thing to create on the menu. Not to mention it’s usually the tastiest thing on the menu. The list of food here isn’t overly extensive — in fact it’s pretty small — but the atmosphere, super-convenient location and authentic food makes it worth a night out. [MF]
113 7th Ave. S
212/924-2305
ofrendanyc.com